Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Richmond and its Movie Theaters (Introduction)


Richmond, California, the community I grew up in, is in western Contra Costa County in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area, 16 road miles from San Francisco and just across the bay by water. As of the 2010 U.S. Census the city's population was 103,701. Richmond was incorporated in 1905 but remained a relatively sleepy city until the beginning of World War II. At the outset of the war the Richmond Shipyards were constructed along the Richmond waterfront to build the Liberty (cargo) ships, 747 of them in fact, more of them than at any other site in the country.  To build the ships workers were recruited from all over the United States. Those shipyard workers as well as other wartime industry and newly required service industry employees more than quadrupled Richmond's population, peaking out at around 120,000 by the end of the war. Once the war ended the shipyard workers were no longer needed and so began an inevitable population decline. The Census listed 99,545 residents in 1950 and only about 70,000 by 1960. (Information here compiled from from Wikipedia)

Richmond in the early 1920's looking east from 5th and Macdonald. Part of the Richmond Theatre (later the State) built in 1913 can be seen at far left. Not visible here but three blocks down the street Richmond's biggest theatre the T & D (later the California, Fox and United Artists) is either under construction or has recently opened.

Looking west on Macdonald Avenue from 11th Street in 1929. The building on the far right is the 1923 Winters Building which housed retail establishments on the ground floor and a ballroom above. It's one of the few buildings still standing in downtown Richmond, has been nicely restored and now houses the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. A bit over two blocks down Macdonald (the furthest high structure clearly visible on the right) stands the California Theatre (formerly the T &D, later the California, Fox and United Artists). Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

Looking west from 10th street at an extremely crowded Macdonald Avenue during the World War II years. 

Looking west from 9th Street on Macdonald Avenue later in the 1940's. Vehicle congestion had somewhat been relieved by removal of the streetcar tracks and the institution of parallel parking.

Movie page of the Richmond Independent from January 1, 1942. At the beginning of America's involvement in World War II the only two operating movie theaters in the city of Richmond, both of them on Macdonald Avenue downtown, were the State (formerly the Richmond), built in 1913 and the Fox (formerly the T & D and California), built in 1922. The Cerrito in neighboring El Cerrito, built in 1937 was also open and advertised in the Richmond Independent along with the Fox and State. The Point in Point Richmond was apparently closed or not advertising in the Independent at the time.

What a difference a less than two years makes! By fall of 1943 the Friday or Saturday movie page of the Independent could take up the better part of two full pages and there were still three theaters to make their appearance before the end of the war and start advertising in the paper. Those upcoming theaters would be the Vista in El Cerrito, opening in December 1943 and the Costa (later Fox) and Uptown on MacDonald Avenue in Richmond, opening respectively in January and December of 1944. 

By the end of World War II (1945) there were eight theaters on MacDonald Avenue alone, another one on 23rd Street and Rheem Avenue and another on San Pablo Avenue in San Pablo. Additionally the old Point Theatre in Point Richmond, built in 1913 but apparently closed sometime before the war, was once again operating, remodeled and with a new name, the "V" (for Victory). El Cerrito also had a second movie house, the Vista.

Macdonald Avenue around 1950. Only the Fox Theatre (soon to become  the United Artists) is visible in the far right side. Even though the war had been over for several years downtown Richmond was still a thriving area of commerce with department stores, all sorts of specialty stores, restaurants and of course several movie theaters. People still went downtown to do business, shop, eat and go to the movies, just as they did in almost every large and small community in the country.

It was inevitable that with the end of the wartime boom economy and the resulting decrease in Richmond's population not all of the theaters that sprung up on MacDonald Avenue and elsewhere in the area during the war would survive in a now depressed economy. Starting in 1949 many of those still relatively new theaters began to fall by the wayside one by one. Ironically the first to go in the spring of 1949 was the Liberty, named for the ships that were built in Richmond and in the main part responsible for Richmond's population explosion. The State followed in the early 1950's, followed soon by the Studio and Times and finally the Uptown in 1956. In addition by 1957 the Grand on 23rd street, the Pablo in San Pablo and the Vista in El Cerrito would all be shuttered for good.

