| The Palo Alto History Project |
| The Stanford Theatre 221 University Avenue |
| The Stanford Theatre: As Time Goes By For a time it seemed that the Stanford Theatre --- Palo Alto’s oldest and grandest movie house --- would suffer the unfortunate fate of most single-screen theatres of yesteryear. As cable and color television, VCRs and year-round TV sports lured people to stay home on Friday and Saturday nights --- and big screen multiplexes opened within a short freeway drive --- the Stanford began to sink ever further down the cinematic food chain, eventually showing second-run Hollywood action flicks while continuously poised on the verge of being eaten up by shops and restaurants. But thanks to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the zeal of the billionaire’s movie-buff son, David Woodley Packard, the story of the Stanford has a happy ending after all. It just goes to show what $8 million can do. But no matter how high the price tag for the theatre’s restoration and operation, today the Stanford is one of Palo Alto’s treasures, sending lines of patrons around the block for “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane” and the annual Christmas Eve showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Indeed, it’s the Stanford that gives Palo Alto the same kind of small-town charm that inspired George Bailey to run down Main Street calling out hellos to Bedford Falls. The Stanford --- or “New Stanford” as it was then known --- was built in 1925 for $300,000, replacing its predecessor at 215 University as part of the Peninsula Theatre Company chain. It was immediately billed in the local papers as “The pride of the Peninsula…the last word in theatre construction.” As one of the finest theatres in California in its early years, it featured the most modern amenities of the day. A “mushroom” ventilation system allowed for even temperature control throughout the theatre, a “remote control” switchboard system operated the lights and curtain from the projection booth and the theatre claimed an enormous seating capacity of 1,443. And that’s about how many came on the evening of June 9th, 1925 when the Stanford opened with a showing of comedian Reginald Denny’s “I’ll Show You the Town,” as well as an appearance by the star himself and an address by the mayor. The Stanford also hosted “high-class vaudeville” acts in its early days, giving Palo Alto a venue for popular culture during the Depression. For the next four decades, the Stanford would be the place to see local premieres of such classics as “The Philadelphia Story,” “Gone with the Wind” and “Rear Window” --- along with the requisite Fox Movietone News and Mickey Mouse “talkartoons” But by the late 1960s, the Stanford was no longer drawing the big crowds. For a time, it became a performing arts theatre, hosting off-off Broadways as well as classic musicals like “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific” and fading pop acts like Tower of Power. But such experiments soon led to financial disaster and it all ended up with a “For Sale” sign up on the marquee. By the early 1980s, the Stanford was playing movies again, but of a second-run variety. You could see Hollywood blockbusters months after their release. And if you were willing to put up with Stanford’s peeling paint and rusted seats, you could get in for 50 cents, a dime less than the price of a film when the theatre first opened nearly six decades earlier. But just as it looked as if the Stanford’s days were numbered, a white knight came forth in the person of David Woodley Packard. Although the UNC classics professor and billionaire’s son had not been interested in film until the age of 35 when a friend took him to see the “Wizard of Oz,” Packard had since developed a nearly fanatical passion for the fate of old movies. In 1987 he rented out the Stanford for a week to serenade friends with a fortnight of Fred Astaire pictures. The results were phenomenal. More than a 1,000 people lined up each night to see Fred and Ginger dance cheek to cheek. Packard began to flirt with the idea of buying the Stanford and when his old man came by and saw the crowds, the elder Packard gave his assent to the plan. David threw himself into the restoration project. Using old photographs and company file notes, he and his crew were able to reconstruct the Stanford’s glory days. Back were the original Greek-Assyrian paintings on the theatre’s 50 foot-high ceiling. Also restored were the handmade stair tiles, seven chandeliers, stage pillars urns and the theatre’s piece de resistance --- the Mighty Wurlitzer organ that ascends and descends into the orchestra pit. Even the theatre’s original snack bar and ticket booth were replicated with complete accuracy. In the end, it took less time (and a lot less money) to build the theatre in the first place than to do the painstaking restoration. In the years since, the Stanford has become a place where classics are both shown and saved. Packard has close ties to the UCLA film archive, maintaining his own preservation lab on the UCLA grounds. There he has helped convert --- at $10,000 a head --- many films whose only prints were previously on unstable and highly flammable nitrate stock. Such films have often had their new prints premiered at the Stanford. Still, sometimes Packard’s love for the old cinema can impair his sense of what will turn a profit. After all, it’s probably only the die-hard classics fans who are lining up to for tickets to Harold Lloyd film festivals. But Packard was correct in predicting that there was a stable audience in town for Hollywood’s Golden Age --- and not just among blue haired set. More people saw the 50th anniversary re-release of Casablanca at the Stanford than anywhere else in the country and the theater has accounted for a remarkable 25 percent of the nationwide attendance of classic films over the last decade. And for the local movie aficionado, it is a distinct pleasure to have a place in town where you can rock back in a red wool mohair seat, dig into a box of popcorn and follow the Yellow Brick Road. -Matt Bowling |
| Sources: Palo Alto Historical Association, Palo Alto Weekly |
| Inside the Stanford today |
| Organist Bill Taylor poses by the Mighty Wurlitzer |
| Palo Alto: Then & Now |
1925 |
| 2007 |
| The inside of the Stanford main foyer in its early days. Note the chandeliers and intricate tiles on the great staircase. (PAHA) |
| At left is the Stanford Theatre on the day it opened in 1925 showing Reginald Denny's "I'll Show You the Town." The old sign and marquee did not return as part of the restoration in 1989, but the old ticket booth did. Two late '50s films play on a Saturday night in 2007. At right is the new movie memorabilia museum that Packard has opened next door. |
| University Avenue days before the Stanford's grand opening. (PAHA) |
| Inside the Stanford in all its renovated glory. (PAHA) |
| Changing of the marquee |
| A sketch of David Woodley Packard |
| Casablanca is one of the Stanford's best attended classics |
| The Stanford's savior |
| ET for a couple of quarters |
| Casablanca is one of the Stanford's best attended classics |
| Packard at the Stanford. (PAHA) |
| A Stanford ad from the early days. (PA Times) |
| A map of the Western side of Downtown Palo Alto, where the Stanford Theatre is located. Zoom in and out with the + and - symbols in the top left corner of the map... |
| "When I was in high school and one night a year the fraternity boys would walk down University wearing their pajamas to the movie theatre. And they would just show up there and watch the movie wearing their pajamas. People thought that was very funny!" -Kim |
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