This is a 1932 Plaza Theater schedule from the Healdsburg Museum website (January 2008). http://www.healdsburgmuseum.org/ The Plaza Theater was located at 335 West Street (now Healdsburg Avenue) on the west side, near the Plaza Hotel. The newly-refurbished Plaza Theater opened in May 1930, boasting that it would be booking “some of the best Talkies that the cinema world affords!”
Dad (Art McCaffrey) talked about everything. He’d tell this story about the 1925 silent film "Phantom of the Opera" playing in town. The night of the movie, after all the other kids had reached their homes, Dad had to walk the last three blocks of Johnson Street completely alone. He was so terrified that he began whistling really loud to keep anyone away! --Maureen McCaffrey Gradek
My brother left for the Marine Corps and said, “I want you to stay away from (Milt) Brandt and (Lee) Engelke”. So I said, “Yeah, sure”. Milt and I went to the Plaza Theater on our first date. Two of the strictest teachers--Mrs. Long and Miss Destruel--were sitting right behind us! I scrunched way, way down in the seat!
--Mary Brandt on meeting husband-to-be Milt
The Healdsburg Avenue block around the Plaza seems to have been Dee Gagliardo's favorite. Shelford’s dress shop. Ben Franklin. The Plaza Hotel and old Plaza Theatre. Tomasco Drugs where she jumped in Benny’s red convertible. Rosenberg and Bush which was “exciting and glamorous” with its grand staircase! I ask her what she misses most and she has two answers for me: “I loved growing up when I did and where I did. Our school years were the best; so much of what we had has been lost today... And I miss being young again. I never use the word old. I just say were still growing up.” --from Neighbors column with Dee Gagliardo
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