By July 22, 1953 there were only four theaters (the UA, Fox, Rio and Uptown) on Macdonald Avenue, half of what there were a few years earlier at the wartime peak. The Grand was also still open to dwindling business on 23rd Street. San Pablo's Rancho Drive-In would get some major competition a week later when the more modern San Pablo Auto Movie opened on July 29. Other theaters advertising in the Richmond Independent on this date were the Cerrito, Vista and El Cerrito Auto Movies in El Cerrito, the Park in El Sobrante, the Albany in Albany and the soon to be closed Lanai in Crockett.

Macdonald Avenue looking east from Sixth Street in 1954. The Fox and the UA, downtown Richmond's two remaining first run movie theaters can be seen just down the street in the 700 and 800 blocks of Macdonald. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

This is a cropped area from the 1954 photo above this one showing much more detail. The Fox is showing a reissue of the very popular 1948 John Wayne western "Red River" while the the UA's main attraction is 1954's "Men of the Fighting Lady" with Van Johnson. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

By 1957 Macdonald Avenue which had eight theaters a decade earlier had only three remaining, the first run Fox (formerly Costa) and United Artists/UA (formerly T & D, California and Fox) and the last of the low priced grindhouses, the Rio. The United Artists closed it's doors for good in the fall of 1959 while the Fox hung on until the spring of 1965 before dwindling business in an increasingly depressed and at times dangerous downtown area forced it to turn off the lights on mainstream films permanently. Ironically the  Rio, generally considered the worst theatre in town and a place to be avoided outlasted all of the other nicer theaters on Macdonald Avenue and continued showing second run films for yet a few more years. Then it too finally closed and became a church. That in a nutshell is what happened to the mostly now forgotten Richmond movie theaters. You can read more about each individual theater in it's separate blog post.

Night view of Macdonald Avenue late 1959. On the right the recently closed United Artists (UA) Theatre has shown it's last film and will soon be turned into a Woolworth's variety store. On the left in the next block the Fox is still lit up and will be showing films to a dwindling audience for the next few years. Three blocks further down on the left (not visible in this picture) the rundown Rio is still grinding out last run films for cheap prices and will outlast even the Fox as the last movie theater standing and operating on Macdonald! This photo appears in the excellent Images of America book "Richmond" by Donald Bastin

Movie page from the Richmond Independent from October 1959.  The United Aritsts' recent closing leaves only the Fox in downtown Richmond, along with El Sobrante's Park, El Cerrito's Cerrito and two drive-ins in San Pablo advertising in the Independent. The Rio on Macdonald Avenue was also still open but apparently had ceased newspaper advertising at this time.

Movie pages from the Richmond Independent from (left) July 1, 1962 and (right) May 1, 1970. Note that by 1970 the San Pablo Auto Movie had closed, Syufy now controlled both remaining drive-ins and the Fox after being closed since 1965 had temporarily reopened and was now showing adult films, most likely the only recently tolerated hardcore variety. The Rio Theatre at the top right side of the 1970 page (showing "Pyscho") is not the Macdonald Avenue flea pit but rather the Rio in Rodeo, about 8 miles from Richmond.

As for the very few new theaters built and opened in the greater Richmond area since the 1950's you can see posts later in this blog about the third drive-in which opened in the early 1960's, a couple of small two screen theaters in San Pablo and El Cerrito and a four and later eight screen multiplex in the Hilltop Mall Shopping Center. All of these post 1950's theaters have long since been closed and demolished. There is however a happy ending for a 1937 constructed but decades closed theater in El Cerrito, now open again and serving pizza and beer with the flicks.

