Cerrito Theater Celebrating 75th Birthday

A notable local opening took place 75 years ago on Christmas Day. It was the debut of what one paper at the time termed "El Cerrito's first motion picture palace."

Uniformed ushers guided patrons to their seats. On Wednesday nights, as recorded in the El Cerrito Review, "every lady attending the theater" could receive a piece of "the famous Harker Petit Point Hot Ovenware." 

That art deco movie house, the Cerrito Theater, thrived for many years and later closed in 1960s, becoming almost forgotten when its exterior markings were erased and it was converted into a warehouse for Keifer's furniture.

When Kiefer's decided to sell the building in 2001, freelance writer Dave Weinstein, who's also vice president of the El Cerrito Historical Society, sought to raise community awareness of the building's significance and the still largely intact murals inside and other interior elements.

A community group called Friends of the Cerrito Theater formed and mounted a sustained fundraising and lobbying campaign that, with the eventual support of the city's Redevelopment Agency, led to the theater's restoration and resurrection on Nov. 1, 2006.

And now the theater, which is part of the Rialto Theaters group, and the Friends of the Cerrito Theater are holding a 75th birthday party this Thursday, Dec. 13. The main attraction is a showing of Frank Capra's award-winning You Can't Take It With You.

The theater's website says the 7 p.m. program and film are sold out. The brief program is to include remarks by Weinstein and will be preceded by live music from the band "Any Reason." 

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly reported that an afternoon screening of  You Can't Take It With You would be shown. The evening show is the only one. The article has been corrected.