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Health & Fitness

Remembering the Uptown Theatre...

Remembering the Uptown Theatre back when going to the movies was an event in Napa.

        ...I’ve always contended that Norman Rockwell could have come to Napa in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s to paint his personal portrait of Americana. Napa was not unlike many towns across America, one main street, a bakery, a soda fountain and, by the time I came along, just one movie theater. The building of my youth still stands, though it is now a performance venue. What kid growing up in Napa did not first see Disney movies, or Bond movies, or the myriad of other movies that became part of the American consciousness at the Uptown on Third Street?

          The Uptown backed up to the , built with Works Progress Administration money in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. On one particular Sunday, Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson came to Napa and seemingly every child within spitting distance of the Uptown was there. My older brother Carl took me.  The line wound from the box office, down to Franklin Street, to Second Street, past the post office and back to Randolph Street and around to the front of the theater. We stood in line until we were eventually seated for a 6:30 pm showing. No wonder it is one of my favorite movies to this day; I waited so long to see it the first time.

          The Uptown was one large auditorium. Today, as a music venue, it has a capacity of 860 in theater style seats. The most expensive seats at the time were the ‘loge seats’ which cost a whopping $1.75. They were the Cadillac seats, they rocked. I had my first date there, in loge seats. Laying back in those "expensive" seats, you had a view of the ornate ceiling decorations that kept movie-goers enthralled while waiting for the show to start. That night, with popcorn and drinks, the entire evening cost me about six dollars. You can hardly get a small soda for that today.

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          What stands out even now is the tower-like marquee, with its range of colors that today advertises upcoming perfomances, not unlike it did way back when. Though I don’t get to Napa as much as I used to, it is still a delight to see it which brings back a flood of memories.

Tom Ontis is a Napa expatriate now living in Contra Costa County.  He grew up on a ranchette in Coombsville, east of Silverado Junior High (now Middle) School.

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