The population of Richmond itself has rebounded over the years, now back up around 100,000 but the city is currently severely under served in the movie theater  department with only one mainstream multiplex, the big box styled Century 16 near Hilltop Mall which opened in 2001. In addition an intimate 40 seat screening room called The Magick Lantern opened in early 2013 in Point Richmond, specializing in independent and foreign films. Unfortunately that most welcome venue only lasted a year.

I hope you'll find something of interest in the information I've gathered on the individual theaters which are posted below in chronological order based on opening dates. Corrections and comments and remembrances are always welcome. Thanks for reading!

The Early Years: Opera Houses, Nickelodeons & Storefront Theaters (1900-1930)

The primary focus of this blog is the movie theaters that I was familiar with when I was growing up in Richmond in the late 1940's and through the 1950's.  Beginning with the next post (Richmond Theatre) I personally remember all of those theaters and enjoyed movies in most of them. However while doing research I found some information about theaters that I was completely unaware of, theaters that were shuttered decades before I was born. The information I uncovered is sketchy at best but I thought I would share it here for anyone interested.

The first reference to any theatre in Richmond, be it for live performances or motion pictures that I've found is for a RICHMOND OPERA HOUSE, also known as the Point Richmond Opera House, located at 11 Standard Avenue in Point Richmond. According to the Point Richmond Historical Society this large establishment was already in operation by 1902 and "served as a center for everything from church services to medicine shows to legitimate opera." So far I haven't found any evidence that films that were ever shown there but I suppose it's a possibility as it apparently existed until at least the mid 1920's. It disappears from the "Theatres" listing of the Richmond City Directory in the 1916-1917 edition and shows up again in the 1922-1923 and 1923-1924 editions before disappearing again in subsequent editions. I don't know if it was closed during the missing years or just omitted from city directories for those years. 

A typical "nickelodeon" but not in Richmond, this one was in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Several small movie theaters appear to have opened in Richmond beginning toward the end of the first decade of the new century. Since movie exhibition was still in it's infancy at that time I suspect most of them at least initially were "nickelodeons", set up in converted storefronts and so named because at least in the early years admission was only five cents. These theaters flourished throughout America from about 1905 to 1915 and featured programs of short films, comedies, serial chapters, travel films, newsreels, etc. If the newspaper advertisements in the Richmond Independent were typical, titles of the films shown were rarely even mentioned in the newspaper ads but instead promoted with posters outside of the theaters.

The 1909-1910 edition of the Richmond City Directory shows in addition to the Richmond Opera House in Point Richmond the GRAND THEATRE operating at 303 Macdonald Avenue in downtown Richmond. The Grand disappears from the city directory's 1911-1912 edition.

The 1911-1912 city directory omits the Grand and adds the CENTRAL THEATRE at 5th & MacDonald Avenue, the HELM THEATRE at 1106 Macdonad Avenue, the IDLE HOUR THEATRE at 60 Washington Avenue and the ROYAL THEATRE at 316 Richmond Avenue, the last two theaters being in Point Richmond.


The CENTRAL THEATRE was operating in 1912 and located at 5th and MacDonald where it would soon have a new and much larger neighbor, T &D's Richmond Theatre.

Directly to the right of the Richmond Theatre in this 1913 photograph is what appears to be a another smaller movie theater. Is this the Central?

The Helm Theatre which was located at 1106 Macdonald Avenue. It was operating by 1911.


The ROYAL THEATRE was located in the Arnold Building at 316 Richmond Avenue in the Point Richmond area. An item in the Point Richmond History Association's newsletter stated it opened on January 15, 1910. Based  on listings in the city directory it appears to have closed by 1915.

In the 1912-1913 city directory the Idle Hour Theatre in Point Richmond is missing and the Helm Theatre at 1106 MacDonald had become the ISIS THEATRE.

By 1912 the Helm at 1106 Macdonald had been re-named the ISIS THEATRE and was promoting itself as the "Only Nickelodeon in Town".

