United Artists Berkeley 7

2274 Shattuck Avenue,
Berkeley, CA 94704

Unfavorite 12 people favorited this theater

Showing 1 - 25 of 42 comments

m00se1111
m00se1111 on May 22, 2023 at 4:20 am

it’s ‘Save our historic United Artists theatre’

https://www.facebook.com/groups/saveourua

gsmurph
gsmurph on May 21, 2023 at 9:31 pm

There’s a group called SAVE OUR UNITED ARTISTS THEATRE on Facebook. They are lobbying to save the UA from demolition and restore it to its original configuration.

gsmurph
gsmurph on May 21, 2023 at 9:27 pm

Let’s not forget AMC Bay Street, New Parkway, and PFA. But jwmovies definitely has a point.

jwmovies
jwmovies on February 3, 2023 at 9:31 pm

That leaves Elmwood, Piedmont, Grand Lake, Alameda, Albany and Jack London to serve almost A MILLION PEOPLE! YIKES! Talk about underscreened! 😭😭😭

jwmovies
jwmovies on February 3, 2023 at 9:28 pm

In addition to this location closing, ALL remaining UA locations will also close between now and March 31st.

Olymppus Pointe Roseville

Laguna Village Sacramento

Anaheim Hills Festival Anaheim

Grand Palace Calabasas

Westpark Irvine

Santa Maria Town Center Sabta Maria

Metro Pointe Costa Mesa

Civic Center Escondido

Parkway Plaza El Cajon

Hemet

Sonora Plaza Sonora

Ukiah

Metro Indio

I’m sure there are more…

The wriging was on tbe wall when Cineworld filed BK twice. Not good!😳🥺

stevenj
stevenj on January 26, 2023 at 8:51 am

From SFGate - Jan 22, 2023:

“90-year-old Regal UA Berkeley theater to close after bankruptcy filing”

“The closure of the last movie theater in downtown Berkeley has been confirmed, leaving just one cinema left within city limits after the recent losses of the 10-screen Shattuck Cinemas and the 107-year-old California Theatre, which is reportedly slated to become a 15-story mixed-use apartment building.”

Regal’s website shows no bookings past March 2.

UA7

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 25, 2020 at 4:14 am

Opened on 7 screens with on different screens with “Mad Max 3 beyond Thunderdome”, “Cocoon”, “The legend of Billie Jean”, “Rambo”, “Prizzi’s honor”, “Silverado”, and “The man with one red shoe”.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 25, 2020 at 4:09 am

Opened on 25/6/1975 on screen 1 with “Eiger sanction” and “Day of the jackal” and on screen 2 with “Shampoo” and “Take the money & run” and on screen 3 with a Arthur Conon Doyle interview, “Hound of the Baskervilles” and “Sherlock Junior” and on screen 4 with “Benji”.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 25, 2020 at 3:59 am

Opened as a twin on 19/12/1973 on screen 1 with “Papillion” and screen 2 with “American graffitti”.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 16, 2018 at 3:34 pm

5 screens in 1983 and 7 screens on July 19th, 1985. Grand opening ads in the photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 13, 2018 at 7:12 am

and four screens on June 25th, 1975. Another ad posted.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 12, 2018 at 1:59 pm

and became a twin cinema on December 19th, 1973. Ad posted.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 4, 2018 at 8:00 am

This opened on September 16th, 1932. Grand opening ad from the 15th in the photo section for this cinema.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on June 23, 2010 at 10:45 am

Great vintage photo ken mc.

Eric
Eric on January 18, 2010 at 9:35 pm

That is a great article. Thanks for posting.

billspain
billspain on March 4, 2009 at 9:20 pm

I’ll never forget the United Artists theatre in Berkeley. The year was 1953, I was 7, and the movie was “War of the Worlds”. That started my fascination with sci-fi films.

bruceanthony
bruceanthony on October 9, 2008 at 10:22 am

I used to attend the UA in my youth. I only attended the theatre once after it was butchered. The UA is a prime example of how not to multiplex and historic theatre. I consider the UA one of the worst plexing of an existing theatre in the Bay Area. brucec

reccaphoenix
reccaphoenix on November 12, 2007 at 8:02 pm

I think this theater is in need of major restoration, but it is still beautiful compared to most megaplexes and bland national-chain theaters. They regularly show old movies here at reduced price, and the theater rooms are a nice size. It’s not as beautiful as the Shattuck or the California, but it’s an authentic classic theater.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on September 20, 2007 at 6:20 am

More lobby photos needed!

Facade in 2006 photo:
View link

Close up of exterior Art Deco mural on facade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tspauld/64948161/

facade showing both murals:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethgaines/2545701/

Lobby & auditorium photos:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/1869.html

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on September 20, 2007 at 6:09 am

Berkeley Planet article:
Berkeley’s United Artists Theater Turns 75
By Steven Finacom, Special to the Planet (09-14-07)

“Motion picture stars bowing to admiring throngs and stopping before microphones to extend greetings. Dazzling klieg lights, brighter than a torrid desert sun. Powerful searchlights piercing the darkness above with sudden flashes. Music and flowers.”

