Showcase Cinemas I and II (later San Pablo Showcase, Cooper Twin and San Pablo Theatres) (San Pablo)

Address: 2500 Road 20, San Pablo CA 94806

Date Opened: May 7, 1970

Date Closed: Late 1983 (?) 

Circuit/Owners: Transcontinental Theatres, Dave Cooper Cinemas, Independent (?)

Number of Seats: 800 (400 in each auditorium, approximate)

Current Status: Demolished

May 7, 1970 saw the grand opening of the two screen Showcase Cinemas in San Pablo's El Portal Shopping Center. The Showcase was the first new indoor movie theater in the Richmond area since El Sobrante's Park Theatre opened in 1949. Grand Opening programs were "A Man Called Horse"  and "The Reivers" in Cinema I and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Hard Contract" in Cinema II.

I suppose it's fitting that Robert L. Lippert who started the movie theatre building boom in Richmond during World War II was the owner and operator of the first new Richmond area theatre in over two decades. Lippert had been been a movie producer in Hollywood since the late 1940's, turning out product for his own distribution company Lippert Pictures and later 20th Century Fox but had recently returned to exhibition under the corporate umbrella of Transcontinental Theatres.

Signage and a marquee on heavily traveled San Pablo Avenue advertised the then current double feature programs at the Showcase Cinemas in 1975. This photo appears on the Facebook page for the San Pablo Historical and Museum Society. 

The Showcase Cinemas, under the personal supervision of Charles Boening, reportedly did very good business for a quite a while but suffered when the nearby Hilltop Mall and Century 10 (Pinole) multiplexes opened. Transcontinental Theatres operated the Showcase until 1976.

A new operator took over the Showcase Cinemas from Transcontinental in mid-1976, just slightly changing the name to San Pablo Showcase 1 and 2. Policy remained essentially the same as before. Newspaper ads above are from July and August 1976.

After some renovation including all new seats Dave Cooper Cinemas re-opened the Showcase on June 20, 1982 and operated it as the "Cooper Twin" until 1982.

The former San Pablo Showcase with it's new identity as the Cooper Twin in June 1980. The banner above the entrance reads "Grand Opening". Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission. 

One final change in ownership for the former Showcase Cinemas, San Pablo Showcase and Cooper Twin came in late July of 1982. The ad at left is for the opening attractions and at right for later in October of 1982.  San Pablo Theatres Cinema I and II lasted long enough to celebrate a first anniversary in July 1983 but were missing from the movie page of the Independent by January 1984 so it appears they closed in the latter part of 1983. The theater structure as well as the entire El Portal Center have long since been demolished.