Based on listings in the 1913-1914 city directory the Central at 509 Macdonald Ave. had become the BIJOU THEATRE and the structure that housed the former Helm and Isis theaters at 1106 MacDonald was now home to to MAJESTIC THEATRE.

By 1913 the MAJESTIC THEATRE was operating at 1106 Macdonald Avenue, the location that formerly housed the Helm and Isis.

The 1914-15 Richmond City Directory lists both the above mentioned Majestic and the JEWELL THEATRE occupying the same 1106 Macdonald Avenue location. Most likely the Majestic had just became the Jewell. The Bijou at 509 Macdonald had also become the VIM THEATRE in this edition.

The former Bijou Theatre at 509 MacDonald had become the VIM THEATRE in the 1914-1915 edition of the Richmond City Directory. The Vim itself is missing from the 1915-1916 edition of the City Directory as are it's next door neighbor the Central at 507 Macdonald, the Jewell/Majestic at 1106 Macdonald and the Royal in Point Richmond.

The 1915 -1916 City Directory show only the Point, Richmond Opera House and the Richmond Theatre remaining.  A year later that same publication omits the Richmond Opera House and adds the REGENT THEATRE at 1106 MacDonald Avenue, the location that had previously housed the Helm, Isis, Majestic and Jewell theaters. 

Newspaper ads from the Richmond Independent for the Regent Theatre in 1916. For the first time for these smaller theaters actual titles of the films showing were regularly featured in the Regent's small ads in the Richmond Independent. Full length features have obviously been added to the programs of short films previously exclusively featured in these storefront theaters.

By early 1917 the Regent at 1106 Macdonald (sometimes listed in city directories at 1104 Macdonald) appeared to have become the MACDONALD THEATRE. There was no regular advertising for the Macdonald in the Independent but press release type articles frequently promoted the features playing there. 

On May 19, 1917 after being closed for two weeks for remodeling the MacDonald reopened and started regular daily advertising in the Independent. The Macdonald would remain in business for another full decade, setting a longevity record for  these mostly short lived early movie theaters in Richmond. The structure that housed the Macdonald had also been used as a movie theater since at least 1911, formerly home to the Helm, Isis, Majestic, Jewell and Regent theaters.

Typical display ads for the MacDonald from the Richmond Independent from 1922.

More Macdonald Theater ads from the Richmond Independent from June and October 1926.

In 1927 the Macdonald was still competing with the the California (formerly T & D) and the Richmond. Newspaper ads for the Macdonald appear to cease at the end of September of 1927 but the theater's listing still appears in the 1928 and 1929 city directories so the Macdonald may or may not have been operating without newspaper advertising during those latter years. It is missing from 1930 and later year city directories.

In mid-1929 the Macdonald's proprietors Lawrence Borg and William Pappas temporarily leased the Richmond Theatre from Fox West Coast Theatres and operated it for a time. 

After the closure of the Macdonald and for the next dozen years or so the California (formerly the T & D, later the Fox) and the Richmond (later the State) would be Richmond's only downtown movie theaters. By 1930 the Point Theatre in Point Richmond was also apparently closed and would remain so until Robert L. Lippert remodeled it and reopened it as the "V" Theatre in August 1942.

During this same time period (1900-1930) three larger and much longer lasting movie theaters opened in the Richmond area, the RICHMOND THEATRE in 1912, the POINT THEATRE in Point Richmond in 1913 and the T & D THEATRE in 1922. They are all covered extensively in other posts. 


Richmond Theatre (later State)

Address: 501 Macdonald Avenue, Richmond CA
Date Opened as Richmond: March 16, 1912
Date Reopened as Richmond after closure and remodeling: April 20, 192
Date Re-opened as State after closure major conversion: January 14, 1938
Date Closed: September 1, 1952
Circuit: Turner and Dahnken (T&D), West Coast Theatres,  Fox West Coast Theatres
Number of Screens: 1
Number of Seats: 610 (State)
Current Status: Demolished

Portion of an article from Richmond Independent on March 16, 1912 announcing the opening of the Richmond Theatre. You can click on this or any other image in this blog to enlarge and view or read more easily.

