This page is for The Parkway Theater (original/historic). Looking for The New Parkway?
The Parkway Theater is a local landmark, a 1920s-era movie hall at 1834 Park Blvd. In the Reagan years it was a great, cheap place to watch horror flicks and hear the (predominately black) audience loudly cheering … for Jason, Chucky, or the Leprechaun! Years later, it became more family-friendly and offered more of a pizza-and-beer environment.
The Parkway first opened in September, 1925. It closed in 2009 after a string of disputes with the theater’s landlord and a failed expansion that led the Parkway’s initial owners to briefly open a second theater in El Cerrito.
But the theater found a new location, and has been reborn. Managed by New Parkway Entertainment LLC, a group of 56 investors, the new theater continues the same concepts that made the original Parkway’s last incarnation so popular with the community: cheaper tickets, second-run features, couch seating and food and beer brought out to patrons. (See The New Parkway for more info.)
Photos
Dennis Evanosky’s site has a nice c. 1920 photo of the place.
Links and References
- Museum of Performance + Design, Performing Arts Library
- ohrphoto.oaktheaters.043 Oakland History Center, Oakland Public Library
- Picture Pub Pizza - Proof! East Bay Express July 22, 2009