Quirky Berkeley

The Quirky Material Culture of Berkeley

Quirky Berkeley
  • Walkers
  • Help us!
  • Links
  • Blogs/Albums
  • Contact us
  • Latest Posts
  • Quirky Berkeley in the Media
December 2, 2014 by tomdalzell

Movie Theaters – Gone but Remembered

There was a time, not all that long ago, when Berkeley had many more movie theaters than we do today.  There are many that closed so many years ago we don’t remember them, but – there are some that we remember, gone now.

Act 1 and Act 2, Center Street.  Photo: CinemaTreasures.org

Act 1 and Act 2, Center Street. Photo: CinemaTreasures.org

East Bay Daily News, March 25, 2006

East Bay Daily News, March 25, 2006

Daily Californian, March 24, 2006

Daily Californian, March 24, 2006

Just east of Act One and Act Two was King’s Baseball Cards, a great and friendly place.

Unknown tcr110212

Jake assembled a great collection of Tony Pena cards and a near-complete run of 1958 Topps cards there in the 1980s.

Berkeley Theatre, 2125 Shattuck.  Photo: Cinema Treasures

Berkeley Theatre, 2125 Shattuck. Photo: Cinema Treasures

The Berkeley opened in 1911; S. Charles Lee remodeled and modernized it in 1936 in Moderne style.  It closed in 1993. The building was razed.  Crepes A-Go-Go is at the address now – new building, no trace.

Cinema Guild and Studio.  Photo: PFA Library

Cinema Guild and Studio. Photo: PFA Library

Ed Landberg opened the Guild in the early 1950s.  Pauline Kael married Ed, worked at the theater, divorced Ed, moved to New York, and you know – or should know – the rest.  The Guild and Cinema were a big part of what made Telegraph Avenue so cosmopolitan and intriguing in the 1950s.

The theater was long gone when the Sequoia Building, in which the theater had once lived, burned down in 2011.

Fine Arts Cinema, Shattuck Avenue.

Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck Avenue.  Photo: Cinematreasures.org

Pauline Kael and Ed Landberg opened the theater, a former ice cream parlor, as the Berkeley Cinema in 1961.  It may be the only commercial cinema in the United States built specifically to showcase art film.

According to Cinema Treasures: “The film offerings were largely foreign films as well as film classics. One Japanese film in the 1960’s ran here for over one year!”

Daily Californian , February 4, 1998 (showing marquee from 1977)

Daily Californian , February 4, 1998 (showing marquee from 1977)

Declining attendance led the way to the Mitchell Brothers purchasing the theater and in January 1974, started running porn.

Plan to Fight live shows Striptease?  1984

In the 1980s, the Mitchell Brothers took a run at live sex shows.  Live sex shows in Berkeley!  On Shattuck Avenue!

Daily Californian, August 22, 1984

Daily Californian, August 22, 1984

There was at least one live show.  In Berkeley!  On Shattuck Avenue!

Daily Californian, August 15, 1989

Daily Californian, August 15, 1989

It didn’t last long.  The Mitchell Brothers folded.

The theater then became the Fine Arts, showing art house fare.

Daily Californian, September 5, 1997

Daily Californian, September 5, 1997

The theater died a first, false death in 1997.  It reopened in 1998..

Program

The programming was largely independent film, documentaries, film festivals, and occasional revival product. Many of there films were seldom shown elsewhere.

Daily Planet, April 1, 2003

Daily Planet, April 1, 2003

The theater closed June 30, 2002 and was torn down.

Screen Shot 2014-11-23 at 5.31.47 AM

There is an architectural nod to the Fine Arts Cinema, but no cinema.

Photo: Oakland Tribune (March 13, 1996)

Photo: Oakland Tribune (March 13, 1996)

There was another Fine Arts Cinema, which we probably remember as the Northside, at 1828 Euclid.

William DeNault opened the theater as the Fine Art using the model of the Cinema Guild – two theaters (A and B), reached by the La Val’s courtyard.  DeNault took his existing custom stereo business, knocked down the walls of adjoining apartments, and – voila – a movie theater.  A restaurant, the Cheshire Cat, also opened onto the courtyard.  The theater featured foreign and art films, much like the Cinema Guild.

diva-movie-poster-1982-1020194499

I saw movies there in the 1980s.  The one I remember is Diva.  Who can possibly forget Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez singing the aria from Catalani’s La Wally?  Certainly not I.    It closed in the late 1980s or 1990s.  Walls were knocked down and it’s a restaurant now.

"Quirky Berkeley" "Quirky Berkeley"

The courtyard and La Val’s sign are there.  The Northside is not.

Rialto Theater Gilman

Rialto Theater, 841 Gilman

I have a vague memory of having seen a movie or two here.  I don’t think I understood the movie or movies I saw.  Great story!

Gilman

Royal Robbins outdoor wear and three or four other businesses are there now.