Opening day newspaper ad for the Richmond Theatre from the Richmond Independent, March 16, 1912.

Photo Credit: #0724 (Sonny Jackson) Courtesy of Point Richmond History Association

The Turner and Dahnken (T & D) Circuit opened the Richmond Theatre on the corner of Fifth Street and Macdonald Avenue in downtown Richmond on March 16, 1912. The State was downtown's first major motion picture theater. The large poster on the left side of the theater in the above photo shows "A Wife of the Hills", a 1912 Broncho Billy Anderson one reel (12-15 minute) western as one of the attractions, indicating the photo was taken during or shortly after the grand opening.

A small part of a Turner & Dahnken (T & D) Circuit ad in the trade magazine Motion Picture World from 1915 shows the original interior of the Richmond Theatre.

Various ads for the Richmond Theatre from the Richmond Daily Independent in 1912. Programming obviously consisted of a combination of motion pictures, live vaudeville acts  and even in April of 1912 a Minstrel Show which had also played the Richmond Opera House in Point Richmond on the previous day.

The Richmond Theatre in 1913. Posters highlight a program of "SILENT DRAMA" with an admission price of ten cents for adults and five cents for children.

Another early view of the Richmond Theatre. I'm curious about the smaller, similar shaped building just to the right of the Richmond. Is that another smaller theater? It looks like movie poster display cases on the right. Could that be the Central Theatre listed at 507 Macdonald  in a 1914 City Directory?

The Richmond Theatre can be seen at right in this very nice view of Macdonald Avenue looking west (towards the bay), date unknown. 

Christmas 1916 programming at the Richmond Theatre. Ad from the Richmond Independent December 23, 1916.

The Richmond Theatre in 1917. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

The Richmond Theatre went dark for about a year and a half beginning on August 27, 1922 coinciding with the opening of the much larger T & D Theatre four blocks away on Macdonald Avenue. 

West Coast Theatres, Inc. purchased the T & D circuit in 1924, getting both the T and D and the Richmond Theatres in the transaction. West Coast immediately remodeled the shuttered Richmond and reopened it on April 20, 1924. The article from the Richmond Independent above is from April 19, the day before the reopening. In turn Fox West Coast Theatres got started in 1927 by purchasing the former West Coast Theatres properties. The State of course became part of the new Fox West Coast family at that time.

Ad from the Richmond Independent from Saturday April 19, 1924 announcing the next day reopening of the Richmond Theatre. 

Ads for some of the silent films that played the Richmond Theatre shortly after it's reopening in 1924. 

Fox West Coast Theatres got started in 1927 by purchasing the former West Coast Theatres properties. Along with the T & D the State became part of the new Fox West Coast family at that time.

The Richmond Theatre in 1928, now part of the Fox West Coast Theatres circuit. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

An item in Film Daily from the July 18, 1929 issue of the trade publication The Film Daily stated that Fox West Coast temporarily leased the Richmond to independent operators Lawrence Borg and William Pappas who also operated the Macdonald Theatre at that time. (Thanks to Joe Vogel for relaying this information in Cinema Treasures).

Richmond Theatre ads from the Richmond Independent from 1931 and 1932. The Richmond had obviously and necessarily upgraded it's equipment to enable sound movie projection by this time. 

By 1936 double features had replaced the single features and short subjects previously featured at the Richmond. That was generally one "A" film (a major feature) and one "B" film, a lesser quality and cheaper rental film frequently from a minor Hollywood studio. Short subjects, at the very least a newsreel and cartoon, still accompanied the two features. You really got your money's worth at the movies in those days!

