Contra Costa County Biography

TURNER & DAHNKEN

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
                At this point in their business career, through their remarkable 
powers of foresight and business faculties, they made the real step to their 
business future by entering the film supply business about one year after the 
great San Francisco fire and earthquake. Their new location was in a small 
store-room at Ellis and Fillmore streets. At this time there were few producers 
in America,  which necessitated the importing of their films from Europe, which 
was then the center of the industry. The next few years brought immense 
developments in the motion-picture business o this coast and throughout the 
world. The Film Exchange grew and grew, and outgrew its quarters on Ellis 
Street; so then they moved to a large and more spacious store on Eddy Street 
near Mason, where business is now conducted by the General Film Company. The 
General Film Company of America, commonly known as "The Trust," saw the great 
possibilities of this coast and purchased the business of the firm of Turner & 
Dahnken at the enormous price of $200,000 for contracts and leases for films 
held on this coast. "The Trust" people found that the name of Turner & Dahnken 
stood so big with the public as moving-picture exhibitors that they desired to 
retain that name as the title of the Film Exchange maintained in San Francisco. 
Mr. Turner refused, and this almost broke off negotiations, but the coast men 
retained the right to use their own name. They had other plans for the trademark 
which they had established by years of honest treatment and a progressive 
policy. They had decided to enter the theatrical ownership field themselves, and 
their first real substantial investment in the exhibition of moving pictures was 
in two small theaters on Market Street, which turned out to be another big 
advance in the march of progress that had marked the success of Turner & 
Dahnken's career. They sold their lease to a Market Street location on which 
these two theatres were conducted to Alexander Pantages, who built the present 
Pantages Theater on this site. Turner & Dahnken received the amount of $28,000 
for this transfer of lease. This sale, however, did not interfere with their 
future plans, and immediately upon the execution and close of this sale, they 
still proceeded to advance in the amusement business, with the policy clearly 
set in their minds to exhibit pictures of the most intense interest, pictures of 
sound morals clearly portrayed and cleverly executed, and by a rigid enforcement 
of these policies they have become the greatest entertainers with motion 
pictures to the West Coast public. They now have theatres located in every 
important city of the West Coast, not theaters of the ordinary store-room type, 
but beautiful, commodious, elaborately furnished theaters, with uniformed 
attendants to wait upon the pleasures of the theatre-going public. The 
headquarters of this vast circuit is located at 942 Market Street, San 
Francisco, and it occupies one entire floor of the Garfield building, where the 
photographic, sign-writing, card-writing, supply department for all necessities 
to maintain their circuit, clerical work, official work, directing, etc., is 
carried on. Such Theaters as the famous Tivoli Opera House, seating two thousand 
people, known all over the world as the home of Tettrazini, Caruso, and other 
famous opera singers, has become one of their large places of entertainment. One 
of the largest theaters in America was constructed for the vast interests of the 
Turner & Dahnken firm, located at Eleventh and Broadway streets, Oakland, 
California. This theater has many innovations for the accommodation of the 
lovers of the silent drama - handsome upholstered seats, a maid in attendance 
for the comforts of the ladies, large and spacious waiting-rooms with telephones 
at their command, a tea-room for ladies to rest, and between sips of their tea 
to pass their opinions upon the wonderfully pleasant entertainment they have 
received from the hands of the Turner & Dahnken Circuit. This elaborate place of 
amusement seats about 3500 people, and patrons are able to reach the gallery 
without the assistance of steps, a gradual incline from the main entrance being 
provided for their convenience, something entirely new to the theatrical public 
of the West Coast. The decorative scheme of this magnificent theater is of the 
latest and most up-to-date design, so arranged that when worked in conjunction 
with the lighting scheme, the house can be immediately converted into the 
environments of the subject being exhibited upon the curtain. The house can be 
made into twilight , dawn, the surroundings of a volcano, or become part of a 
fire scene. A wonderful master pipe-organ is installed to give all the necessary 
effects lending realism to the silent drama, such as the gradual approach of 
cavalry, or of the distant rumble of cannon, the singing of birds, or the 
eruption of a volcano, the echo of distant noises. In fact, space will not 
permit the naming of the wonderful advancement these two exponents of the silent 
drama, as pioneers in the theatrical game, have developed in the moving-picture 
theater. Their theaters are the last word of improvement, and they have traced 
the exhibition of the motion picture to the zenith of its glory from a humble 
inception through phenomenal evolution to an inspiring development. James T. 
Turner was born in Antioch on July 25, 1873. Educated at Antioch grammar school 
until the age of thirteen, then sought employment as a farmer. Then became 
associated with his present partner, Mr. Dahnken, as manager in the Arlington 
Hotel, Antioch. In the fall of 1899 he left for San Francisco and made his first 
real business venture, which proved very successful, and which afterward turned 
out to be the coming together of the firm of Turner & Dahnken in the spring of 
1901. In the summer of 1904, Mr. Turner opened up the beginning of the amusement 
business in Fresno, and after three months of success, their attention was drawn 
to the Lewis & Clark Exposition. They immediately moved their shows to the city 
of Portland, and after a successful season were unable to renew their lease, 
which necessitated their storing the shows. Mr. Turner then returned  to Fresno, 
and Mr. Dahnken resumed the hotel business at Antioch. Immediately after the 
great San Francisco earthquake and fire Mr. Dahnken came to San Francisco to 
seek a possible location for their shows, and sent Mr. Turner and wired Portland 
to ship their shows to San Francisco at once. In the meantime they prepared 
their location to receive their automatic vaudeville shows, located on Fillmore 
Street, San Francisco. Business was very profitable for about one year. Mr. 
Turner has a way of remaining patient and calm under the most trying 
circumstances - just aggressive enough to be forceful, and just amiable enough 
to be loved. He has a way of saying "Thank-you" that makes you feel good all 
over. He makes people like to do things for him. 
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1917, 
pp. 598-590.