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History of the Alameda Theatre
Live @ the Library Special Concert
Join us for a magical evening of music at the Historic Alameda Theater. Beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, known to her friends as "Flicka," is your dream guide to the world of song. To share her love of music, Flicka is joined by her good friend and opera cellist Emil Miland, along with special guests from Berkeley's exceptional Young Musicians Program.
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The Alameda Free Library Foundation proudly presents a special benefit concert in the Live @ the Library series!
Tickets are $60 for adults and $15 for students in grades K-12. Tickets may be purchased at Dewey's Friends Cafe (inside the Main Library); Books, Inc on Park Street; Alameda Theater & Cineplex; and online through Brown Paper Tickets. More info: www.cityofalamedaca.gov/Library/ |
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Give the Gift of Movies!
The Alameda Theatre & Cineplex Box Office offers Theatre Gift Certificates in booklets of (5) x $5.00 certificates. The gift certificates may be redeemed for movie tickets or goodies at the Snack Bar. A great gift for friends, family or co-workers for only $25!
Theatre Supports Recycling Program
ALAMEDA, California – September 28, 2011 – Popcorn is compostable and so are movie popcorn bags and soda cups. The Alameda Theatre & Cineplex has implemented a new recycling program in partnership with StopWaste.Org, for disposal of movie snacks. Organic waste receptacles are now servicing all eight movie theatres and will divide items for compost, trash, or recycling.
Movie-goers can help the Theatre in their effort to make Alameda a “greener” place by disposing of their snack trash in the separate bins as they exit the theatre. “We feel a responsibility to set a good example in our community and we feel it’s the conscientious thing to do,” states Kyle Conner, Theatre Owner.
Alameda County Industries (ACI) worked with the theatre in organizing the program and has supplied a special organic dumpster which they collect weekly and take to a composting facility. The theatre is now recycling and/or composting 70-80% of theatre trash.
Historic Leap into 3-D Technology
ALAMEDA, California – June 23, 2011 – In 1932, the Alameda Theatre was touted as the largest movie screen in California but today it can claim the title of “largest 3-D screen in the world!”
Movie-goers can now witness history in the making at the 1932 Historic Alameda Theatre as they are presented with 3-D imagery never before seen on a movie screen of its size. The debut of Dolby Digital 3D in the historic theatre now offers the largest digital 3D presentation of its kind.
The installation of a Barco DP 32B-3D projector in the theatre’s original projection booth allows the images to achieve an accurate brightness with up to 43,000 lumens and has been named by Guinness Book of Records as “The World’s Brightest Projector.”
Pixar Studios’ release of “CARS 2” is currently being presented in brilliant hi-definition, 3-dimensional color. Summer 3-D blockbusters to follow are “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”
“The theatre’s Art Deco architecture invites you in and the hi-tech cinema experience will leave you breathless” states Kyle Conner, owner of AlamedaTheatre & Cineplex.
History of the Alameda Theatre
When it first opened in 1932, the Alameda Theatre was a glamorous Art Deco movie palace with one of the largest screens in the entire Bay Area. Designed by architect Timothy Pflueger, the mastermind behind the Paramount Theater in Oakland and the Castro Theater in San Francisco, the Alameda Theatre is designated an Alameda Historic Monument.
Although Alameda’s 35,000 residents had plenty of theaters in those days—the Strand, the Rio, the Vogue, the Park, and the Neptune—they didn’t have a true movie palace until the Alameda Theatre was created. Built in 14 months at a cost of $500,000, the Alameda Theatre instantly became the dominant building in the Park Street Business District with its 33,400 square feet; 2,200 seats; large movie screen; and vertical blade sign that soared 70 feet into the sky with “Alameda” in big capital letters. Many Alamedans can still remember the Alameda Theatre’s early years.
The theater opened with much fanfare on August 17, 1932. Opening night was attended by 5,000 Alamedans. The featured movie was family film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, starring Marion Nixon and Ralph Bellamy. The bill also included The Chimp, with Laurel and Hardy; a Betty Boop cartoon; and a Fox Movietone Newsreel. For the 2,200 people lucky enough to get inside, admission was 10 cents for children and 35 cents for adults. The balcony cost 40 cents and was for adults only.
The movies, and the movie theaters they played in, were changed forever in the early 1950s with the advent of television. Theater attendance dropped dramatically and movie operators struggled to survive. In 1973, the theater was purchased by the Robert L. Lippert theater chain and underwent $85,000 in alterations, including the conversion of the balcony to two additional theaters. But suburban multiplex cinemas caused a continual decline in attendance.
On July 31, 1979, after 47 years, the time had come for the curtain to fall on the Alameda Theatre. The old palace’s final movie was the Disney film The Apple Dumpling Gang, starring Don Knotts and Tim Conway.
Following the theater’s closure, the building endured several reincarnations—a roller rink, a dance hall, and a gymnastics center. It almost became a kids’ pizza parlor, and it narrowly avoided demolition.
With a renewed focus on Alameda's economic development in 1998, an intense interest in having the theater returned to its original splendor and purpose grew within the community. In 2000, after years of neglect, the City of Alameda became formally involved in the theater’s restoration. As a result, a three-part $37.3 million restoration project has restored the theater to its original glory while also modernizing it. The project included restoration of the historic theater, construction of the new parking garage, and construction of the additional Cineplex.
The theater reopened in March 2008 with a three-day grand opening celebration—including a black-tie gala benefit modeled after a movie premiere, complete with searchlights, valet parking, red carpet and movie trailers. The opening movie was a premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The new Alameda Theatre & Cineplex seats a total of 2,168 people. It has seven screens, six of which were added adjacent to the 484-seat main viewing room, and a parking garage with 350 spaces. Various details of the original theater have been kept and restored, like the blade sign up front and the marquee ceiling, while other details like the original seating have been replaced completely.
Current show times and tickets are available at www.AlamedaTheatres.com or at the Theatre Box Office. Sign up online to receive the Alameda Theatre & Cineplex Newsletter with movie listings and show times.