Pocket calendars like the one above from May 1937 provided the Richmond's patrons gave easy access to an entire month of the theater's programming. The Richmond continued offering this double feature/multiple program changes each week policy until October 31, 1937 when it closed. The next day construction crews began completely gutting the theater's interior, the first phase of it's conversion into the more modern State Theatre.

On January 14, 1938 the structure that formerly housed the Richmond Theatre was reborn as the State Theatre. The Richmond Independent reported that only the walls remained from the former building "and even these have been reconstructed with huge steel girders as to make the theater virtually earthquake proof". Everything inside was brand new and a new modern front, box office and marquee made the makeover complete.

Ads from the Richmond Independent newspaper announce the opening of the new State Theatre on January 14, 1938.

Paramount's musical comedy "Mountain Music" and Universal's adventure drama "Wings Over .
Honolulu"made up the grand opening double feature attraction at the State.

Various ads for the State from the Richmond Independent from the years 1942 to 1944. The State joined it's Macdonald Avenue neighbors the Studio and Rio with an open all night policy to provide round the clock entertainment to the tens of thousands of shift workers at the Kaiser shipyards
.
A Roy Rogers western topped the double feature program at the State the day this picture was taken 
in July 1945. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

More ads from the Richmond Independent illustrating typical State programming during the war years. These 2 ads are from July 1945, just a few months before the war was to come to an end.


After the end of World War II the State dropped it's all night policy, reduced the number of weekly program changes and played a variety of mainstream double features. Among the three Richmond Fox West Coast houses (the other two being the Costa and Grand) the State generally seemed to get stuck with the leftovers with lots of reissues, second run and second rate product. There were a few gems among the ordinary though. It was always fun to look in the daily paper and see what was playing at the State. Ads above from are from various dates in the years 1946 to shortly before the State's closing in 1952.

Even though the State wasn't open all night anymore Friday and Saturday midnight shows were not uncommon. Friday the 13th and Halloween were most appropriate for horror programs but at the State they could show up anytime. The two double features advertised above are from June 23 and August 25, 1951. They dug into the vaults for these two shows. "The Invisible Ray" is from 1936, and other three features are from the early 1940's. Three out of four features are from bottom of the barrel "Poverty Row" distributors, Monogram and Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and frankly as bad as this type of material ever gets. I wonder how many members of the audience were still awake when PRC's snoozer combo of "The Devil Bat" and "The Mad Monster" ended about 2:30 AM.

By the early 1950's the State was playing more and more exploitation trash (some of it going way back to the 1930's in origin) mixed in with it's more mainstream double features. It was becoming increasingly apparent that the oldest major movie theater on Macdonald Avenue's days were numbered. Being in what even back then  was regarded as an increasingly rough area of town didn't help assure the State's chances for survival.

The State in 1951. "Go For Broke", a very popular World War II movie with Van Johnson is the main attraction. 

The State closed permanently on Monday  September 1, 1952 (Labor Day) after operating with a Friday to Sunday only policy during it's final few months. The closing was the fourth Macdonald Avenue movie theater casualty (after the Liberty, Times and Studio/Crest) attributed to Richmond's post-war downturn economy and by that time the rapidly increasing popularity of television. The State's final double feature program which played Friday to Monday consisted of the 1950 science-fiction favorites "Destination Moon" and "Rocketship X-M". How did I ever miss attending that show?

Today Nevin Park occupies the area of Macdonald Avenue from 4th Street to 6th Street. 5th Street no longer goes through from Macdonald to Nevin. The red arrow on this 2017 image from Google maps points to the former location of the Richmond/State Theatre which was on the corner of 5th and Macdonald. 

I have limited but fond memories of the State, mostly of Saturday morning matinees watching cartoons and Tim Holt and Roy Rogers westerns, among other kid friendly product.  Like it was with the rest of Richmond's movie theaters I was extremely disappointed when it closed down.