Columbia Amusement Co. records

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: 2545

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection is composed of business records and clippings related to the operation of Columbia Amusement Co. Santa Rosa, CA theaters, the Nickelodeon, Theatrette, and the Columbia Theater. Records detailing monthly expenses, weekly profits, lease and rental agreements, press clippings, and business correspondence with employees at the company’s San Francisco office are represented. Also included is the invoice of the sale of the collection to USC.

Originally part of the Ethel Barrymore Memorial Theatre Arts Collection at the University of Southern California Library 100 Series, and was labeled 100-30.

Dates

Creation: 1908 - 1921
Creation: 1957

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Cinematic Arts Library at ctlibarc@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Cinematic Arts Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Columbia Amusement Co. was a show business and entertainment organization that produced “clean” burlesque and variety shows that traveled around the United States from 1902 to 1927. Their San Francisco office ran three theaters in the town of Santa Rosa in the neighboring Sonoma County: The Columbia Theater, the Nickelodeon, and Theaterette. The Columbia Theater primarily showcased live performances in their 700-seat theater featuring the Northwestern Theatre Arts Association and offered Vaudeville shows every Saturday and Sunday, while the Nickelodeon and Theaterette continuously showed licensed moving pictures with accompanying music from a phonograph. The population of the town was around 10,000 people at the time after the 1906 Santa Rosa earthquake. A few years after the town recovered people started moving away and the moving pictures no longer flourished as they once had. The Nickelodeon and Theaterette eventually closed while The Columbia Theater was sold in 1916 to the managers of another theater in town, The Rose.