It has been nearly a year since The Union presented the history of one of the city’s most cherished landmarks, the Alhambra Theatre. But despite the strong legacy of this gone, but certainly not forgotten theater, the history of cinema venues in Sacramento is much richer.

Sacramento native Jerry Kaeser, who
grew up at 32nd Street and Folsom Boulevard with his father Martin, his mother Mary and his five sisters, recalls the wealth of theaters that were located in Sacramento during the early part of his life.

Kaeser, 76, who walked many times from his childhood home to see movies at “The Showplace of Sacramento,” the luxurious Alhambra at 1100 Alhambra Blvd., where a Safeway grocery store now sits, said that he also has fond memories of other local theaters. Kaeser listed the regions most memorable movie houses, some gone and others still in operation: the Oak Park Theater at 2850 35th St., the Esquire Theatre at 1219 K St., the Senator Theater at 912 K St., the Hippodrome Theater at 1013 K St. and the Tower Theatre at 16th Street and Broadway.

“I loved the Alhambra. I have the best memories about that place, since it was so close to my home and I had my first date with my wife (the former Linda Sabatini) there, when I saw ‘Doctor Zhivago,’ but there were also a lot of other theaters in Sacramento,” said Kaeser, a graduate of Christian Brothers High School. “There was no TV when I was a teenager, so I would go to the movies once a week. Besides the Alhambra, I mostly went to the Senator with my best friend, Bob Lahtola. I remember how you would walk up that long, really wide, carpeted aisle to get up to where they had the popcorn.”

Kaeser added that the movie experience in these days generally consisted of a double feature, along with newsreels and short cartoons.

Wilma DeWald, 83, co-owner of the Elk Theatre in Elk Grove from 1958 to about 1962, recalled traveling to the Senator and other theaters in Sacramento as a child with her father, Bud Van Doren.

“I really liked the Senator Theater,” DeWald said. “It was really nice and it had a big lobby with mirrors all the way down. I can remember going there with my dad many years and always having to wait in line when you got in there. It was a very popular place and a lot of times we had to take separate seats, because it was so busy. I remember seeing Bette Davis movies there, although I don’t remember the names of the movies anymore. Later on, I went there with my husband (Ben).”

DeWald and Kaeser are, however, just a pair of the many people who have fond recollections of some of Sacramento’s early movie theaters.

Darryl VonRotz is another local resident who holds a special place in his heart for Sacramento’s classic theaters of old, with his favorites being the Alhambra, the Tower and the Hippodrome.

VonRotz, 69, who grew up on Vallejo Way in the Land Park area of the city, said that he could be found almost every Saturday afternoon enjoying a matinee at the Tower.

“All the kids went to the Tower on Saturday afternoons,” VonRotz said. “Back then, for 25 cents, you could pay for a movie and still have enough money left over to buy a Coke and some candy.”

VonRotz, who was the only child of Albert and Margaret VonRotz, said that the Hippodrome, which opened in 1918 and later became the Crest Theater, was a favorite of his parents, who would often take him there when he was just a child.

“I was pretty young when I went to the Hippodrome, but I do remember that it was a really nice place with a big dome ceiling,” VonRotz said.

To the east of Darryl’s childhood home was the Oak Park Theater, which first opened in 1903, was closed from 1907 to 1931 and after 16 more years of service and five years of dormancy, reopened as the Guild Theatre in 1952. Although the Guild closed in 1969, it was reopened by the St. HOPE Academy as a mainly stage venue in 2003.

DeWald said that she fondly remembers going to the Oak Park Theater during her childhood.

“My cousin (Dick Luttig) lived in Sacramento and I would go in there (to Sacramento) and he always took me to the Oak Park Theater,” DeWald said. “That was just a little, tiny theater with a little balcony. They had a lot of westerns and then they would be continued until the next week to try to get all the kids back again.”

Richard Phelps, a Sacramento native and graduate of Luther Burbank High School, said that at 59 years old, he is not old enough to remember the Oak Park Theater, but said he remembers the Guild very well.

“I went (to the Guild) with my girlfriend and saw a very sexy film by (Italian director Michelangelo) Antonioni and we liked it so much that we stayed and watched it the second time around,” said Phelps with a chuckle. “My girlfriend was interested in foreign films and that’s what they were showing there at that time.”

Sara Willis, 90, said that although she lived nearby the Guild Theater, off 9th Avenue, during the 1950s, she preferred to “go to the theaters in town.”

“We used to go into town to see movies,” said Willis, who moved to Sacramento from Chicago with her husband, Rudy, and daughters, Susan and Barbara, in 1949. “We didn’t go that often, because we didn’t have that much money. I remember going to the Crest, because they had a room where you could go with your kids if they cried. My kids were very young, so I went to that room most of the time.”

Ironically, the Crest opened in the same year that Willis moved to Sacramento.

The Crest is located on the site of the old Empress vaudeville theater, which operated from 1913 to 1918, and the aforementioned Hippodrome, which converted from a vaudeville house to motion picture theater in the 1920s.

The interior of the Hippodrome was demolished in 1946 for the construction of the Crest within the old Hippodrome shell.

Backed by many locals, who were still feeling the sting of the 1973 loss of the Alhambra Theatre, Sid Garcia-Heberger and partners saved the Crest, which was the city’s last remaining intact theater.

After sitting dormant for seven years, the 975-seat theater was for the most part restored to its original state and reopened on Nov. 18, 1986 with the MGM musical, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Today, the Crest, with its large, perpendicular neon sign and detailed interior, serves as a physical reminder of the capital city’s rich involvement in the golden age of cinema.

Although ranging from gutted interiors to only a façade and other alterations, other existing Sacramento theaters from this golden age are: the Colonial Theatre at 3522 Stockton Blvd. and the aforementioned Guild, Esquire (IMAX) and Tower theaters.

With the progression from vaudeville to silent films and “talkies” or talking motion pictures at local theaters, the excitement for cinema in Sacramento progressed at a rapid rate in the early part of the 20th century.

Many cinema theaters have come and gone in Sacramento within the past century, with a high point coming in the 1930s, when the city boasted a dozen, luxurious motion picture palaces, including: the Capitol at 615 K St., the Rialto at 421 K St. and the Silver Palace at 1018 2nd St.

A 1947 city directory lists 23 theaters, followed by a 1957 city directory’s listing of 30 Sacramento theaters.

This increase in theaters within this decade can mostly be accounted for the then-new craze of drive-in theaters that emerged during this era.

Of the dozen or so drive-in theaters that were eventually sprinkled around the Sacramento area, only one, the Sacramento 6 at Bradshaw Road and Highway 50, remains today.

Lisa Larrabee remembers going to the Sacramento 6 with her sister Leslie Larrabee, while attending Hiram Johnson High School in the 70s.

“We had a lot of fun going to the Sacramento 6 (which opened in 1973),” Larrabee said. “It was a way to get out of the house (as a teenager). I remember seeing ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Exorcist’ there. When I came home from ‘The Exorcist,’ my brother (Todd) was under the couch and he shook the couch and terrified me.”

And of course, it perhaps goes without saying that the total cost of a drive-in movie often depended upon how many youngsters could fit in the trunk of a vehicle.

Although Sacramentans have many more choices when it comes to entertainment today, with the exception of the decline of drive-ins, the cinema experience, like in the past, continues to delight many locals, both young and old.