It would be, the Berkeley Daily Gazette said, “Hollywood transplanted here” and “the greatest theatrical event in the history of Berkeley.”

That was 75 years ago, Sept. 16, 1932, as Berkeley’s new United Artists theater opened on Shattuck Avenue, just south of the Berkeley Public Library.

The opening was big news in Depression-era Berkeley, which preened in the assurance that a national corporation was willing to invest in the community, despite economic hardship.

Then, as now, there were several movie theaters downtown, but the new building with its fluid sculptural facade, enormous marquee with hundreds of lights, and towering sign that proclaimed “United Artists” in neon up and down Shattuck Avenue, changed the commercial and physical landscape.

Berkeleyans flocked to the spectacle.

“Every one of the 1,800 luxurious seats in the theater was filled within five minutes after the doors opened,” reported the Berkeley Daily Gazette the next day. “Twice as many filled the foyers, waiting for an opportunity to obtain seats for the second show.”

“A solid mass of stargazers” outside ogled the celebrities who arrived in “a fleet of new sedans,” after dining at the Berkeley Country Club. Actors and actresses “mingled with their local admirers, laughing and

chatting and writing autographs on anything that would take ink or lead pencil.”

They included “beautiful blond Josephine Dunn” and “the vivacious Spanish dancer, Senorita Conchita Montenegro,” both splendid in evening gowns and “costly outer wraps.” Male stars included “broad-shouldered, swaggering George Bancroft,” “youthful Marty Kemp, suave Lou Cody” and “crooning, good looking, Bing Crosby,” who rushed over from a performance in Oakland to attend the opening.

“Outside as late as 10 o’clock several thousand persons stood in the street.” Police and firemen managed the crowds, not only on Shattuck but around the corner of Bancroft where a “great throng” waited to see movie stars emerge from the stage door.

Inside the theater, Bancroft recited a monologue and comic actor “Stuttering Roscoe” Ates paired with Kemp on “an impromptu dialogue which even had Master of Ceremonies Cody laughing.”

Berkeley Mayor Thomas Caldecott came forward to “extend the City’s greetings to the United Artists and the Fox West Coast Theaters corporations for giving Berkeley such a magnificent theater.”

Caldecott had earlier posed with two “pretty usherettes” to sign the “biggest proclamation in the world” which had noted “life in Berkeley and its surrounding communities takes on a new and bright aspect” with the opening of the theater.

“Practically every city official and civic leader of Berkeley and the East Bay district was in the audience, including the entire City Council.”

United Artists was founded by powerhouse stars Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith to make films and, as was typical of the time, show them in its own corporate theaters.

Berkeley’s UA Theater “was an early link in the United Artists chain,” and “fairly deluxe,” says Gary Parks, southwest director of the Theater Historical Society of America. Southern California had several similarly designed UA theaters.

Berkeley, though, has the only one where the allegorical figure of “Artistry” is on the left on the facade, “Unity” on the right. “Let’s hear it for Berkeley non-conformity,” Parks says.

“The Berkeley UA was the work of Clifford Balch, with Walker & Eisen,” he notes, while the interior painted decoration were done by the Heinsbergen Decorating Company of Los Angeles.

The Berkeley theater is perhaps the only one of its type still directly connected to United Artists, which merged with Regal Cinemas and Edwards Theaters to form Regal Entertainment Group, which runs 6,368 screens in 529 locations around the country and calls itself “the largest motion picture exhibitor in the world.”

When the $300,000 UA Berkeley opened, it had a single screen and the filmgoer was offered a spectacle extending from curb to commode.

“The brilliantly illumined marquee and the lobby give no idea of the beauty and space within,” the Gazette reported at the opening.

The theater originally had a tile-floored atrium open to the street, with a four-sided dome; it’s now enclosed and carpeted.

“Once through the outside doors patrons will be delighted with the artistic outer foyer with its high, richly toned ceilings, the great French plate glass mirrors on either side, the delicate warmth of color and the great black and gold illustrated panels, depicting above, on and below the earth,” the Gazette wrote.

There was no concession counter. “Theatres in the 1930s in some cases did experiment with things like candy machines, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that concessions became common,” says Parks.

From the lobby, “straight ahead the artistic mezzanine looms up with its polished aluminum railings like glistening silver” the Gazette wrote. “Then further ahead is the inner foyer with its wonderful murals depicting the drama. To the right is the main lounging room, replete with comfortable and handsome furniture, a gigantic solid mahogany table on which is mounted a beautiful silver statuette. Here there are roomy Chesterfields in Spanish and modernistic design sufficient to seat comfortably nearly 100 persons.”

Within the theater one found, the Gazette said, “the massive stage, the artistic contours and decorations of the proscenium arch, the golden console and generously large orchestra pit which extends outward so far that it makes the front row of seats desirable ones at a distance sufficient from the silver screen.”

