Business & Tech

Classic Film Hall Will Celebrate Donald Rheem

The film legacy of Moraga factory owner and theatre developer Rheem will be explored at new Classic Film Hall of Fame.

A Classic Film Hall of Fame in Moraga is sure to include credits, plaudits and applause for Moraga theatre pioneer Donald Rheem.

So said organizer Derek Zemrak, who owns the Rheem Theatre business, in announcing the hall of fame concept last week. The idea launches with a classic film weekend inducting the first hall of famers May 10-12 at the Rheem Theatre. This includes film legends Mickey Rooney and Cloris Leachman, who will attend the event, Zemrak said.

In Moraga, Rheem gave his name to a theatre, a boulevard, a valley and an elementary school. A manufacturer turned developer, Rheem opened the Orinda Theatre in 1941 and the Rheem Theatre in Moraga in 1957. Rheem Theatre in Moraga opened June 12, 1957, with a newspaper ad that read, "Every seat a loge."

At the Rheem Theatre, he was an innovator in using stadium seating and slidable screens so the moviehouse could be used for live theatre, Zemrak said. He was a "visionary," Zemrak said, in siting a theatre at a shopping center — which at the time was surrounded by more cows than people.

Rheem was one of the largest shareholders in Paramount Pictures during its infancy. Like his newspaper titan pal William Randolph Hearst, Rheem had a jones for attending swank parties with movie stars, Zemrak said.

Born in Alameda in 1901, Rheem died in Moraga in 1983, according to Findagrave.com. Rheem and his brother Richard ran Rheem Manufacturing Company in Richmond, manufacturing galvanized barrels, hot-water heaters and stoves, according to a 2010 Oakland Tribune piece by Nilda Rego referenced on Findagrave.com. During World War II, the factory was converted to making munitions.


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