Peninsula Theatre

The Peninsula Theatre was a movie palace in Burlingame, California, that ran from 1926 to 1974. In 1957, the name was changed to Fox Burlingame. The theater was shuttered in 1974 and demolished in 1975 to make way for a shopping mall.

History

The Peninsula Theatre was located at 1415 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame, California. It opened October 12, 1926 – toward the end of the silent film era. It was the sixth of a chain of theaters operated by The Peninsula Theaters Corporation and was intended to replace the Garden Burlingame. The other five were all located on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Design and construction was commissioned by Peninsula Theatres Corporation doing business as Ellis J. Arkush Entertainment, a privately held California enterprise headed by Ellis J. Arkush, his brother, Frank Arkush, and an attorney, Eph Karelsen.
On December 28, 1925, prior to opening the Peninsula Theatre, Ellis J. Arkush sold a 50% interest, billed as a million dollar merger, in all his theaters, to West Coast Theatres, Inc., which, then, was the largest cinema theater company in the western North America. But Ellis, under the auspices of Peninsula Theatres Corporation, retained active management of the Peninsula Theatre. Policy and direction of the other theaters were assigned to Archie M. Bowles , General Manager of the Northern Branch of West Coast Theatres.
The opening on October 12, 1926, premiered the silent film, Upstage, and included an appearance by comedian Charley Chase. Also, the $50,000 Robert-Morton theater organ was played by Elbert La Chelle , pronounced "la shell," and Elmer Vincent . Milt Franklyn and his nine-piece band was the founding house band.
The Peninsula Theatre hosted vaudeville on Saturday nights.
An audience of about 250 attended Fox Burlingame's final showing, a double-feature – Chinatown and The New Centurions — Saturday, September 14, 1974. Beverly Brehmer was the theater manager.

Peninsula Theatres Corporation

Peninsula Theatres Corporation doing business as Ellis J. Arkush Entertainment, a privately held California enterprise headed by Ellis J. Arkush, his brother, Frank Arkush, and an attorney, Eph Karelsen.

Original theater (1926)

1927

The Peninsula Theatre was originally designed for both vaudeville stage shows and silent movies. Construction and development outlay was Weeks & Day were the architects. The original Peninsula Theatre had 2,000 seats and was ornately Spanish baroque in style, featuring staircases in the lobby ascending between pillars inset with mosaic-like panels depicting animals.

Theater organ

Make

Robert Morton Organ Company of San Francisco and New York
Opus

Only the third of its type and size to be installed in a Pacific Coast theater.
Pipes

A thousand thirty-three pipes capable of producing orchestral instrument sounds that included the tuba, English horn, concert flute, viola, violin, kinura, oboe, clarinet, and bass violin. For accompaniment music, the organ had diapason tibia plena, voix céleste, and vox humana – for the human voice. It also had a harp marimba, chrysoglott harp, orchestral bells, glockenspiel, chimes, xylophone, bass drum, tympani, cymbal, crash cymbal, snare drum, tom tom, castanets, tambourine, triangle, and sleigh bells.

Console

Solid mahogany 3-manual and pedal console
13 ranks
153 stops in the stoprail
Manual compass is 61 keys
Pedal compass had 32 notes
Possibly a "Carlsted" console, named for Morton's head draftsman, Paul Simon Carlsted

Mechanical

Electro-pneumatic action with individual expression shutters controlled various shadings
More than 1,500 electromagnets operated the valve mechanism

Power

Centrifugal blower driven by a 10-horsepower motor, voiced on 15-inch wind pressure
A 70-ampere, 10-volt generator, driven by a 2-horsepower provided the voltage for the magnets that operate the valve mechanism
A special 24-inch vacuum blower, powered by a 1-horsepower motor, supplied the exhaust air for the piano mechanism
All motors were controlled by switches from the console

Piano

A piano, placed in a separate compartment in the orchestra pit, was also controlled from the console

Installation engineer

Leo F. Schoenstein , under the auspices of Schoenstein & Co. of San Francisco – technician for the Morgan Organ Company – personally directed the installation.

Current status

Dismantled and dispersed ; was in possession of Dale Merrill Haskin, a collector of theater organs, late of Portland, Oregon, who also owned the San Francisco Orpheum organ. Much of Haskin's collection is now with the Columbia River Theatre Organ Society of Portland.

Housing for the organ pipes

The auditorium featured a massive plasterwork proscenium, and was flanked on both sides with arched organ fronts for the expression chambers.

Theater renovation (1957)

In 1957, Fox West Coast Theatres, then the owners, spent $100,000 renovating the theater, this time 1808 seats and was reopened with an extravagant ceremony on the evening of August 16, 1957, and henceforth was named the Fox Burlingame. For many years, the theatre's roof featured a two-sided lightbulb sign, with incandescent fireworks, similar to that which still survives atop the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland. The Fox Burlingame Theater closed September 14, 1974, and was demolished the following year to make way for the Fox Mall, a shopping center developed by two investors – Mario Castro and Joseph Karp. The Fox Mall was built and dedicated in 1979.

Ownership

Ellis John Arkush, a native of New York and 1910 graduate of Columbia University, entered the theater business in Redwood City in 1914 where he built the Sequoia Theater. He added the Variety and Stanford Theatres in Palo Alto, the Peninsula Theatre, and the San Mateo Theatre in San Mateo. Ellis Arkush was the president of Peninsula Theatres Corporation. The entire chain was sold in 1929 to Fox West Coast Theatres.

Selected personnel

Management

Peninsula Theatres Corporation dba Ellis J. Arkush Entertainment

Ellis John Arkush, President of Peninsula Theatres Corporation, also brother of Frank
Frank Ephriam Arkush, brother of Ellis
Eph Karelsen , attorney and Arkush's maternal cousin
Ray Kelsall , founding business manager who, before had been manager of the Garden Theatre. He had a staff of 22 – including

Fox West Coast Theatres

"Billie" Tannehill , theater manager in Burlingame from about 1955 to 1967. He later managed the Century 21 Theatre in San Jose, which opened in 1963 and closed in 2014. He was survived by his wife, Marlene Grace Murphy, and three children. Tannehill started managing theaters in the late 1940s, after serving in the Navy during World War II. He managed theaters for Fox West Coast, Mann Theatres, and finished his career with Century Theatres, spending the last 17 years at Century 21.
Ward Stoopes , a theater manager in the San Francisco area who began his career at Fox Burlingame
Beverly Brehmer '', manager at the Fox Burlingame when it closed September 14, 1974, had worked for Fox West Coast Theatres since the late 1950s

Entertainers

Milt Franklyn ''

Photo links

Photos from the Los Angeles Public Library, all dated 1945:

LAPL00071370
LAPL00071371
LAPL00071372
LAPL00071373
LAPL00071374
LAPL00071375
LAPL00071376
, San Francisco Chronicle file photo

Projection equipment

In the beginning of 1929, the Peninsula was operating two 35 mm Fulco projectors, Ernemann design, manufactured by E.E. Fulton Company of Chicago – Carl Henry Fulton, President and son of the firms namesake, Elmer E. Fulton.

Miscellaneous

The Golden State Theatre houses a number of items saved from other theaters, which happened to match items which were missing, including one stained glass exit sign from the Peninsula Theatre.