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Uploaded: Friday, April 3, 2009, 1:20 AM
Updated: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 11:27 PM

1944 Gene Kelly film burns at Stanford Theatre
Gene Kelly, Rita Hayworth 'Cover Girl' film jams in projector, catches fire -- but sprinklers douse blaze

Posted by Lisa, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Apr 3, 2009 at 10:47 am

I have been going to the Stanford since it opened under David Packard's ownership in 1989. That was indeed, a gala event, with searchlights, old cars, and the attendees dressed in 1930s clothing as though going to an opera. Members of both the Hewlett and the Packard family were there, and of course, the Packards showed up in - guess what - a vintage Packard auto. So I love the theatre, the films, and the crowd is fantastic. In fact, it is in many ways one of the "Centers of the Universe" - I was reminded of the film, Cinema Paradiso, where the entire theater burned. Thank Goodness for state of the art fire suppression systems and great fire alarms, and an abundance of exit doors. I hope the old projector isn't damaged, and if it is, I'll bet that David has a spare. A while back, he announced that he had bought up the entire known stock of vintage projector lamps! I hope the Stanford re-opens soon!

Posted by KM, a resident of Menlo Park, on Apr 3, 2009 at 10:53 am

Evacuation of the theater was calm and orderly. I doubt that the cause was nitrate film, though. We hope that the film, _Cover Girl_, can be rescheduled soon with a new print.

Posted by Nora Charles, a resident of Stanford, on Apr 3, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Nora Charles is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Thank heavens it was a small fire. The theatre is a city treasure. And shows the only movies that I really care to see these days.

Lisa, I loved reading your account of the opening gala! How I'd love to have attended!

Posted by Howard Besser, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Apr 3, 2009 at 8:33 pm

Water sprinklers do not put out nitrate fires.

Posted by Flash Sheridan, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Apr 4, 2009 at 8:55 am

The theatre’s marquee and web page say it would only be closed Friday for repair—I hope that’s true, and it did look like the workers had finished yesterday afternoon, though there was still a lot of plastic partitioning hung up indoors.

In a sad bit of irony, what used to be the Palo Alto Daily News failed to report the story, though the Daily Post of course headlined it. The same day, the Daily News announced that it was no longer Palo Alto Daily News.

Posted by danny the homeless guy, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Apr 4, 2009 at 11:14 am

I'm told when the film jammed, the arc lamp caused the film to overheat and burn. It takes only a few seconds of jamming for that to happen.

Here is the wiki article on those old projectors - Web Link

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_projector

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Apr 5, 2009 at 8:45 pm

Appeared to be business as usual on Saturday at the Stanford. No evidence that anything had happened. Good crowd for the Marlene Dietrich films. Always fun to hear newcomers marvel at the snack bar prices.