Address: 823 Macdonald Avenue, Richmond CA 94801
Date Opened as T & D: August 27, 1922
Original Architect: Albert W. Cornelius
Architect 1936 (?) Remodel: F. Frederic Amandes
Date Name Changed to California: January 12, 1924
Date Re-opened as remodeled Fox: August 1, 1931
Date Re-opened as United Artists: December 22, 1950
Date Closed: September 27, 1959
Circuit: T & D Theatres, West Coast Theatres, Fox West Coast Theatres, United Artists Theatres
Number of Screens: 1
Number of Seats: 1314
Current Status: Demolished
"Blood and Sand" with Rudolph Valentino is playing at the newly opened T & D in 1922. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.
The T & D, with over 1300 seats Richmond's largest capacity movie theatre and the closest thing we ever had to a big city movie palace, was opened by the Turner and Dahnken circuit on Sunday August 27, 1922.
A front page article in the Richmond Independent in early July 1922 focused on the $40,000 pipe organ to be installed in the soon to be opened T & D Theatre in downtown Richmond. Click on above image to enlarge text.
Above left is either a paid advertisement or free promotion in the form on a news article from the Richmond Independent on Saturday August 26, 1922 announcing the next day opening of the T & D. At right is an enlargement of the bottom portion of the same ad/article. Click on above image to enlarge text.
Above left is a small news article from the Richmond Independent, again on Saturday August 26, 1922, as well as a paid ad for the T & D promoting the grand opening program to take place on the next day. Note that at the bottom of the ad (TODAY--) it mentions another film "My Lady Friends". This film was actually playing it's final day at Turner and Dahnken's 1922 opened Richmond Theatre, four blocks down on Macdonald Avenue. The Richmond had been identifying itself in ads in recent years as the T & D as well as T & D Richmond. The "old" T & D/Richmond was to close with the opening of it's larger & grander sister theatre but would reopen in April 1924 and yet later be remodeled into the State Theatre.
Opening film attraction at the T & D was "The Primitive Lover" with Constance Talmadge and Harrison Ford (no relation to present day actor of same name.)
Established in 1921, West Coast Theatres, Inc. purchased the T & D circuit in 1924. The name change from T & D to California in Richmond appears to have happened without fanfare on January 12, 1924. At left is the ad in the Richmond Independent from Friday January 11 showing the theatre's name as the T &D. At right is the ad from the next day Saturday January 12 showing the name as the California with "Formerly T & D Theatre Richmond" in small print below.
The year 1925 got off to a good start at the California with "North of 36" playing January 1-2 and "The Thief of Bagdad" playing January 5-7. It's interesting that a major attraction like "The Thief of Bagdad" could only command three days playing time during this era.
"White Shadows in the South Seas", M-G-M's first feature with a synchronized sound track (music and sound effects only) played the California in 1929. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.
The "talkies" (sound films) arrived in Richmond on January 7, 1929 with the Warner brothers part silent/part sound feature "The Lion and the Mouse". Since the movie industry was still adapting to the transition from silent to sound films the first sound features to play the California did not feature fully synchronized dialog but instead were basically silent features with music tracks and possibly some very limited synchronized dialog and sound effects segments. Synchronized dialog newsreels and musical shorts did however accompany the features and must have been quite a revelation to audiences accustomed only to silent films.
Climaxing nearly a month of partly talking programs the California gave Richmond audiences their first look at a fully synchronized (dialog, music and sound effects) "100 per cent talkie" feature with Fox Film's "Does Mother Know Best" on January 30, 1929.
More ads for the California from the Richmond Independent from 1930 and 1931. By then the transition from silent to fully synchronized sound films was complete although a few films made during the transition like Greta Garbo's last silent film (Top left, "The Kiss" from 1929) still played the California, accompanied of course by a music and sound effects sound track. Live vaudeville had also disappeared from the California's programming although it would live on for a few more years in movie palaces in the larger cities.
Fox West Coast Theatres got started by purchasing the established West Coast Theatres chain in 1927 making the California as well as the nearby Richmond part of the Fox West Coast family. After being closed for several months for extensive renovations Fox West Coast reopened the former California Theatre as the Fox Richmond on August 1, 1931. The Fox was the third name in less than a decade for this theater but the name would last for the next nineteen years before it received it's final identity as the United Artists.
M-G-M's "Sporting Blood" with Clark Gable and Madge Evans was the world premiere opening feature attraction at the New Fox, accompanied by a two reel (20 minute) Laurel and Hardy comedy, a Mickey Mouse cartoon and a Paramount newsreel.
The Joe E. Brown comedy "Local Boy Makes Good" was playing at the Fox when this photo was taken in late 1931. The absence of automobiles on the street and the size of the crowd indicates something special was happening in downtown Richmond or at Fox itself on that day.
