Being the hub brought with it wealth, culture and the arts. To showcase the arts there was built a theater. Now known as the Phoenix Theater, many changes and incarnations were in store for this once and again venue.
Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater has a century of colorful and varied history. From opera house to movie theater to rock and roll venue and teen center, the Phoenix has repeatedly emerged from the ashes, recreating itself as a valuable community resource.
The Phoenix began as a rare old bird—a small town opera house. Opened in 1905 as the Hill Opera House, its stage was graced by the likes of Harry Houdini, Enrico Caruso, and Lily Langtree. It was nearly destroyed by a fire in the early 1900s. Consequently, the theater had to be shut down. By 1935, it had been restored and opened as a movie theater. The building was purchased by California Movie Theater around 1935 and was continued to be used as such.
On August 5, 1957, another fire this time taking the roof of the building. The building was restored and renamed the Showcase Theater by the Tocchini family and soon after, a live concert was put on at the theater by Petaluma native, Jeff Dorenfeld.
The Tocchinis employed a boy named Tom Gaffy, who managed to be rehired by Ken Frankel after his purchase of the building, became the theater manager and renamed the building The Phoenix because it seemd to always rise from the ashes.
In the early 1980s, movies continued to be shown at the theater and live music was played late at night. There were performances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Ramones, I even saw The Grateful Dead under the name Jerry Garcia and Friends one night. Along with then-local bands Metalica, Green Day, and Primus the fans kept coming.
In the late 1990s, despite public opposition, its landlord announced plans to sell the Phoenix Theater for demolition and reconstruction as an office building. The sale was in escro when four employees from Cerent Corporation, whom were all musicians and two of which were former Phoenix Theater frequenters, intervened and took over the escrow. With other leading local citizens, they established the non-profit Petaluma Phoenix Center, Inc, to not only own The Phoenix Theater, but preserve and expand the services the Phoenix provides to its community. These services include, but are not limited to, a free weekly health clinic for teens, free music and art programs, even an informal job mentoring program (for the past 20 years, most of the Phoenix staff has been teenagers and young adults).
A Sonoma County artist who got his start painting the walls of the Pheonix has embarked on an ambitious project to paint the largest mural in Petaluma’s history.
The five-story tall multi-color mural on the theater’s southern wall (facing Western Avenue) is a sort of homecoming for 32-year-old Ricky Watts, who credits the popular teen hang out for orienting him toward a career in the arts.
Did you know it is also HAUNTED! Stay "tooned"
Thanks to Wikipedia for well you know...
No comments:
Post a Comment