Mercury News: Burbank Theater Article

There's an interesting article in the Mercury News today about the iconic anti-hero Burbank Theater in San Jose. Apparently, it was purchased by an Iranian immigrant who started to fix up the place, but had one idea after another throttled by the city. Besides being an update on the current state of affairs of the vacant theater, it's a nice little summary of the theater's recent and seedy past.

It's fun reading for all you local culture addicts.

LINK: Lack of parking bars theater redo (Mercury News - 8/3/06)

That's a really cool article! Thanks for posting it!

It would be so cool if the city would allow it to be used for a Mosque...sounds like it's not going to happen, though.

I just like the story because that area is just such a funky area of San Jose. That whole area all the way down to West San Carlos St. is one big throwback mystery zone.

I read the replies in the Mercury to this article and I agree with one reader who said to turn it back into a movie theater along the same lines as the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. It could have newer movies as well. Since some of those businesses around that area aren't doing to hot, they could turn that area into parking to get around the parking issue.

I would definitely go to it if it became a movie theater again. I was kind of hoping they would do something like that to the Gaslighter, but . . .

It'd be cool to see a theater there again, but it's hard to make money as a movie theater these days and who knows what kind of battles will arise if they try to create a parking lot out of some of the run-down buildings and lots over there. If I remember correctly, there was a huge emminent domain fight just up the street from the Burbank near Streetlight Records over a weedy, empty lot. I don't remember the outcome of that though.

If there's a walk from the parking lot to the theater, the safety concerns have got to be huge. That stretch of Bascom Ave may be in deep sleep, but there's still some pretty heavy traffic crusing through the area.

I remember when Streetlight Music was located across the street from the Burbank Theater and it was partly hidden behind that tire shop. That area of town seemed a bit less rundown and dead with Streetlight back there. It always felt kinda cool to arrive at the "secret music store," also one of the only places that would buy CD's then.

I'd love to see that place become a small music venue like the Little Fox Theater in Redwood City. That is one awesome place to catch an act.