About Me
The announcement of the UC Theatre was made in the October, 1916 issue of Architect & Engineer magazine. The owners were given as Messrs. Bradshaw and Williamson. The projected cost of the theatre was $100,000. The architect was James W. Plachek. A Fox Theatre at the time, the grand opening was on Friday June 30th 1917. The first program was offered at 10 cents and featured the film "Wolf Lowry". The program also featured a "Burton Holmes Travelogue", a "Heart Newsreel" also a "Pathe-Hearst Newsreel" and a "Bray Pictograph". The Theatre was equipped with the then state of the art "Voglesong Pay-as-you-enter system", which was a token/turnstile operation. The program began at 7:15, with the doors opening "an hour or more" before the program began. Although the seat number remains disputed, it sat in excess of 1300. The opening weekend also featured nightly songs sung by Cletus Howell, member of the University of California glee club, and rather popular around town. Coming attractions advertised at the time included the "Return of Fatty Arbuckle...to the loving public of Berkeley." in "The Rough House" and "Selznick features". There was also mention made of the "Pictographs of the popular writer Rex Beach"It was the Third Movie theatre in Berkeley. Behind the now gone Berkeley Theatre and the T&D Theatre at Kittridge and Shattuck ave. (Now the UA)The UC chugged along as a Fox Theatre, until the early morning hours of Saturday March 13 1943, after playing a double bill of "The Glass Key" and "Manila Calling". It was thought a discarded cigarette started the two alarm fire that ravaged the auditorium, and sent four firemen to the hospital. The cost of the fire ended up topping $40,000.
A few months later (date unknown) the UC Theatre held a "Gala Grand Openeing" with a double bill of "My Friend Flicka" and "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday". At some point over the next couple of decades the UC Theatre was sold to Mann Theatres. By mid 1970's, the UC Theatre was run down and dark.
Then Gary Meyer reopened the theatre on April 1st 1975, and it became the first theatre to be operated by Landmark Theatres (not the Nuart, as the Landmark now claims). The Rocky Horror began playing every Saturday night at midnight very soon after its initial release.
(Gary Meyer claims that RHPS started on September 24th 1977, but the long time projectionist remembers it selling out its first halloween show in 1976, and had been playing for close to a year at that date.) Until RHPS ended its run at the UC Theatre on January 2nd 1999, it was regarded as the longest running engagment of the film in the world. (This was in newsweek in December 1999, but every long running engagment of RHPS claims to be the oldest.) During most of the Gary Meyer/Landmark theatres days, the format of the UC Theatre remained as cutting edge daily double bills. The occasional overnight film festivals and other inventive special events were commonplace on the quarterly calander. The UC Theatre closed on March 29th 2001. It was reported that the cost of the Earthquake Retrofit was the underlying reason behind the UC Theatre's closing, but that is not correct. The truth behind the demise of the UC Theatre is that the people who had bought Landmark Theatres didn't want a rep house, they wanted boring yet profitable grindhouses. The UC Theatre is now being converted into a very large jazz club.On April 11th 1980, to fullfill a bet he made with fledgling director Errol Morris, Werner Herzog ate his shoe live on stage at the UC Theatre. (Herzog cooked his shoe under the guidance of Alice Waters.) Local documentary guru Les Blank filmed the affair, and its varied processes. It's called "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" . (It's included as an extra on the Criterion Collection's dvd of "Burden of Dreams" and highly recommended! Check it out under "television" on this profile!)When the UC closed the seat count was 1313.The UC Theatre can also be seen in the 1971 concert film "Jimi Plays Berkeley", during the heated argument between the long hairs and the blue collar guys is in front of the theatre. There was also some "Jimi Plays Berkeley" vandalism to the theatre's poster cases, which should still be there. (It was there in 2000.)
