BRENTWOOD – Doreen Pierce Forlow remembers the unmistakable smell of flicks from years passed by – the freshly made popcorn dripping with real butter, the chocolate candies and even the marginally chemical smell of the large film reels.
Forlow grew up within the Art Deco Delta Theater in downtown Brentwood, which her family bought in 1955 and owned and operated for nearly twenty years. She has seen all of the classics – “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben-Hur,” “Hercules” and lots of more – and is happy to reopen the nearly 100-year-old theater after a four-year closure.
“There's a huge difference between a 50-inch screen in your home and a screen in a movie theater — a huge difference,” said Forlow, now museum archivist on the East Contra Costa Historical Society. “When I see people watching movies on their phones, I say, 'Why don't you just watch it on a postage stamp?' The bigger the screen, the better for me.”
Forlow's wish will soon come true, as Sean McCauley and his partner Ron Harrison and their team are working feverishly to revive the 1937 theater at 641 First Street for a late May opening. Despite competition from other theaters, reminiscent of the 14-screen theater on the Streets of Brentwood mall several miles away, local developers imagine the restored, iconic two-screen theater will likely be a significant draw.
“We didn't really want to buy it, but the previous owners didn't want to put a lot of money into that particular building,” McCauley said of his 2019 purchase. “We knew it was the anchor of downtown Brentwood, and that's the only building that brings 1,000 people downtown every day on a weekend.”
But McCauley, who has bought and renovated about 10 downtown buildings alone and with Harrison, said renovating and reopening the theater made sense “to maintain the momentum” of the “thriving businesses there.”
With the arrival of chain stores and other retail stores, downtown Brentwood was “more of a ghost town” until it began transforming into “a more social neighborhood” in 2016, starting with the opening of upscale restaurants like Zephyr's Grill and Bar in a constructing he renovated, he says.
“The downtown area is now a social district, and we see a lot of downtown areas like Martinez and even San Francisco, Antioch and now Brentwood moving in that direction,” he said. “When I was a kid, this was more about retail.”
However, McCauley acknowledged that the timing proved difficult, because the COVID-19 pandemic broke out shortly after he purchased the theater, then called Cinelux Delta Cinema, which was forced to shut in 2020.
“We were hit by this perfect storm of evil,” he said. “We had to do a massive remodel, and because of COVID, the city locked down and the operator pulled out.”
McCauley said the pandemic modified moviegoing and the previous operator has since been “instrumental in getting us back open.” Despite this, McCauley and his partner decided to operate the brand new theater themselves, but hired someone to administer day-to-day operations.
“Netflix, Prime Video and streaming have ruined cinema after COVID,” he said. “The film industry is very different than it is today. The cinema business is definitely not what it used to be.”
However, McCauley is optimistic that things will likely be different in Brentwood, as he has received quite a lot of support from residents thus far.
“The difference is we try to keep our prices low. There's all the charm of Brentwood and the old town charm of this particular theater,” McCauley said. “We've had really insane support from the residents of Brentwood.”
Ticket prices would range from $8 to $12, depending on seating and whether there are student or senior discounts, and Tuesday will even be reserved for bargain-priced movies, as prior to now, he said.
As for the renovations, McCauley said he tried to preserve “the old-fashioned feel of this special cinema,” although they installed a wide range of recent, high-quality vinyl reclining seats in addition to non-reclining seats, romantic duet seats for couples, recent screens, a state-of-the-art digital sound system and brand recent digital equipment. They even took over the space of an adjoining former candy store so as to add “beautiful, new, modern bathrooms,” he said.
“We did a lot of research into what it was like, but then we incorporated the really cool amenities that we have in theaters today,” McCauley said of the venue, which now seats 200.
Perhaps the pièce de résistance, nevertheless, is the foyer renovation, which restored the open-air design and restored the cover and green “Delta” plaque to their 1937 glory with neon pink lights. That work alone cost greater than $100,000 and required the detailed work of various contractors, the owner said.
“Our biggest concern was what it looked like when we were kids when I came here in 1970,” McCauley said. “I just wanted it to look more like the way it was originally built, so we removed the front door area that they put in in the '90s and opened it back up to make it look more original.”
Josh Caudle, who oversees the theater's day-to-day operations, said he was impressed by McCauley's dedication to restoring the Art Deco theater to its original Nineteen Thirties look.
“If we had done it differently (with an enclosed foyer), I would have had more space in the foyer; I could have made more money per square foot,” Caudle said, noting that McCauley was more excited by an authentic restoration. “I love that that was the first thing he prioritized.”
“In terms of the overall experience, there will be some nice aesthetic touches that you don’t see anywhere else,” Caudle said.
In addition, gold curtains have been installed on the theater's stage, which will even be available for fundraisers, comedy shows, theater events and lectures by local film stars, he said.
“Well, just try a lot of different things,” Caudle said. “Basically, it's not just movies anymore.”
In the early days, that was the case, too, Forlow said. Her mother, Rose Pierce, a Spanish speaker, made sure to supply Mexican movies and entertainment. She remembers mariachi groups and other Mexican entertainers performing within the Delta, including the wildly popular movie star Cantinflas and the exotic dancer Tongolele (Yolanda Montes).
“We had a lot of farm workers back then and we provided entertainment for them,” she said.
In the Nineteen Fifties, the Great Toussaint, a master hypnotist and magician, performed there. Forlow claimed that her father needed to call him back from Stockton after a show when, at the tip of the night, he found a girl still hypnotized behind the dark theater.
Although no magic or hypnosis shows are planned for the brand new Delta Theater, theatergoers might feel like they’re stepping back in time as they watch among the decades-old cartoons Caudle has planned, including the unique Superman series, before the flicks and through Saturday's farmers market.
And then there's the food, which could have a contemporary twist, with dishes like homemade pizza, panini sandwiches, pretzels and at the very least a handful of gourmet items on the menu, McCauley said. Anthony Roost of Attraversiamo, a farm-to-table restaurant in Brentwood, is designing the menu with locally sourced ingredients, he said. Wine and beer — all locally sourced — will even be served, he said.
Of course, there will likely be popcorn. Caudle said it would be made in a high-end popcorn machine with a pitcher that evenly coats the kernels with hot butter and can are available a wide range of flavors, including piping hot ghost pepper popcorn.
“We really didn’t skimp on anything there,” McCauley said of the $15,000 popcorn machine.
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