History
Opened in 1917 as a first run theater, the 1,300-seat theater was acquired in 1974 by theater owner Gary Meyer as one of the first theaters—along with the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles—in his Landmark Theatres chain. The theater was named after, but had no relation to, the nearby University of California, Berkeley. The theater under Meyer showed older films, in double or triple features, generally for a single night, but sometimes for a week at a time. Along with the Rialto in Albany and the Telegraph and Northside theaters in Berkeley, it was one of the main venues in the East Bay for showing both domestic and foreign film classics.
The theater closed in March 2001 when Landmark—no longer owned by Meyer—made the decision to close the theater rather than spend the reported $350,000 needed for a seismic upgrade. The theater was named a landmark by the City of Berkeley on 6 May 2002. As of early 2006, plans to convert the theater to a jazz club have been submitted to the City of Berkeley. A plan to convert it into a musical venue were proposed in 2009.
Read more about this topic: UC Theater
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