When the Strand opened, admission was 10 cents for adults, 5 cents for children. A BAHA report noted that both the Strand and the Alameda shared a heavy geometric cement detailing that “suggest a variation on the Viennese secessionist style that John Hudson Thomas was working in locally at the same time.” Cornelius, also designed the California and the Alameda theaters. ![]() The Strand was designed in an architectural style that has simultaneously been described as Art Nouveau and Beaux Arts. With about 423 seats, the Strand was about half the size of the downtown theaters. ![]() The theater did not advertise in the daily newspapers, hoping to draw a more regional crowd, and instead used leaflets and its marquee to announce its offerings, Willes said. To that end, Beach & Krahn promised that “every foot of film has had personal inspection & censorship before being shown.” ![]() “Neighborhood theaters catered to the family, needed the goodwill of the inhabitants of the neighborhood and had to maintain a service of the highest sort.” The Strand’s owners, Beach & Krahn, “believed neighborhood theaters had a responsibility to the community, to provide clean quality family entertainments,” according to a report on historic structures prepared by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association in the 1970s. He’s also the author of a book about the neighborhood, Tales from the Elmwood: A Community Memory, published by the Berkeley Historical Society in 2001.Īn invitational event at the theater in 1947. “The Strand was different because it was supposed to be a family-type, community-supported theater,” said Burl Willes, a former Elmwood merchant who was instrumental in the fight to save the theater. The California Theater on Kittredge Street opened during the same year. When it opened as the Strand in 1914, it was a small neighborhood theater, one of the Elmwood’s first commercial structures. Unlike the Regal, the Elmwood was never a palatial architectural treasure. A family-friendly, neighborhood place An early image of the Strand Theatre, the precursor to the Elmwood, shortly after it opened in 1914. “We just want this theater to survive,” he said. Salk said he is lobbying Elmwood merchants and residents to support Rialto’s application, the latest attempt to drum up more community support for the theater. The foundation is also exploring other initiatives to sustain the theater. “Suffice it to say, we’re doing everything we can to help the theater exist,” said David Salk, the longtime president of the Elmwood Theater Foundation, a nonprofit that has owned the building since 1991 and works closely with Rialto. The Berkeley City Council will consider the application at its May 11 meeting. Rialto Cinemas has applied to the City Council for a beer-and-wine license for its concession stand, which it hopes will increase revenues and keep the lights on. Now the theater is again turning to the community - and the city - for another lifeline. Unlike the city’s larger commercial theaters that have recently gone dark, the Elmwood started as a community theater, and it was the Elmwood community that stopped it 30 years ago from being converted into shops. ![]() As a result, the theater is down to 65% of its pre-pandemic capacity and operating at a loss, according to its current operator. Like many movie theaters, the Rialto has seen its attendance dwindle as movie-goers shifted to the convenience of streaming films in the comfort of their own homes, one of the main reasons 2,000 theaters across the country shuttered during the pandemic. Yet the 109-year-old city landmark is struggling nevertheless. Unlike the Regal, which is slated to be turned into 293 apartments, the Elmwood is not under the threat of development - it’s already survived a fire, damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake a year later and a plan to convert it to stores. With the February closure of downtown’s UA Regal Cinemas, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood now bears the distinction of being the last remaining commercial movie house in Berkeley.
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