Beyond Sans Souci: Let Us Now Praise Oakland's American Paramount & Parkway Theaters In Classical WETA-FM CEO Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Hometown

The Paramount Theatre of the Arts and Parkway Theaters in Oakland, California; homes to American classical music (unlike Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital) and American movies.

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"The curtain may rise again on Oakland's beloved Parkway Theater, the kitschy movie palace that provided couches, beer, pizza and B-movies to an eclectic swath of East Bay cinephiles.

A Midwestern group of investors has submitted an offer to the landlords to take over the 1926 theater, which closed in March after the previous proprietors ran into financial problems due to the recession.

"I'm feeling great about this," said longtime Parkway fan Peter Prato, organizer of a group of about 7,000 called I Love the Parkway, formed after the theater closed as an effort to resurrect the Lake Merritt landmark. "So far, this seems to be exactly what we're looking for."

The investors are part of an umbrella group of Midwestern movie theater chains called Motion Picture Heritage, based in Indiana and dedicated to preserving independent community movie houses. The Parkway would be its first venue on the West Coast.

"The hopes and aspirations of Americana are not found in multiplexes," said Motion Picture Heritage manager Bill Dever." ...

Carolyn Jones “Midwestern bid to take over Oakland's Parkway” San Francisco Chronicle May 28, 2008

UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

Sans Souci

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Photo credits: (c) Philip Greenspun 2009 and (c) Kim Komenich and the San Francisco Chronicle 2009. Copyright controlled.