Point Theatre (later "V", Point again, Cine, Bridge) (Point Richmond)

Address: 30 W. Richmond Avenue, Richmond CA 94801

Architect: C.O. Clausen (original Point), Vincent G. Raney (conversion to "V", 1942)

Date Opened: February 14, 1913

Date Closed as Point (first time): Unknown

Date Re-opened as "V": August 4, 1942

Name Changed back to Point: December 29, 1945

Date Closed as Point: September 1, 1952

Name Re-opened as Cine Art': : March 2, 1955

Date Closed as Cine: End of February 1956

Date Re-opened as Bridge: May 17, 1958

Date Closed: July 1958 (probably)

Circuit/Owners: Independent (Richard Tscherassy) Robert L. Lippert, Independent (?)

Number of Screens: 1

Number of Seats: 460 (original Point), 424 ("V" and later Point, Cine' & Bridge)

Current Status: Closed 

Photo Credit: 0126a-DC (Don Church) Courtesy of the Point Richmond History Association

The Point Theatre opened on Richmond Avenue and Park Place on February 14, 1913. The owner was  Richard Tcherassy, formerly of Fresno California. Architect was C.O. Clausen of San Francisco. In the above photo Mr. Tcherassy stands in front of his theater on April 16, 2013. Photograph above and related information on the Point's opening courtesy of Point Richmond History Association which has a very nice website that you can visit HERE.

An article in the Richmond Daily Independent from February 13, 1913 promotes the next day's grand opening if the Point Theatre. Included is a coupon with admits the bearer to the grand opening show free of charge. The text above and below the coupon describes the evening's entertainment.

The Point's grand opening night's entertainment consisted of short films and apparently some live operatic interludes. The short films included a one reel French romance from 1912 "The Caprices of the King", a 1913 comedy "Here's Your Hat" with John Steppling (who?), a then current newsreel "Pathe's Weekly, No. 3" and to conclude the program the 1913 one reel railroad melodrama "A False Order", described in the flyer above as "the story of a thrilling locomotive collision".

With rare exception like the ad above dated January 16, 1917 I've found almost no ads in the Richmond Independent for the Point Theatre prior to World War II and it's conversion into Robert Lippert's "V" Theatre. Point Richmond did have it's own newspaper at the time though and quite probably ads for the the Point regularly appeared there. Richmond city directories indicate the Point operated continuously up until 1929 but starting with the 1930 directory the Point's listing disappears and remains missing for the next decade and beyond, until after the Lippert conversion in fact. Although I can't verify it the Point may have been one of the many victims of the Great Depression during those missing years.

Photo Credit: 0652-DC (Don Church) Courtesy of the Point Richmond History Association

I don't have a date for this photo but the former Point is obviously closed and looking for a new tenant. Based on my research from Richmond city directories this would be sometime between 1929-1930 when the Point apparently closed and 1942 when Robert L. Lippert took over the property and began his remodeling job, the result pictured below.

The former Point Theatre in final stages of remodeling in preparation for August 4, 1942 re-opening as the new "V" Theatre. Architect Vincent G. Raney designed the remodeling. New projection & sound equipment, a new plastic screen and new seats were included in the interior and exterior renovations. A new 100 seat balcony was also installed in the structure. Photo from the Richmond Independent. 

Robert L. Lippert completely renovated and then re-opened the former Point Theatre as the "V" (for "Victory" which was the originally planned name) on August 4, 1942. This would be Lippert's third theater opening in the Richmond area in 1942, after the Grand and Studio. The Times in downtown Richmond  and the Pablo in San Pablo were still to come.

A first run double feature from Republic Pictures, "The Singing Cowboy" with Gene Autry and the war themed drama "Women in War", was the opening program at the re-opened V Theatre.

1942 and 1943 newspaper ads for the V Theatre illustrating the mostly lower stature "B" film programming ("Casablanca" excepted) that the theater featured during this era. 

By the end of 1945 World War II was over and the V Theater was in the hands of a new operator. Without fanfare or closure the theater's name was changed back to Point on December 29, 1945. Ads above are from various dates in 1946, 1947 and 1948. 

More Point Theatre ads from the Richmond Independent from April, July and December 1949. The Point continued with this second run, multiple program changes per week policy until the late summer of 1952. The text only newspaper ads got smaller as time went by and it was increasingly obvious that the Point like other Richmond area theaters was struggling.

Based on when the Point's advertising disappeared from the Richmond Independent it appears the last films to play the theater when it was still named the Point were "The First Time" and "Just This Once" a couple of forgettable romantic comedies. It looks like the kids were cheated out of the last four Saturday matinee chapters of "Superman" the very popular Columbia serial. That's a bummer! The Point appears to have closed on September 1 1952 (Labor Day) and would remain closed for the next two and one half years. 

The former Point Theatre re-opened as the Cine' Art Theatre on March 2, 1955 with M-G-M's "Julius Caesar" from 1953.

The "Art" part of the theater's new name name was soon dropped. Judging from newspaper ads it  appears that the Cine's owners then experimented with an eclectic mix of product: contemporary films (nothing really recent), reissues, Spanish language films, even an adults only exploitation film with scenes in anaglyphic (red/green glasses) 3-D. Apparently nothing tried was too successful in bringing people from outlying areas out to Point Richmond for a movie though and based on ads in the Independent exactly one year after the Cine opened the doors, at the end of February 1956, it closed them. 

After the Cine's closure the former Point stayed dark for a couple of years and then resurfaced on May 17, 1958 as the Bridge, obviously named for the nearby Richmond-San Rafael bridge. The recent closure of Richmond's last remaining first run downtown theaters the Fox and UA may have been the inspiration for this re-opening, an attempt to get those theaters' former patrons of those downtown houses out to Point Richmond for their movie entertainment. The first program to play the Bridge consisted of Disney's "Old Yeller" and "An Affair to Remember", rather a weird combination I think since the primary audience for "Old Yeller" (children) would have zero interest in the glossy soap opera co-feature.

Ads from the Richmond Independent for the Bridge during it's brief existence. Ads ranged in size from two columns by several inches (as for "The Three Faces of Eve" above) to less than a column inch. The Bridge appeared have a Friday to Sunday weekends only policy. 

Alas it was not a good time for anybody to get into the movie business though, particularly in Richmond. It didn't help that the downtown Fox re-opened in June and the UA followed suit in August. By then the Bridge was closed. The last double feature program to play the Bridge appears to have consisted of the 1957 version of "A Farewell to Arms" and the Rory Calhoun western "Utah Blane" which showed on the Fourth of July weekend, July 4-5-6, 1958. The Bridge had been open for less than two months! 

I don't believe that the structure that formerly housed the Point, V, Cine and Bridge theaters was ever used as a movie theater again. It's not listed in any of the subsequent year Richmond city directories that I have access to nor have I found any further newspaper advertising for a movie theater at that location. Besides being used for live the theater the building has been had a variety of occupants over the years and as you can see from the images below it's still in very nice shape for a building originally constructed in 1913.

2013 photo. One hundred years after it was first opened the building that housed the Point still stands.

Another 2013 photo. 2013 photos by John Rice