Phoenix Theater - History

History

The Phoenix Theater first opened in 1905 as the Hill Opera House. Although the theater had good business, and many famous acts of the day performed there (Harry Houdini, Enrico Caruso, and Lily Langtree, etc.), 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 took the roof of the building. The building was restored and renamed the Showcase Theater by the Tocchini family and soon after, the first live concert was put on at the theater by Petaluma native, Jeff Dorenfeld. The Tocchinis employed a boy named Tom Gaffey, who managed to get rehired by Ken Frankel after Ken bought the theater in 1982. Gaffey was then the theater manager. He renamed the theater the Phoenix because the building seemed to ‘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 and The Ramones, along with then-local bands Metallica, Farallon, Mr. Bungle, Green Day, and Primus. Other bands like Victims Family, The Conspiracy, Disciples of Ed, the Circle Jerks and The Distillers drew audiences. Sublime played their last show at The Phoenix, and a memorial to lead singer, Bradley Nowell, can be found backstage, tagged on a wall by the Long Beach Dub Allstars. Sir Mix-a-Lot played at The Phoenix, as did The Specials. To this day, the Phoenix continues to bring in established artists as well as local favorites such as Resilience, The Velvet Teen, and Toast Machine.

In the late 1990s, its landlord announced plans to sell the Phoenix Theater for demolition and reconstruction as an office building, despite public opposition. The sale was in escrow 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).