1973, THE ALHAMBRA THEATER DEMOLITION, SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- This film was digitized from 8mm but it was worth getting these last views of the Alhambra Theater before she was demolished.
The Alhambra Theater was once known as the ‘Showplace of Sacramento’, where guest would enter the theater through a beautiful garden area with fountains. Sometime after the theater was built 31st was renamed Alhambra Boulevard after what was the grandest theatre in the capital city. The Alhambra Theatre was opened September 23, 1927 and its first show stared Rod LaRocque in “The Fighting Eagle”. The 1927 sound system was a Robert Morton unit 11 ranks organ.
The Alhambra Theatre was closed September 4, 1972. The movies “A Man For All Seasons” and “Nicholas and Alexandra” played a double feature. In 1973 what was without argument the grandest theater in Sacramento and a historical landmark was raised and a grand new Safeway grocery store took its place. The only thing left are a fountain and plaque in the parking lot or film like this.
@1:22 This water fountain still stands today. Although the Theater was demolished in 1973 for a Safeway grocery store (still there), the water fountain was kept in dedication to the Theater that once stood there.
E. M. Mihal, you've done it again. The Alhambra Theater. I joined a group from SCC to do phone canvassing, looking for money to keep that theater alive and going. The very first movies that I saw were there: One of those, I do not recall the title to. It was about Ghandi, in South Africa, heading to India. The better part of the movie was Ghandi on a train while someone was trying to carry out an assassination of him. The second movie (this was back in the day when there were double features) "Boy On A Dolphin." I fell asleep during this film, during the part where Sophia Loren sang that song, "S'agapo, s'agapo s'agapo." My mother was singing it too as I drifted off. When I left Sacramento, there was a Safeway Supermarket there in that lot.
Thank you I’m happy you found it. You should look at the playlist I have dedicated to Sacramento related and vicinity films. One day I will make a few slideshows from some of Sac related photos and negatives I’ve collected over the years. I never had the opportunity to attend a film at the Alhambra but in my opinion the destruction of the Alhambra was a crime. The Safeway is still there.
@@OfficeofImageArchaeology I'm subscribing to your account. If you post anything to do with Sacramento before 1980 (the year that I left to attend school at the University of Minnesota), I'll be all over it and, after seeing what I've seen so far, I'll love it. Thank you for what you've done.
@@thewickedwitchofthewest6575 You made my day, your very welcome. I have a passion for history and it’s preservation but sharing it with folks like you makes it really special. Merry Christmas
Thank you for the images.
I remember people racing to retrieve the seats
I worked at a business a few blocks from the Alhambra Theatre in the 1970's. Remember all too well, the "Save the Old Alhambra Theatre" drive. About as smart as attempting to tear down Hearst Castle. California Voters! All too often don't know or understand what they are voting for or voting against. The Alhambra Theatre was one of the beautiful historical landmarks of Sacramento. How shameful that it was demolished!
It appears that this theatre put up quite a fight during the demolition. A mighty but sad tribute to the quality of the past.
I have just found out about this movie theatre that used to be in downtown Sacramento where they now have a Safeway there instead. I’ve been to that Safeway so many times and just realized today that it is on the grounds where they had this theatre. It would have been much better if they left this instead of building the Safeway. Sad to see so much history just demolished for “progress.”
It is a sad day when city leaders could care less about the cities history. Thank you for watching
God bless America!
I lived there then
Devastating
Totally devastating
So wrong, so sad. Wish I had seen it and been inside it. Safeway store in it's place, 😢
Thanks much George. That was a good look at it. I don't remember getting to see it firsthand.
Safeway....wasn't it.
Devastating
Yes it was Safeway and I agree.
Jim Lane Yes, Matías, this is my footage, every frame of it, though I have no idea who or what the “Office of Image Archaeology” is. For actually manning my camera on-site, credit must go to my late friend Vince Kohler.
As for whether a downtown location might have saved the Alhambra - tell that to the Fox Senator, the Encore, the Lincoln/Showcase, the Times/Star, the World, the Del Rio, the J Street, and the Esquire (today’s IMAX saved only the facade; every square inch of the interior is gone; the Fox Senator facade is likewise preserved).
Several years before the Alhambra came down, the people of Columbus, Ohio mounted a successful campaign to preserve the breathtaking Ohio Theatre. It’s a pity that in that pre-Internet age the Save the Alhambra Committee couldn’t profit from Columbus’s know-how. Bottom line is, as Rich Anderson says, the voters of Sacramento had their chance, and they didn’t give a damn. I wonder if those food-throwing hippies even bothered to vote.
Would you please go to my website at Office of Image Archaeology, there is contact info there. I may have something for you.
This was photographed by Jim Lane and we used much of it our documentary "ALHAMBRA: Sacramento's Palace of Fantasy" Where did you get this copy?
The watermark within the clip says “Office of Image Archaeology.”
Wish I could have been. 🙄
All footage in this video is owned by Jim Lane. He owns the copyright. He has NOT given approval to post. I am forwarding this to him and reporting to You Tube.
I have ask him to contact me, your threats are not necessary, or if you are the voice for this gentleman I would tell you the same. Office of Image Archaeology. I will make the film unavailable until we have spoken.
Seems even more vile then for “Office of Image Archaeology” to watermark this as “theirs”.