Peninsula Theatre

The Peninsula Theatre was originally designed for both (i) vaudeville stage shows and (i) silent movies. Construction and development outlay was US$500,000 (equivalent to $8,265,038 in 2022, inflation adjusted estimate)[9] Weeks & Day were the architects. The original Peninsula Theatre had 2,000 seats and was ornately Spanish baroque in style, featuring staircases in the lobby ascending between pillars inset with mosaic-like panels depicting animals.

Make

• Robert Morton Organ Company of San Francisco and New York
• Opus (number not known; likely range: 2293–2412)[10]

Only the third of its type and size to be installed in a Pacific Coast theater.[11]

Pipes

• A thousand thirty-three pipes capable of producing orchestral instrument sounds that included the tuba, English horn, concert flute, viola, violin, kinura, oboe, clarinet, and bass violin. For accompaniment music, the organ had diapason tibia plena, voix céleste, and vox humana – for the human voice. It also had a harp marimba, chrysoglott harp, orchestral bells, glockenspiel, chimes, xylophone, bass drum, tympani, cymbal, crash cymbal, snare drum, tom tom, castanets, tambourine, triangle, and sleigh bells.

Console

• Solid mahogany 3-manual and pedal console
• 13 ranks
• 153 stops in the stoprail
• Manual compass (chromatic range) is 61 keys
• Pedal compass had 32 notes
• Possibly a "Carlsted" console, named for Morton's head draftsman, Paul Simon Carlsted (1891–1982)

Mechanical

• Electro-pneumatic action (chests) with individual expression shutters controlled various shadings
• More than 1,500 electromagnets operated the valve mechanism

Power

• Centrifugal blower driven by a 10-horsepower motor, voiced on 15-inch wind pressure (a size capable of delivering air at 1900 C.F.M. – cubic feet per minute) ("Orgoblo" centrifugal blower manufactured by The Spencer Turbine Co. of Hartford)
• A 70-ampere, 10-volt generator, driven by a 2-horsepower provided the voltage for the magnets that operate the valve mechanism
• A special 24-inch vacuum blower, powered by a 1-horsepower motor, supplied the exhaust air for the piano mechanism
• All motors were controlled by switches from the console

Piano

• A piano, placed in a separate compartment in the orchestra pit, was also controlled from the console

Installation engineer

• Leo F. Schoenstein (né Leo Ferdinand Schoenstein; 1878–1951), under the auspices of Schoenstein & Co. of San Francisco – technician for the Morgan Organ Company – personally directed the installation.

Current status

• Dismantled and dispersed (circa 2007); was in possession of Dale Merrill Haskin (1942–2007), a collector of theater organs, late of Portland, Oregon, who also owned the San Francisco Orpheum organ. Much of Haskin's collection is now with the Columbia River Theatre Organ Society of Portland.

Housing for the organ pipes

• The auditorium featured a massive plasterwork proscenium, and was flanked on both sides with arched organ fronts for the expression chambers.[12]

Peninsula Theatres Corporation dba Ellis J. Arkush Entertainment

• Ellis John Arkush (1888–1974), President of Peninsula Theatres Corporation, also brother of Frank
• Frank Ephriam Arkush (1884–1947), brother of Ellis
• Eph Karelsen (né Ephraim Adolphus Karelsen; 1871–1956), attorney and Arkush's maternal cousin
• Ray Kelsall (né Ray Roland Kelsall; 1889–1953), founding business manager who, before had been manager of the Garden Theatre. He had a staff of 22 – including

• W.H. Augustus, Jr., house manager
• Hale Warn (né Hale Knowlton Warn; 1910–1979), head usher
• Walter Hawthorne Farley (1890–1960), chief operator (projectionist)
• Andrew Hillgard, assistant operator
• F. H. Thomason (né Floyd Harris Thomason; 1896–1976), stage manager, and later, projectionist[15]
• Dorothy Durant (née Josephine E. Durant; 1904–1953), cashier
• Agnes Durant (née Agnes Magdalen Durant; 1909–1992), assistant cashier (Dorothy's younger sister)

Fox West Coast Theatres (beginning 1957)

• "Billie" Tannehill (né William Jackson Tannehill; 1925–2001), theater manager in Burlingame from about 1955 to 1967. He later managed the Century 21 Theatre in San Jose, which opened in 1963 and closed in 2014. He was survived by his wife, Marlene Grace Murphy (maiden; 1936–2011), and three children. Tannehill started managing theaters in the late 1940s, after serving in the Navy during World War II. He managed theaters for Fox West Coast, Mann Theatres, and finished his career with Century Theatres, spending the last 17 years at Century 21.
• Ward Stoopes (né Ward Farmiloe Stoopes; 1926–1999), a theater manager in the San Francisco area who began his career at Fox Burlingame
• Beverly Brehmer (née Beverly June Brehmer; born 1929), manager at the Fox Burlingame when it closed September 14, 1974, had worked for Fox West Coast Theatres since the late 1950s

• Milt Franklyn (né Milton J. Franklyn; 1897–1962)[16]