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    Theatres of Oakland
    Theatres of Oakland
    Theatres of Oakland
    Ebook194 pages1 hour

    Theatres of Oakland

    By Jack Tillmany and Jennifer Dowling

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    Oakland has a rich theatre history, from the amusements of a gas-lit downtown light opera and vaudeville stage in the 1870s to the ornate cinematic escape portals of the Great Depression. Dozens of neighborhood theatres, once the site of family outings and first dates, remain cherished memories in the lives of Oaklanders. The city can still boast three fabulous movie palaces from the golden age of cinema: the incomparable art deco Paramount, which now offers live performances and films; the stately Grand Lake gracing the sinuous shores of Lake Merritt; and the magnificently eccentric Fox Oakland, with its imposing Hindu gods flanking the stage. The Paramount and Grand Lake still stir the heartstrings of patrons with showings preceded by interludes on their mighty Wurlitzer organs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439634059
    Theatres of Oakland
    Author

    Jack Tillmany

    Jack Tillmany, recognized authority on early cinema and author of the Images of America volume Theatres of San Francisco, draws from a personal archive gathered during a 30-year career in cinema management. Coauthor Jennifer Dowling collects movie-related ephemera, writes, and gives illustrated talks on the history of Oakland�s commercial districts. Together they draw back the heavy curtain of time to rediscover Oakland�s theatrical treasures.

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      Book preview

      Theatres of Oakland - Jack Tillmany

      city.

      INTRODUCTION

      From stage plays to vaudeville to motion pictures, Oakland offered great entertainment and plenty of it. The focus on live performances in the downtown theatres at the beginning of the 20th century gave way to motion pictures in the 1910s. Oakland’s first motion picture was screened in 1901, and within a few years, every venue was offering some sort of film, including the vaudeville houses that used films to help bring in audiences. The early films were actualities, such as prize fights, bustling downtown crowds, or travel to an exotic land, then short stories and serials were introduced, and eventually the feature-length film became the norm.

      In the 1910s, little operations, often called photoplay theatres or nickelodeons, sprouted up in converted stores downtown and along streetcar lines. Despite the popularity of the little theatres, controversy raged concerning their safety and their alleged unwholesome offerings. An Oakland Tribune editorial called them dirty and dangerous. Nevertheless the motion-picture houses continued to steal audiences from the bigger, more expensive live venues. In 1911 and 1912, authorities in Oakland tried to ban stages in movie houses and to prevent mechanically operated projectors, but the restrictive ordinances did not halt the explosive growth. The single biggest year for Oakland theatre building was 1912. Turnover, change, and business consolidation characterized the early years, with a new name usually signaling a change of ownership or a theatre remodel. Among those serving Oakland’s early movie-going public were the Bijou Dream, Fisher’s, Marlowe, Empire, and Novelty theatres. Within a short time, the theatre business evolved into a major industry.

      Another theatre building boom occurred in the mid-1920s, just before sound pictures were introduced. In that golden era, the business was dominated by chains, many of which had their origins as vaudeville circuits. In Oakland, the major entertainment companies were Golden State Theatres, Blumenfeld, Fox West Coast, Orpheum, Turner & Dahnken, Beach & Krahn Amusement, and Pantages. Although Golden State Theatres operated the largest number of theatres in Oakland, it was never a downtown enterprise, preferring to cater to the city neighborhoods and to small towns. The most lavish and largest theatres in Oakland were built by Fox West Coast. They debuted in the 1920s and 1930s with glamorous openings featuring Hollywood stars, speeches, and parades. Oakland’s two largest theatres, the Fox Oakland and Paramount, seating more than 3,000 each, were larger than any on the West Coast, except for San Francisco’s fabled Fox, which seated 4,500.

      After the incredibly prosperous decade of the 1940s, stimulated by the World War II patronage boom, the introduction of television in 1949, as well as other factors, caused business to decline, and by the mid-1950s Oakland’s theatres struggled to find an audience. The big venues and many neighborhood sites closed and were adapted to new uses such as apartments, churches, stores, bowling alleys, and skating rinks. Among the survivors are the Grand Lake, Paramount, and the Fox Oakland theatres (the latter now shuttered). The Paramount Theatre of the Arts, a splendid 1930s art-deco masterpiece offering both live performances and films, is currently Oakland’s only single-screen venue.

      Innovations to come were newsreel theatres, drive-ins, wide-screen projection, and multiplexes. Open all night with continuous shows, the newsreel theatre was a popular downtown attraction during the war years of the 1940s, but interest waned in the newsreel concept with the introduction of television news in the 1950s. In order to hold on to audiences drawn to the increasing amount of television programming, many theatres distinguished themselves by offering foreign films and adult fare. The lack of parking that led to the decline of many downtown theatres was not a problem at motor movie or drive-in theatres. Three Oakland shopping centers, with their ample parking lots, also added movie theatres, which, with one exception, were all designed as multiplexes. Older single-screen theatres also converted to multiplexes in order to increase attendance. The last movie theatre constructed in Oakland, Jack London Cinema, opened as a six-plex on December 15, 1995, and has since expanded to nine theatres, providing state-of-the-art projection, stereophonic sound, and stadium seating in order to meet the demands of today’s movie audiences.

      This historical tour is arranged geographically beginning with downtown and West Oakland, with a separate chapter on three 1920s movie palaces. From there, it proceeds to the neighborhoods to the north and east before returning to downtown in the last chapter to visit Oakland’s crown jewel, the Paramount. Where a theatre address is given, it follows Oakland’s post-1912 address numbering system and its historical street name. Enjoy the show!

      SEATING CAPACITY IN THE YEAR 1949 FOR OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA THEATRES

      By 1949, Oakland’s seating capacity was at a peak: 43,330 seats (not including the closed State) in a city with a population of 302,163, or about one seat for every seven people. However big changes were on the horizon. Television broadcasting began in the Bay Area with KPIX, channel 5, in December 1948; KRON, channel 4, and KGO, channel 7, would go on the air seven months later in July 1949. Little did anyone realize that this development, as well as other changes in the cultural environment, would mean that most of the theatres on this list would eventually become just a memory.

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      THE CURTAIN RISES DOWNTOWN

      The Dewey Theatre, called the Oakland Theatre when it opened in 1882 at 320 Twelfth Street between Harrison and Webster Streets, only half a block from the Dietz Opera House, was a popular venue in the late 19th century for stage acts and vaudeville. The Dewey also occasionally showed movies and illustrated songs where illustrated lyrics were projected onto the screen. The Dewey closed in 1906, just as motion pictures were getting a foothold. Over the next 30 years, the center of downtown entertainment shifted from the lower end of Broadway north toward Grand Avenue. This chapter covers that entire area with the exception of the Paramount, Fox Oakland, Grand Lake, and Orpheum theatres, which are highlighted in separate chapters. Also included in this first chapter are the theatres in West Oakland, a district whose principal east-west thoroughfare, Seventh Street, stretches from downtown west to Oakland Point. Readers should note that at many sites, theatre names came and went with rapidity, as was the case with the Pantages, known also as the Lurie, Hippodrome (one of two in Oakland), the Premier, Roosevelt, and Downtown.

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