The El Rey Burlesque Theater
Fifty years ago, three movie theaters existed on the Oakland section of San Pablo Avenue. The Gateway Theater, located at the northeast comer of San Pablo and Stanford Avenues, served the Golden Gate neighborhood. The EI Rey, located at 35th Street and San Pablo near the Emeryville line, attracted patrons from both Emeryville and North Oakland. Nine blocks south at the comer of 27th Street, the Rialto Theater served patrons from the lower San Pablo Avenue district.
The Gateway (1926-1955) and the Rialto (1921-1956) operated as family theaters. The EI Rey, on the other hand, experienced many name changes and transformations during the 30 years of its existence. When it opened in 1927, it was called the Plaza Theater, and it operated as a legitimate theater. By 1930, the Plaza had been converted to a movie theater, though it also sponsored productions staged by traveling shows. The Plaza became the World Theater in 1937, and two years later was renamed the EI Rey, Spanish for “The King.”
In 1939, the new owners of the EI Rey, Paul Aglietti and Herbert Bluechel, spent $50,000 to remodel the building. The renovated theater, which seated an audience of 750, continued to feature family-oriented movies and stage productions, and showed only popular movies less than three years old. In an effort to attract patrons, the theater held sweepstakes drawings every night and offered free merchandise every Saturday night. In 1939, admission was only 10 cents for children and 20 cents for adults.
A Motley New Crowd
The San Pablo Avenue commercial strip changed during World War II: a large number of soldiers, sailors, defense workers, and truck drivers, as well as an assortment of low-life characters, congregated there during the 1940s. Numerous bars, card rooms, and restaurants along San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville and Oakland opened to cater to this motley crowd. By the late 1940s, the San Pablo Avenue business strip had deteriorated into a honky tonk district where young, restless men sought adult entertainment and nocturnal activities. A family movie theater could not survive in this environment. In order to attract a new audience, the EI Rey briefly operated as an art and music theater.
In January 1949 the EI Rey, responding to the change in the neighborhood, became a burlesque theater under the management of Peter DeCenzie. The new EI Rey, according to contemporary ads, “glorified femininity from around the world,” featuring “girlie” stars from both the American and European stage. The EI Rey Burlesque scheduled three strip shows daily (3:15, 7:30, & 10:30 p.m.), a special midnight show on Saturday, and a complete new show every Friday. The program also included comics, strip movies, and a pit band. For those bored with the stage show, peep show movies provided additional entertainment.
Queen of the Strippers
Tempest Storm (born Annie Blanche Banks)—the superstar of burlesque—performed early in her career (1955-1957) at the EI Rey. She became “the best-known luminary of the EI Rey alumna.” When she danced at the EI Rey, her name alone appeared on the marquee, and as the star attraction her salary was increased to $2,000 a week. Because of Storm’s G-string artistry, the EI Rey acquired a world-famous reputation. According to newspaper reports, patrons came from as far away as Europe and the Middle East to ogle the queen of burlesque. Having put the EI Rey on the map, Storm went on to greater fame, performing in Las Vegas and, on March 23, 1973, at Carnegie Hall in New York. The Oakland Police periodically raided the EI Rey, but it was not the police that shut down this institution. In 1957, the MacArthur Freeway smashed through Oakland. The EI Rey Theater was in the path of destruction, and the theater was forced to close in July of that year. The 1950s proved to be a fatal decade for other San Pablo Avenue movie theaters as well. The Gateway Theater at 5812 San Pablo Avenue went out of business in 1955, and the Rialto at 2723 San Pablo closed in 1956.
This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical essays book.