The stage, 25 feet deep, had a dozen adjacent dressing rooms, and was equipped “to present all kinds of stage attractions at any time there is demand to offer vaudeville here.”

Patrons could also luxuriate in non-theatrical amenities.

The “ladies’ parlors” included “overstuffed furniture, lounges and individual chairs, beautiful French plate glass mirrors” and “inviting” lighting. The main women’s lounge has “smoking stands” and a “cosmetic room” with dressing tables.

The men got their own smoking room with walls “stenciled with various sportsâ€"football, baseball, track, polo, hunting and fishing, tennis and basketball.”

Many of these features are now gone or covered up. In the 1970s the main auditorium and balcony were partitioned to provide four separate screens, although liniments of the original spaces can still be seen.

Further renovations in the early 1980s caused worries that the lobby would be compromised, and heartfelt appeals were made to the management. As a result, the original glass and wood entrance doors, set back from the street, were preserved, a matching new mural was added, and the lobby stayed intact.

“The high standards of the original design are something that future generations would appreciate as theaters of this type are becoming increasingly rare,” wrote architectural historian Michael Crowe to the president of United Artists in 1982.

“The glittering, labyrinthine Aladdin’s Cave of a lobby, belying the building’s small street facade, still conveys the feelings of surprise and splendor that were part of the great days of movie-going. This must not be lost now,” wrote the Berkeley Historical Society.

The theater now has now seven screens serving about 1,400 seats, according to Regal Entertainment representatives.

Outside, the original marquee is gone along with the neon tower. In the 1960s and ’70s, Parks says, civic and architectural distaste for neon brought about the demise of numerous theater signs, including Berkeley’s.

The facade retains its original flowing Art Deco character but has been painted. It’s one of the more prominent and important architectural compositions from its era in Berkeley, complementary to the Deco-style Berkeley Public Library, just up the block.

Some original furnishings are at the Oakland Paramount, while others are scattered among private collectors. The theater organ is now privately owned and may end up, Parks says, in a theater in Astoria, Ore.

On opening night in 1932 the organ was central to the entertainment, with four virtuosos offering solos as a prelude to “a typical theater opening program” on film.

A Will Rogers comedy, Down to Earth, was the feature film. “There was one of those almost tragically funny ‘Screen Souvenirs,’ a Magic Carpet Travel, a Mickey Mouse cartoon and the Metrotone news.”

Tickets cost 30 cents for general admission and 40 cents for loge seats at matinees, 45 cents and 69 cents on evenings, Sundays and holidays, and “children 10 cents any time.”

“Those who waited in the foyers were loud in their praise of the wonderful lounging rooms, the artistic decorations. Hundreds stopped to congratulate Manager Clarence L. Laws on the beauty of the theater and the wonderful service rendered by the house staff.”

Back then, elaborately uniformed staffers ushered patrons to their seats and even posed for publicity photos. Today’s staffers are practically invisible in comparison and there’s no such thing as an usher, only an employee who slips in silently after each showing to clean up.

In 1932 Councilmember Reese Clark said the theater “is one of the beauty spots of the downtown district.

“Berkeley at one time was known as a ‘show town’ and, if the theaters continue to express their confidence in Berkeley with such luxurious structures, it again will assume that role.”

Berkeley Police Chief Greening added “bright lights are a deterrent to crimeâ€"criminals fear them more than any other one thing. That is exactly what the new … theater has brought to the downtown business areaâ€"bright lights and plenty of them.”

“Berkeley citizens are entitled to the best that the show world has to

offer,” Greening concluded.

And that’s just what they enjoyed on that brilliant night, 75 years ago.

Photograph Courtesy Regal Entertainment

In late 1966 the theater still had its original marquee, below the neon sign tower that dominated the façade.

terrywade
terrywade on August 11, 2007 at 10:09 am

Yes for a old UA cut up they did a good job. Two big theatres downstairs, two big ones uptairs in the old balcony. The lobby is still looking very deco. The other small theatres are not worth seeing movies in. One is in the backstage area the others are closets. The last time I went a few months ago the right stereo speaker in the upstairs left big theatre was not on. I got my money back, they didn’t believe me but after checking it out they said I was correct. Go see a film and check out the lobby. The stereo I think is DTS and the surrounds are up at a good level. Not like the Landmark down the street. You can stand under a surround speaker and hear about 10% audio at the California and Albany Theatres.

mcmikecroaro
mcmikecroaro on April 25, 2006 at 5:43 pm

Hi Folks:

The managment of the Berkeley 7 tells me they are working to upgrade and clean up the theatre. The two main downstairs auds have a brighter image as the mirrors in each Christie consoles were replaced. They are also working to replace the missing glass from the various light fixtures. Glad to see them maintain the theatre.

Presentation has been very nice during my many visits. The auds are clean.

Mike

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on August 26, 2005 at 4:05 am

Gerald; The UC Theatre is listed here: /theaters/713/