Ads for the Fox from (left) 1932 and 1936. By 1936 double features had for the most part replaced single features with short subjects even at first run theaters like the Fox. At least that was the case in medium sized cities like Richmond. Admission prices remained low with 25 cent matinees and 30 cents for evenings and Sundays.
Macdonald Avenue and the Fox pre-World War II, probably 1940 or 1941. The low rise building just to the left of the Fox is a Safeway grocery store which would be converted into the Studio Theatre by Robert L. Lippert in 1942.
"The Tuttles of Tahiti" with Charles Laughton is playing at the Fox in 1942. Next door to the left Robert L. Lippert's Studio Theatre is now open and running second run movies on a "grind house" open all night policy to serve the tens of thousands of shipyard workers and new Richmond residents.
"Two Years Before the Mast" with Alan Ladd and Brian Donlevy is playing at the Fox in this 1946 postcard view. Just to the left of the Fox you can see the updated front complete with a marquee of next door neighbor Studio Theatre.
In 1948 the Supreme Court decreed that to comply with antitrust regulation the film studios had to sell off their movie theatre interests. United Artists Theatres purchased the Fox and after some remodeling the former T & D, California and Fox Theatre reopened with it's final name change as the United Artists on December 22, 1950. In the photo above the UA's next door neighbor the Studio Theatre has also had a name change and is now the Crest.
Dual projector Polaroid 3-D movies came to Richmond and the UA on Sunday March 23, 1953 with "Bwana Devil" a lackluster adventure film but an extremely popular one because of the novelty of 3-D which was sweeping the nation. "Man in the Dark" a somewhat better but still mediocre black and white 3-D film from Columbia followed at the UA in April. For us teenage boys the really good 3-D stuff was still to come. We lined up later for "It Came From Outer Space", "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "House of Wax" among others when they played the UA or Fox in Richmond or the bigger theaters in Oakland and San Francisco.
The movie studios thought 3-D was their salvation in their fight against television and some even announced from then on all movies would be shot in that stereoscopic format. Their euphoria was short lived though. There were problems keeping the necessary two projectors in perfect synch, frame and focus, people really didn't like wearing the Polaroid glasses and quite a few of the movies (like "Bwana Devil" in fact) were "B" grade schlock. By the end of 1953 the consensus of those in the industry was that 3-D was not here to stay and even though limited 3-D product continued to be shot into 1954 many of those films were shown "flat" in most of the country. By the end of 1954 the format was for all practical purposes dead, unfortunate in a way because Hollywood had started to make some very good movies that used the 3-D format well, "Hondo" with John Wayne and the M-G-M Musical "Kiss Me Kate" for instance. I believe "Revenge of the Creature" in 1954 was the last 3-D film to play the UA and Richmond itself. The only Richmond area theaters to embrace and equip themselves for dual projector 3-D were the UA and Fox downtown and the San Pablo Auto Movies. By the time it would have spread to the area's second run houses or outlying theaters the handwriting that the 3-D format was doomed was on the wall. I remember Dick Jeha, the manager of my neighborhood theater the Park in El Sobrante, announcing at a Friday night Bingo game that 3-D was coming to the Park "in a couple of months" but to my dismay it never arrived.
Paramount's great western "Shane" opened at the United Artists on July 22, 1953, so big an attraction that it could play as a rare single feature at the UA accompanied only by short subjects, at least for the first week of it's engagement. I remember walking by the UA as a 12 year old and seeing the extra large "Shane" posters, realizing immediately that it was a movie I just had to see. I had to wait until it played our neighborhood theater, the Park in El Sobrante, a couple of months later but it was well worth the wait. It remained my favorite film for years and over 60 years later I still love it!
In January 1954, towards the end of a multi-week run of "Hondo" in 3-D the UA installed a wide screen to accommodate upcoming CinemaScope, still a few months away at the UA, as well as most current films which were now being photographed in a wide screen aspect ratio, usually 1.85:1. As it was with the rest of Richmond's movie theaters everything made before the transition to wide screen photography in Hollywood (basically everything before mid-1953) suffered with tops and bottom of the frame cut off.
CinemaScope itself arrived at the UA on Saturday April 10, 1954 with M-G-M's "Knights of the Round Table". CinemaScope was much more impressive at the UA than it had been at the Fox, at least for me personally. The UA's main floor auditorium was less deep, the screen was large and the four track magnetic sound that accompanied most early 'Scope films was first rate. Even from the balcony 'Scope looked and sounded great at the UA!
The UA seemed to be doing reasonably well with first run product during
most of the 1950's but Richmond's declining economy, the move of
business, retail and much of the remaining population from downtown to
the suburbs as well as the increasing popularity of television were
slowly taking it's toll, especially in the second half of the decade. It
was getting more and more difficult to fill anywhere close to all of those
1314 seats even for prime Friday and Saturday evening showings.
