Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Vallejo's Movie Palaces


The Hanlon Theater at 414 Virginia Street was built in 1920 and was one of Vallejo’s most popular movie theaters for nearly 35 years. In this 1949 photo, the Hanlon featured the Oscar winning WWII classic Battleground, starring Van Johnson. The Hanlon Theater later closed after a fire and the building was then used as a warehouse. Eventually the building was torn down and replaced by a parking lot.

Vallejo movie palaces opened and closed and underwent frequent name changes over the years. In addition to the Hanlon, other movie houses in Vallejo included the Marval, the Fox Senator, the Victory, the Rita, the Empress, the El Rey, the Valmar, and the Strand. All of Vallejo’s downtown movie theaters are long gone, with the exception of the historic Empress Theater, built in 1911 and recently renovated.

1 comment:

  1. A little more information: The other theatre's that are missing from your list are the Fox Studio, was located on Sonoma blvd. and Kentucky st., The Avalon which later became the Fox Marvel ten the Crown theatre. Others would be the Bell which was the first theatre of Peter J. Hanlon who opened it with 2 other associates before promoting the Stand and the Virgina theatre (became the Hanlon), Star theatre, Rex theatre, Rialto theatre and the Novelity theatre. One of these theatres was located on the same block as where the Vallejo Museum is today. The original Rita theatre was also located on Georgia st. and 14th st., across I/40 from the Barrel Club back then, it was William Syufy first theatre that he took over back in 1940.

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