Handymen usually have stories to tell about their previous jobs. Peter Botto had a better one than most.
When he started doing carpentry and repair work around 2000, after leaving the Oakland Paramount Theatre, clients might learn that his last big fix-it job had been restoring one of the Bay Area’s grandest movie palaces to its 1931 glory – then staying on for 26 years to run it.
As general manager, Botto oversaw every aspect of the Paramount, a major concert venue with its glorious neon blade rising over Broadway in downtown Oakland, staging roughly 140 events a year. Then, after decades in the theater world, he walked away because he wanted to build cabinets and bookcases…