At the beginning of 1958 the surprise announcement came that both of
Richmond's remaining downtown theaters, the Fox and UA were immediately
shutting down. I don't recall any reason for the sudden shutdown being
made public in the beginning but I later heard that both lack of
attendance and high labor costs were the reason. With all the theater
closings we'd seen it was not a total shock but still a major
disappointment to us movie fans, young and old alike. That left Richmond
with only two indoor theaters, the flea pit Rio on Macdonald Avenue and
my neighborhood theater the Park in El Sobrante. In addition the two drive-ins in
San Pablo were still open as was the indoor Cerrito Theatre, operating weekends only in El Cerrito.
Fortunately the closure of the Fox and the UA were only temporary. The Fox reopened a little over six months after it had closed on June 13, 1958 and the UA followed suit two months later, on August 15. The reopening program consisted of a double feature of Elvis Presley in "King Creole" and the Randolph Scott western "Decision at Sundown". The TV columnist for the Independent said that a new contract with the projectionists' union had a lot to do with the re-openings (one man in the booth instead of the former two?) but I can't confirm that. Anyway it was great to have our two big downtown first run theaters back again! Alas it was just a reprieve for the UA though and there was a new and final crisis for this theater only a little more than a year away from it's re-opening day.
Declining patronage continued to take its toll on the UA and in late summer 1959 the word came out that the end of the line was sadly approaching. "POSITIVELY LAST 2 DAYS, SEE THIS EXCELLENT SHOW BEFORE THE DOORS CLOSE
FOREVER" read the copy in the UA's ad in the Richmond Independent on
Saturday September 26, 1959. The doors in fact did close forever after the final showings of the day of "Last Train From Gun Hill" and "The Cosmic Man" on Sunday, September 27, 1959.
Nighttime view of 9th & Macdonald in late 1959. Photo courtesy of EastBayHistory.com, The former United Artists at right is closed forever as a movie theater and in the process of being converted into a Woolworth's variety store. In the distance at left the neon vertical sign and marquee of Macdonald Avenue's last remaining first run movie theater the Fox will still burn brightly for a few more years but patronage is steadily dwindling. Not visible in this photo but three blocks beyond the Fox, Macdonald Avenue's only other remaining movie theater the Rio is continuing to play second run product and will outlast even the Fox and thus become the last operating theater on Richmond's main street.
A sad sight, end of the line for the United Artists, at least as a movie theater! Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.
By the end of 1959 the lower floor of the former UA was being converted into a Woolworth's variety store which it remained for several years. The upper floor and balcony was apparently left intact and after Woolworth's departed the structure there was some discussion about bringing back the UA as a performing arts center as part of a downtown revival but obviously that never happened.
Between 8th & 9th and Macdonald Avenue, 1986. This photo from the Images of America series book "Richmond" tells you all you need to know about the state of downtown Richmond at the time. The structure that housed the T & D, California, Fox and United Artists Theaters (1922-1959) was demolished in 1986 or 1987. A Kaiser Medical Center parking garage currently occupies that entire block which was also home to the Studio/Crest Theatre (1942-1952)
The vertical sign that adorned Richmond's United Artists Theatre was transferred to the same named theater in downtown Berkeley and painted blue and gold to coincide with the colors of the University of California. Thanks to Jack Tillmany and Gary Parks for that information. That sign as well as the marque shown in the 1971 photo above have been gone for decades although the United Artists Berkeley itself is still operating, unfortunately now divided into a seven screen multiplex. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.
Today a parking garage for a Kaiser Permanente Medical Center occupies the entire block of Macdonald Avenue between 8th Street and 9th Street. The T&D/California/Fox/UA Theatre was at the approximate location of the red arrow in this 2015 image from Google Maps.
I suppose the theater I knew mostly as the UA was my favorite Richmond theater Even though it was nowhere near as big or as glamorous as the movie palaces in Oakland or San Francisco it was as close as we came in Richmond and it was always a special place to see a movie. It was also the only theater in Richmond that had a mezzanine and balcony even if the balcony part seemed to be closed most of the time, especially at the matinees I attended. When the balcony was open we would always sit up there. During intermission the door to the projection room was sometimes open and we would go up and take a peek inside even if there was a rather unwelcoming sign that said "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP HERE?" painted on the inside wall. There was also a nice middle aged woman who worked at the concession stand who would save 8 x 10 movie stills for me and sometimes allow me to sneak in to see the show if I didn't have money for a ticket. Lots of fond memories for me of the big UA Theatre!
Hi, John! I'm a professor at UC Berkeley and stumbled upon your images when preparing slides for my silent film class. Thank you for this amazing website! I am sharing it with my students for a glimpse of a movie-lover's life in the East Bay.
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