"Quirky Berkeley"

For most of its history, 2411 Telegraph was the Sprouse Reitz pharmacy.  It was then a movie theatre – the D.K. and then the Sunset,now now annexed by Rasputin’s.  It didn’t have this marquee, although the Sunset had a great neon sign..  A comment on CinemaTreasures.org wrote: “There’s a bit of an irony here in that when Rasputin annexed the former Sunset (perhaps aware of its past life as a theater), they installed a marquee that looks more like a movie-house marquee than any the Sunset ever had during its life as an actual movie house.”

D.K. Theater

Untitled photo by Richard Misrach

This photo from the early 1970s bears this comment out.

IMG_0353

IMG_0357

I find the addition of the marquee AFTER it was a theatre to be quirky.

Also on Telegraph:

Telegraph Repetertory Cinema

George Paul ran the Telegraph Repertory Cinema on Telegraph, both at this location and then a few blocks north.  The buildings are still there.

Alan BlanchardThe memory of the Alameda Sheriff’s Department blinding Alan Banchard on the roof in 1969 remains.  But the theater is gone.  There is a lot of reminiscing about the Cinema here.

Christ in Limbo (c. 1575)  by a follower of Heronimus Bosch

Christ in Limbo (c. 1575) by a follower of Heronimus Bosch

Those are the gone ones that were here in our living memories.  There is a whole other batch that were before our memories, closed now, not a trace.

And then there are the two theaters whose fate is still unknown – not demolished but not open.

1937 photo courtesy of Jack Tillmany

1937 photo courtesy of Jack Tillmany

The Oaks on Solano opened in 1925.  In 1994 it got a whole new look.  In 2005 it was taken over by Metropolitan Theatres.  An independent operator took over in 2010 and in late December 2010 it shut down.

The Oaks has recently gotten a fresh coat of paint.   There are talks of a performance space.  Fingers crossed.

And –

UC Very Old

 

UC 1930s

UC.theater.jpgUC-Theatre-Interior-RTF-small1

The UC opened in 1917 with 1300 seats.  Yes, 1300 seats.  Gary Meyer bought it in 1974 and starting showing older films, double and triple bills, one night only.

UC Theater Program

You would pick up the schedule for the month and have it on your refrigerator.  Maybe you would circle the movies you wanted to go see.  It was not expensive.  It was fun.

Voice, October 24, 1999

Voice, October 24, 1999

San Francisco Examiner, January 2, 1999

San Francisco Examiner, January 2, 1999

San Francisco Chronicle, July 24, 1998

San Francisco Chronicle, July 24, 1998

And Rocky Horror midnights on Saturdays.

The UC closed in 2001 and has remained closed for 13 years.  Again – there are plans for Something Great with it.  Fingers crossed.  There is a great collection of photos of the marquee over the years here.

My friend was almost in a trance when I took this draft post for him to see.  He was looking at a photograph and couldn’t let go.

elivisJohnnyCashdfdfdfdfdfdfdfdf

I will admit – it is a stunning photo.   I played dirty – I mentioned the midnight shows of Rocky Horror.  I knew that would get him.  He loved going.  Never missed a Saturday.  It got his attention.  What about all these movie theaters, gone but remembered?

IMG_3677

 

Posted in Uncategorized. RSS 2.0 feed.
« The Rivoli – WOW!
Bakersfield Neon »

4 Responses to Movie Theaters – Gone but Remembered

  1. Milton C says:
    November 8, 2016 at 1:49 am

    I wish someone would post a pic of a Berkeley movie theater in the late 1950s that was located on Bancroft Ave. just a few storefronts below Telegraph Ave. I can’t remember the exact name. It was just too long ago.

    In the early 60s on the Northside, Euclid Ave., there was a small Studio A and B theater in the entrance to La Vals pizza if I remember correctly. I’d like to see a pic of that place.

    Reply
    • tomdalzell says:
      November 8, 2016 at 1:01 pm

      Milton – there is a photo of the Northside Theater in this post, near the bottom. As for the Campus Theater on Bancroft, I have several photos of it in a related post, http://quirkyberkeley.com/movie-theaters-gone-before-we-knew-them/

      Tom

      Reply
  2. Denis Drew says:
    July 25, 2019 at 3:42 am

    Dont forget Canyon Cinema!!!

    Reply
  3. carl says:
    March 3, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    I lived above the UC Theatre at the Stark Hotel in 75-79. Total degenerate drug palace where anything was permitted. Leon Saunders & his friend J.C. were the stars of the show. I still have a couple pics of myself & a few of the denizens in the office from apprx.77.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Here you will find photos of the oddball, whimsical, eccentric, and the near-rhyme quirky material culture of Berkeley.
Read More

Subscribe

Categories

  • Animals
  • Architecture
  • Cars, Trains and Planes
  • Food
  • Gone
  • Graffiti
  • Ma
  • Mailboxes
  • Major Quirky
  • Miscellaneous
  • Murals
  • Painted
  • Peace
  • Signs
  • Walks

All content © 2022 by Quirky Berkeley. Base WordPress Theme by Graph Paper Press