The Avenue Theatre was a movie theater in San Francisco that operated from 1927 until 1984.
The theater opened on July 20, 1927, built and operated by four Levin brothers who owned other theaters in the area. [1] [2] It was located in the Portola neighborhood. [2] The theater ran promotions wherein patrons could collect dinnerware, one piece at a time, on a weekly basis. [2] Management changed in the mid-1960s, when the Lyric Photoplay Film Society, under Edward Millington Stout III, took over. [1] In 1966 the Society installed a Wurlitzer theater organ of 3 manuals and 16 ranks, which had originally been the organ at the State Lake Theater in Chicago. [1] [3] The first show utilizing the "new" organ took place on October 7, 1966, screening The Lost World and featuring Tom Hazelton on the console. [3] The theater then began showing an eclectic assortment of films, including foreign films, re-runs of three-dimensional films and silent films (for which the organ was utilized). [1] [3]
Lyn Larsen was staff organist for the next two years, 1967 through 1968. [3] Bob Vaughn began as organist in 1968, and remained the organist at the Avenue until it closed. [3] The American Theatre Organ Society featured this organ in its 1975 and 1983 national conventions. [3] The theater developed a loyal following, but crime from the surrounding area eventually kept patrons away. [1] The theater closed on December 22, 1984, amid financial difficulties. [3] [2] Before the organ was placed in storage, an album by Jim Riggs entitled Top Hat was recorded on it. [3]
The Tennessee Theatre is a movie palace in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The theater was built in 1928 in the 1908 Burwell Building, considered Knoxville's first skyscraper. The theater and Burwell Building were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and the theater was extensively restored in the early 2000s. The Tennessee Theatre currently focuses on hosting performing arts events and classic films, and is home to the Knoxville Opera and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. The theater is managed by AC Entertainment.
The Hawaii Theatre is a historic 1922 theatre in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, located at 1130 Bethel Street, between Hotel and Pauahi Streets, on the edge of Chinatown. It is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.
A theatre organ is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple is owned by The Walt Disney Company and serves as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres.
The Grand Lake Theatre is a historic movie palace located at 3200 Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, California.
The San Francisco Theatre District is a neighborhood in San Francisco named for the legitimate theaters located there. The district encompasses part of the Union Square shopping district and the Tenderloin and Civic Center neighborhoods. Theaters in the area include the Orpheum Theatre, Curran Theatre, Golden Gate Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, and American Conservatory Theater.
The Ohio Theatre is a performing arts center and former movie palace on Capitol Square in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. Known as the "Official Theatre of the State of Ohio", the 1928 building was saved from demolition in 1969 and was later completely restored. The theater was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
The Blue Mouse Theatre title was used for several historic vaudeville and movie venues opened by John Hamrick in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The name may have been inspired by a lounge in Paris. Hamrick is said to have used the colored rodential title for his first theatre in each city.
The Fox Theatre, a former movie palace, is a performing arts center located at 527 N. Grand Blvd. in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Also known as "The Fabulous Fox", it is situated in the arts district of the Grand Center area in Midtown St. Louis, one block north of Saint Louis University. It opened in 1929 and was completely restored in 1982.
The Paramount Theatre is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue located at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in the downtown core of Seattle, Washington, United States. The theater originally opened on March 1, 1928, as the Seattle Theatre, with 3,000 seats. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 9, 1974, and has also been designated a City of Seattle landmark.
The Paramount Theatre was a 3,664-seat movie palace located at 43rd Street and Broadway on Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1926, it was a showcase theatre and the New York headquarters of Paramount Pictures. Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount predecessor Famous Players Film Company, maintained an office in the building until his death in 1976. The Paramount Theatre eventually became a popular live performance venue. The theater was closed in 1964 and its space converted to office and retail use. The tower which housed it, known as the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, is in commercial use as an office building and is still home to Paramount Pictures offices.
The Roxy Theatre was a 5,920-seat movie palace at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It was the largest movie theater ever built at the time of its construction in 1927. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya starring Gloria Swanson. It was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and also noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and was demolished in 1960.
The Fox Theatre was a 4,651-seat movie palace located at 1350 Market Street in San Francisco, California. The theater was designed by the noted theater architect, Thomas W. Lamb. Opened in 1929, the theater operated until 1963, when it was closed and demolished.
The Redford Theatre is an atmospheric theatre in the Old Redford neighborhood of Detroit. The theatre opened in January 1928, advertised as "Detroit's most unique suburban theatre," due to its grand design, featuring Japanese and Chinese motifs.
The Robert Morton Organ Company was an American producer of theater pipe organs and church organs, located in Van Nuys, California. Robert Morton was the number two volume producer of theatre organs, building approximately half as many organs as the industry leader Wurlitzer. The name Robert Morton was derived not from any person in the company, but rather from the name of company president Harold J. Werner's son, Robert Morton Werner.
Victoria Theatre is a 480-seat theater in San Francisco's Mission District, which presents locally produced original plays, live concerts, film festivals, musicals, performances by international performing companies and other kinds of events. The theater is located at 2961 16th Street in San Francisco, California. It is not connected to the Red Vic, a now-closed repertory movie theater in the Haight.
The Oriental Theatre was a movie theater located at 828 SE Grand Street in the East Portland commercial district of Portland, Oregon that was built in 1927. The Oriental was a 2,038-seat movie palace designed by Lee Arden Thomas and Albert Mercier. The building's exterior was in the Italian Renaissance style. The interior had an "almost surreal appearance" created by interior designer Adrien Voisin. It was built by George Warren Weatherly. Demolished in 1970, the theater was adjacent to the Weatherly Building, which remains standing.
The Organ Grinder Restaurant was a Portland, Oregon pizzeria in operation from 1973 to 1996. At one point it housed the largest theater pipe organ of its type in the world.
At the advent of the 20th century, the city of Portland, Oregon, was among the first on the United States West Coast to embrace the advent of the silent and feature film. The city's first movie palace, the Majestic Theatre, opened in 1911. By 1916, Portland had "the finest array" of movie houses on the West Coast relative to its population, pioneering venues dedicated exclusively to screening films. The popularization of the sound film in the early 1920s resulted in another boom of new cinemas being constructed, including the Laurelhurst, the Hollywood Theatre, and the Bagdad Theatre, the latter of which was financed by Universal Pictures in 1926.
David Howard Hegarty is an American organist and composer. He has served as organist at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco since 1978.
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