Cinema revives memories of old movie houses

The following is a retrospective of some of the central Peninsula's favorite movie houses. The information has been gathered from several sources, including the records of the San Mateo County Historical Association, as well as the historical societies of Belmont, Burlingame, Millbrae and San Carlos. This first of two installments recalls the old movie palaces from Millbrae to downtown San Mateo, listed chronologically by their opening dates:

Garden Theater

The Garden Theater opened on the north side of Burlingame Avenue on Sept. 23, 1918, where Banana Republic and the Pottery Barn are located today.

The theater stood on property belonging to George Gates, who came to Burlingame in 1895, serving terms as postmaster and as an original city councilmember. The silent movie house, designed by preeminent Burlingame architect Ernest L. Norberg, featured a fireplace in the lobby, hand-painted murals on the walls and wicker chairs in the loges. A candy store and soda fountain named Vincent's occupied the store front next door to the east of the Garden Theater.

The silent movie "White Hands," produced at San Mateo's own Pacific Studios, made its world premiere at the Garden Theater in 1921. Of the half a dozen or so films shot at Pacific Studios, "White Hands" became the best known, starring veteran silent film star Hobart Bosworth. Bosworth had starred in films with such Hollywood luminaries as Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

Much of the film had been shot at local landmarks such as Coyote Point and Ocean Beach in San Francisco. When "White Hands" appeared at the Garden Theater, many believed San Mateo had a chance to become the Hollywood of northern California. It never happened. Pacific Studios failed, closing its doors in 1927. The Garden Theater itself closed on Oct. 11, 1926.

San Mateo Theater

The San Mateo Theater, completed in 1926 at a cost of about $250,000, opened on July 23, 1925.

Constructed one door east of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel on land once owned by French banker Christian de Guigne, the 1,600-seat theater was developed by a man named R.A. "Doc" Raybould. The interior featured a mystic motif, with Moorish, Egyptian, Arabic and Hindu designs and artifacts.

In its early years, the San Mateo Theater provided a great Saturday night companion to the famous Noah's Arks Restaurant, operated by Noah C. Williams on the corner of A Street (now San Mateo Drive) and Third Avenue from 1924 to 1931. Customers would enjoy a delicious meal in the provocative ambiance of Noah's Ark, then walk a few yards west on Third Avenue for a movie at the San Mateo.

The theater faced renovation in October 1929. Developer Ellis Arkush poured $100,000 into the movie house, bringing new curtains, fresh carpets and modern talking movie equipment to the San Mateo Theater.

A fire in 1933, which destroyed musical instruments, decorations and much of the auditorium, closed the theater for two years. After reopening, the San Mateo continued to operate until the early 1970s, the last time San Mateo had a downtown movie house.

Peninsula Theater

The Peninsula Theater, originally designed for both vaudeville stage shows and silent movies, opened on Oct. 12, 1926. Costing $500,000 to build, the Peninsula stood at 1419 Burlingame Ave. in Burlingame, at the site of the current Fox Mall.

At the time, the Peninsula Theater offered the largest stage between San Francisco and San Jose, with 1,801 seats in a medieval, Spanish motif for its paying customers. The outstanding feature of the theater's interior was the 1,033-pipe Robert Morton Orchestra Organ, which could reportedly imitate all the sounds of a 200-piece orchestra. The outdoor marquee featured a blinking electric sign containing 3,500 light bulbs, the illumination from which could be seen throughout the area at night. The silent film "On Stage," with Norma Shearer, had its premiere at the Peninsula Theater. General admission was 40 cents, 60 cents for the loge seating.

On March 21, 1929, a large portion of the student body of San Mateo Junior College, located at the time on Baldwin Avenue in San Mateo - filled the Peninsula Theater to watch the Movietone News. The newsreel had filmed the annual class "brawl," in which freshman battled sophomores in a 2-foot deep muddy lake, constructed on the college athletic field specifically for the event.

By 1957, the theater had been renamed the Fox Burlingame, encompassed within the chain of Fox Theaters that had opened along the Peninsula. It closed permanently on Sept. 13, 1974, as the age of the multi-screen movie theater moved in. Because the old single screen theaters could not compete with the multiplexes for first-run films, movie houses like the Fox often resigned themselves to offering adult films, the ramifications of which many city officials feared.

Encore Theater

Near the corner of California Avenue and Broadway in the city of Burlingame stood one of the Peninsula's most extravagant movie theaters. The Encore Theater, built in 1927 by Charles Petersen, opened in 1930. Its Mediterranean interior featured red velvet carpet and drapes and luxurious tapestries along the walls of the auditorium. Three huge crystal chandeliers illuminated the 600-seat auditorium.

The Encore continued operation until it closed in 1972. In 1994, the building housed the American Gnostic Church, until the structure met the wrecking ball in 1998.

Baywood Theater

Billed as the finest movie house in the county, the Baywood Theater opened to great anticipation on Aug. 20, 1931. Located at B Street near Third Avenue, at a store front last occupied by Thrifty Drug Store, the Baywood advertised its films on a silver and black marquee, boasting of a "magnoscope screen."

The Baywood offered 1,080 seats, including 180 deeply cushioned, arm chair loges. Customers reportedly packed all of the theater's seats for its first billing, "Reaching for the Moon" with Douglas Fairbanks. The Baywood reportedly became the movie house of choice for such local luminaries from Hillsborough as A.P. Giannini of the Bank of America and William H. Crocker. The Baywood Theater closed on April 26, 1953.

Millbrae Theater

Construction of the Millbrae Theater began in 1947, completed two years later at a cost of about $400,000. The startling, vertical green sign with 6-foot red neon block letters spelling out "Millbrae," has remained what has been called the last landmark in Millbrae. The theater closed its doors in 1991, converting to a Hollywood Video store in 1995. The Millbrae sign, however, still marks the southern entrance to the city.

This art-deco movie house featured a multi-colored tile foyer with glass ticket booth, from which the vendor would greet the excited entertainment seekers. The lobby had a high ceiling with pertinent wall decorations.

The original auditorium sat nearly 1,000 viewers, offering loge seating high up in the balcony. Local resident Jim Edwards became the theater's first manager. When United Artists purchased the Millbrae in 1985, the one large auditorium was split for three screens. The age of the single screen movie house was over.

The first film to ever appear at the Millbrae Theater did so on July 14, 1949. "It Happens Every Spring," starring Ray Milland and Jean Peters, was accompanied by a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon called Bowery Bugs.

- Next Monday: San Mateo to San Carlos

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