Marco Theatre
12705 Bentley Street,
Waterford,
CA
85386
12705 Bentley Street,
Waterford,
CA
85386
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Waterford’s Marco Theatre advertised regularly in the Modesto Bee from its opening on April 16, 1947. It was remodeled in a conversion of the Couchman Community Hall and operated by Fred W. Ferguson. William Stewart bought the Marco Theatre in 1949.
In 1952, Hazel Stewart sold the Marco Theatre to then-manager Charles Reynolds. He told Motion Picture Herald that the theatre had 400 seats, with “air conditioning in summer, natural gas heating in winter”. It was still open in March 1953.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
The Marco Theatre originally housed the Couchman Community Hall before remodeling to a movie theater in March 1947. It opened on April 16, 1947.
Actual opening date is April 16, 1947. The remodeling happened in March of that year.
The October 17, 1953 issue of Motion Picture Herald had this item about the Marco Theatre: “Charles Reynolds, manager of the Marco theatre, Waterford, Calif., and frequent contributor to ‘What the Picture Did For ME’ — running a magic show on stage as a special attraction.”
The September 24, 1955 issue of Boxoffice said that F. L. and Hazel Reese had recently bought the Marco Theatre from Charles Reynolds. Another item datelined Waterford in the same issue said that “[t]he Marco Theatre has been reopened here over Slaughter’s Market, with F. L. Rees and son managing the house. Admission prices have been reduced to 50 cents, 40 cents and 20 cents.”
The line “over Slaughter’s Market” was a bit puzzling, given that upstairs theaters had been largely phased out in California well before the 1950s. I was unable to find anything about Slaughter’s Market, but a local Facebook page has a post headed “you remember the theater above pizza plus…the old vally food center”…. One comment said “Marco Theater!” and the other said “Yes, I went there when I was a kid and got a bag of candy and an apple and orange from Santa!”
As strange as it seems, the Marco Theatre must have been upstairs in the building now housing the Pizza Plus at 12705 Bentley Street. Couchman Community Hall must have occupied the upper floor of the building, which the parapet says is called the Gordon Block. As seen in the current Google street view, the former theater space is occupied by the resource center of a charter school, with its entrance at the west end of the building on E Street, though search gives the address as that of the pizza parlor, 12705 Bentley. Google street view approximates the address as 301 N. E Street, but it might be easiest to simply list the theater at Bentley Street and E Street, if Apple Maps can handle it.