A few weeks ago I blogged that I had never noticed the commemorative sculpture in the tree on E. Aliso St. in Ojai where the bear had been sitting in 2009. Something else I recently noticed is the old Mayfair Theatre marquee resting forlornly in a vacant lot on Figueroa Street near Thompson in Ventura. It looks so sad resting there-something once so grand, now abandoned.
In researching the Mayfair Theatre I came across a website begun by artist Sarah Kalvin to honor the theater and some other Ventura businesses no longer around. http://mayfairtheatre.com/home.html
The Mayfair opened in 1941 and was located on the corner of Santa Clara & Ash in Ventura. The Art Deco theater had been designed by renowned theater architect S. Charles Lee who designed some 400 theaters in the period from the 1920s to the 1940s. For a short biography about S. Charles Lee visit: http://historicfresno.org/bio/lee.htm
The Mayfair screened first-run features for decades, but began its decline in the 1970s when the Pussycat Theatre chain painted it pink and began showing X-rated films. A revival was attempted in the 1990s with a group who opened a coffee house and screened art house films. This venture failed and soon the abandoned building attracted the homeless. A fire in 2000 gutted the inside. After this it was just to much to restore and the theater was demolished in 2004. What a loss!
We are fortunate in Ojai to have our historic Ojai Playhouse showing first-run films. The theater opened in 1914 and was called The ISIS. To read more about Ojai’s treasure see my article http://www.elisedepuydt.com/history-of-the-ojai-theater.html
In researching the Mayfair Theatre I came across a website begun by artist Sarah Kalvin to honor the theater and some other Ventura businesses no longer around. http://mayfairtheatre.com/home.html
The Mayfair opened in 1941 and was located on the corner of Santa Clara & Ash in Ventura. The Art Deco theater had been designed by renowned theater architect S. Charles Lee who designed some 400 theaters in the period from the 1920s to the 1940s. For a short biography about S. Charles Lee visit: http://historicfresno.org/bio/lee.htm
The Mayfair screened first-run features for decades, but began its decline in the 1970s when the Pussycat Theatre chain painted it pink and began showing X-rated films. A revival was attempted in the 1990s with a group who opened a coffee house and screened art house films. This venture failed and soon the abandoned building attracted the homeless. A fire in 2000 gutted the inside. After this it was just to much to restore and the theater was demolished in 2004. What a loss!
We are fortunate in Ojai to have our historic Ojai Playhouse showing first-run films. The theater opened in 1914 and was called The ISIS. To read more about Ojai’s treasure see my article http://www.elisedepuydt.com/history-of-the-ojai-theater.html
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