The Crest Theatre is a historic theater located in downtown Sacramento, California, just blocks from the State Capital, the Sacramento Convention Center, and the new Sacramento Kings basketball arena (Golden 1 Center). It was originally opened in 1912 as the Empress Theatre, a vaudeville palace. It later operated as the Hippodrome theatre. On September 14, 1946, the Hippodrome’s marquee suddenly fell to the pavement below, killing a bystander. Shortly after the tragedy, in 1949, the building was completely remodeled and revamped to its current form as the art deco Crest Theatre. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was one of the premier first-run movie palaces in the Sacramento area. In the 1970s, it was reduced to mostly sub-run fare and eventually closed in the early 1980s.