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• Stockton teens injured in Highway 99 rollover

• Lodi woman, 81, fine after man jumps through window

• Sunset last of three vacant Lodi theaters

• Local man looks to the sky for solution to high gas prices

• Regional Roundup

• Spring cleaning: Flag City fire station gets upgrade

• Lockeford MAC chairman Timothy Fowler resigns

• Logbook

• County liable for repairs, building owner says

November 21st, 2009

• Logbook

• Holiday drive spreads cheer to U.S. troops

• Galt High students want board to approve open-campus policy

• Poisoning victims remain hospitalized

• Expert: Half a mushroom cap can be deadly

• Tokay grad files claim over Lodi's Grape Bowl

• Lodi Middle School holds annual Turkey Trot

• Regional Roundup

• No motive or suspect in shooting

• Sacramento cop arrested for alleged kidnapping

November 20th, 2009

• Acampo woman killed

• Salvation Army Kettle Kickoff

• Advocacy groups sue East Bay Municipal Utility District over Pardee expansion

• Regional Roundup

• Galt plans to help residents with energy-efficient projects

• Stable southeast of Lodi approved

• One year after a heart attack, Lodi's Judy Mims thanks rescuers

• National Guard troops return home in time for the holidays

• Real estate market gets on more solid ground

November 19th, 2009

• Operation: Christmas

• Logbook

• Suspect arrested after hiding in fridge

• Chase ends in crash

• Galt Joint Union High School Distric hires new superintendent

• Sales tax hike yields dividends: 5 new officers join Galt Police

• Lodi Unified School District board votes to cancel summer school for 2010

• Water surges in Mokelumne River yield more salmon

• Lodi City Council will consider redevelopment next June

• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22

• Corrections

November 18th, 2009

• Regional Roundup

• Paranormal group conducts second investigation of building

• Congress allocates money for local water projects

• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react

• Lodi man finds wife's ashes during police display of stolen property

• Galt City Council rejects study on rent stabilization

November 17th, 2009

• Paying tribute to a Lodian

• Lodi Budget and Finance Committee to look into ways to save money on employee benefits

• Regional Roundup

• Decision on summer school expected at tonight's Lodi Unified School District meeting

• Clements gets free water rescue boat

• Redevelopment to be discussed by Lodi City Council again

• Court reinstates death penalty for killer of Lodi grad

• Clarification

November 16th, 2009

• Correction

• Public Meetings

• City Council 'triple-dog dared' to ditch cars, use Lodi buses

• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi

• Lodi's First Sip event showcases area wineries' latest vintages

• Three members of Lodi-area family fall ill after eating poisonous mushrooms they reportedly found at Lodi Lake

• Regional Roundup

November 14th, 2009

• Galt school district narrows superintendent search to one

• Regional Roundup

• Despite budget cuts, some Lodi Unified School District salaries continue to rise

• Watchful neighbor in Lodi helped bust suspected burglars

• New Galt city manager juggles job, family

• Despite an increase in homeless students, school districts look to bolster enrollment, raise revenue

• A first look at 2009 vintages at Lodi's First Sip wine-tasting event

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• The country's mess is our fault (170)
• Obama is not a moderate (130)
• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react (73)
• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22 (50)
• Public health care is a Christian option (50)
• The haves should help the have-nots (30)
• Tokay in, traveling to unbeaten No. 3 Grant for football playoffs (25)
• Government-run health care is a bad idea (22)
• Young woman fatally shot at Acampo home (17)
• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi (16)

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Sunset last of three vacant Lodi theaters

The marquee still peers above Lodi Avenue with yellowing panels which once proclaimed the latest, greatest offerings of the silver screen. So too does the main sign for the Sunset Theater, stretching toward the sky in large, vertical lettering, dividing the building's brow in two.

There are no movies playing tonight at the Sunset, however. In the six years since the theater turned off its projectors and closed its doors, its former home has been left mostly to decay as potential buyers -- discouraged by a high price tag and little parking space -- have said no thanks and moved along, said Lodi's Community Development Director Konradt Bartlam.

"It's one of those buildings where if someone said, 'I'm going to demolish it,' it might not be a bad thing," Bartlam said.

The Sunset, at 1118 W. Lodi Ave., is one of three movie theaters that went out of business in the years leading up to the opening of the Stadium 12 Cinema on School Street in 2001. The other two -- the Arbor Theater, 843 N. Sacramento St., and the Valley Theater, 420 W. Lodi Ave. -- have already been transformed, the first by a church and the second by a wrecking ball.

At the Sunset, however, the ghost of a movie house still remains, hidden behind boarded windows and doors and cracked walls that once held signs and posters. The building does have one section that remains open to the public -- Avenue Barber Shop sits to the right of the theater's former entrance -- but the old theater has otherwise remained dark since 1998.

People have asked about moving into the building, Bartlam said. First Baptist Church considered the site for its Oneighty Teen Center in 2001 before settling on its current building on Lockeford Street. Several live theater groups and a man looking to build a dinner theater came calling, but age, price and location made them look elsewhere.

"It's the oldest of the bunch," Bartlam said. "It's in a location that's tough because it doesn't have anywhere near the parking (needed) for a building its size."

City records show the Sunset is owned by the TK Theater Corporation in Palm Springs. Calls to the phone number on the building's "For Sale" sign were not returned by the News-Sentinel's evening deadline.

Uses have been found for the city's other two shuttered movie houses, though nothing along the lines of their former incarnations. The Arbor, which closed in the mid-1990s, is now used as a place of worship by Lodi's United Apostolic Church.

The Valley, which in 2001 became the last of the three theaters to close down, was demolished one year later, Bartlam said. The property is included in the expansion plans for the nearby Raley's, which are in the approval process.

The three theaters were all purchased by the same company, North American Cinemas, in 1995. It is the same company that owns downtown's Stadium 12.

"They all basically closed their doors to move into the downtown theater," Bartlam said. "That's why those theaters are closed now."

Moviegoers have not sat in the seats of the Arbor Theater on North Sacramento Street for years. (Casey Freeman/News-Sentinel)

The Sunset opened in 1950, and was widely regarded as the top movie theater in Lodi for decades, said Lodi historian Ralph Lea. All the new releases were typically screened there, especially after its main competition, the Lodi Theater, burned to the ground in the early 1960s.

"The Sunset was the big theater in town," Lea said. "It ran all the first-run movies."

Gone now are the flickering lights, the smell of buttered popcorn and the stars shining down from the marquee. Until a buyer or tenant for the Sunset can be found, the once popular movie house is likely to remain darkened behind boards and plywood.

"The long-term prognosis is unknown," Bartlam said. "It's a commercial zone, so there's just a whole variety of things from a zoning perspective that can go there. The question mark is if somebody can make a deal with the owner."