Briggsmore Theatre

50sSNIPES on August 20, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Closed In August 1999.

jvcaprice on April 14, 2015 at 7:03 pm

The Briggsmore Theatre was the fancy theatre in Modesto when I was growing up. I remember going to it not too long after it opened with my mother and grandmother. It was the spring of 1967. The cost of a ticket was $2.50 for an adult ticket, and I was 12 years old when we saw it, and I looked it! LOL. What a beautiful theatre it was. I would wind up doing graphics for movie theatres in Modesto several years later, including ones for the Briggsmore! What nice memories I have of Modesto.

UCMGuy on November 14, 2010 at 12:42 pm

I think I was the one who originally posted that George Lucas previewed American Graffiti at the Birggsmore in 1973, and did a meet-and-greet for his hometown audience.

I have lots of fond memories of going to the Briggsmore in the 80s as a child (I saw the original Clash of the Titans a bunch of times there). I ended up working there in the late 1990s, just before it closed down. Those were bittersweet times for the Briggsmore.

JCL on January 17, 2010 at 10:45 am

Thanks to Mike Revest for the posting of the Modesto Bee ads for the Briggsmore/Prescott opening.

I was hoping, (by now) that Cinema Treasures would be ‘hosting’ photos again. I still have all the original Bee ad pages as shown.

One error in ‘opening coverage page’ was that the Bee accidently switched photos of Richard Mann, (Briggsmore owner) and Robert Lippert, Prescott owner).

Couple of other trivia items: in my initial Briggsmore comments and info in posting above I did not mention that the theatre was fitted with a ‘bank’ of vending machines in lobby, instead of consession snackbar. Mr. Mann decided he wanted “no popcorn, hot dogs, etc” served…only drinks and candy. That turned into operation-maintainence problems, ie: extreme long lines at intermissions and the breakdown of machines. The company that owned and maintained them, (Servomation) was very prompt in sending out repair teams, and at one point had to station a service rep in the lobby. Briggsmore finally refitted with consession bar.

Also, Modesto had really bad rain storms the week prior to opening. The parking area for the theatre, (in shopping center) was not yet paved. It was a huge muddy mess. Contractor laid a makeshift walkway platform from the theatre front to the paved area at Bank of America that fronted McHenry Ave.

Jim Lewis

rivest266 on January 4, 2010 at 10:04 pm

Google news archive’s microfilm for the opening (with the drive-in) starts at View link
for the next 5 pages.