Los Gatos Theatre

We attended “The Amazing Spiderman 2” last weekend. This theatre is a dazzler! T hey did it right. There is a seamless blend between old style and new presentation. No—the auditorium murals were not reproduced, which is disappointing, but there are authentically replicated old style Art Deco fixtures and features galore which would be at home in any movie palace of 1930. There is a waterfall curtain, comfortable seats, beautiful carpet, small, but beautifully-appointed restrooms, LED cove lighting…and even the theatre’s old Ten-O-Win wheel, which is displayed over the staircase landing. The staircase railing is a beautiful Deco custom design.

Observing the construction progress on this building, I do think they did a fine job with the rebuild. As Gary noted they did good work of incorporating the old neon signage, along with replicating historic elements. It is all quite visually appealing. Once they iron out the programming and find their niche, I have no doubt the theatre will see plenty of business.

Those who have referred to the current work on this property as a “remodel” are incorrect. There was no remodel. The original theater was DEMOLISHED. As a previous commenter said: the ONLY original thing remaining of this theater is the marquee. That’s it. They COMPLETELY GUTTED the original property, down to the walls; I witnessed this by peering through a hole in the construction barrier at the front. A bit sad. So for all practical purposes, whatever you eventually see on the site (save for the marquee) is simply a new theater. Better than no theater at all of course, but no significant preservation took place.

The interior is almost entirely gutted down to the wood frame. The marquee and vertical sign have been removed for off-site refurbishing.

Regarding Joe Vogel’s assumption based on a 1974 comment made by William David in Box Office magazine: The Los Gatos was not twinned at that time. I attended there several times in 1989, and the auditorium was a single. The sidewalls had their original plasterwork—frames, moldings, medallions—from the Teens. There was a dropped ceiling of perforated acoustical tile, which was plainly hiding further ornament above it, as you could see some plaster pendant elements hanging down below the ceiling tile line on the sidewall pilasters. The proscenium and angled walls flanking it were of 1940s vintage, plain and streamlined, with the abovementioned maiden figures painted on them, these being the only historic interior decorative elements visible today.
The twinning was done after the Oct 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake closed the theatre for repairs and remodeling.

So the Strand building, constructed in 1916, was burned in the 1929 fire but not destroyed. It was renovated and became the Premier. At some later date the name was changed from Premier to Los Gatos.

This is a 1944 photo. It looks like the earlier Strand was re-opened as the Premier after a fire in 1929, but then later became the Los Gatos listed here. The Premier was mentioned as an aka by Gary Parks on 9/21/08.
http://tinyurl.com/nb6sax

The most recent reference to a Premier Theatre in Los Gatos I can find is an item in Boxoffice Magazine, November 20, 1937.

Items from various issues of Boxoffice in late 1950 mention the Los Gatos Theatre celebrating its ninth anniversary. Apparently, this house was part of a small circuit operated by A. Blanco, taken over by partners William B. David and Bruno Vecchiarelli in 1941, according to an item in the September 13 issue of Boxoffice that year. The name change to Los Gatos must have been made about the time David and Vecchiarelli took over the house.

William B. David was still the owner of the Los Gatos in 1974. The September 9 issue of Boxoffice that year ran an item headed “Los Gatos Reconstruction Expected to Start Soon”, relating that the Los Gatos Theatre had been damaged by a fire which had spread to its attic from an adjoining building. The building suffered water damage as well. David was quoted as saying “It looks as though there will be two theaters instead of one.” Thus 1974 is the likely date of the twinning of the Los Gatos.

The article doesn’t mention it, but I’d surmise that David did the design for the reconstruction and remodeling himself, as he was the designer of many Northern California movie houses.

Per cameracinemas.com, each theatre seats 200; making total capacity 400, not 425.

“Each of its two auditoriums seat 200, and number 1 was recently refitted with brand-new seats and carpeting.”

See http://www.cameracinemas.com/cameras.html for the full story.

The Los Gatos Theatre is located at 43 Santa Cruz Ave., it seated during the 50’s 745 people.