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.