The Pagoda Palace is slated to become a taqueria in less than a year. A story in todays SF Chronicle says the theatre was sold to Joel Campos, who owns 2 La Corneta Taquerias in other parts of the City. The restaurant will take up about half the 10,000 sq ft building.
What’s also amazing that this theatre is still going after 20 years is that the screens in the 4 theatres are not much bigger than todays TV sets and they don’t have any upgraded sound.
The Palace can be seen in the 2002 documentary “The Cockettes”. Nocturnal Dream Shows were wildly popular here in the early-mid 70’s. Presented at midnight (after the Chinese movies) throngs of people would crowd the box office waiting for the box office “lady” to finish decorating the box office windows (usually with feather boas) so they could buy tickets (for about $2) to see the Cockettes. There was always a film, usually a 30’s or 40’s musical, after the stage show. Divine threw dead fish from a shopping cart on the stage out into the audience to herald the showing of her new film “Female Trouble”, Sylvester would bring down the house singing “Big City Blues” and a very stoned audience would always have a great time. Busby Berkeley films were favorites. Someone was trying to reopen it as Muriel’s Supper Club a few years ago but their financing dried up.
The Kabuki 8 was San Francisco’s first multiplex. The Kabuki Theatre was orginally built for roadshow type Kabuki presentations. There just wasn’t enough Kabuki companies to keep the theatre going full tilt and since the whole idea was to enhance Japantown businesses the theatre was rented out for plays, music concerts and revues. Local producer Sebastian presented Divine in a big flop here called “The Heartbreak of Psoriasis” in the mid 70’s, by then the rows of seats had been replaced with tables and chairs so food and drinks could be sold with the shows. AMC put back the traditional seating and built the other 7 theatres on the Fillmore St side of the theatre. The main theatre (AMC called it “the Big House”) has a gigantic screen and was the first SF theatre to install a THX sound system.
Loew’s Warfield boasted one of the more impressive marquees of the Market St movie palaces. It was 3 sided with the street side arched. Full of lights and neon it also featured an inner marquee above the inside of the arch. The towering verticle sign was 6 stories high (like its neighbor around the corner, the Golden Gate). May West was there for the premier of her film “Sextette” in the 70’s. Looking a little “waxy” and seated in a big chair, she was carted across the stage to a mic by a couple of oiled up bodybuilders. They propped her up and she said in her best Westian “Thanks for commin' to my picsha” and then was carted back to the wings. The sold out crowd went wild. Architecturally, I think this is one of the nicest of the remaining movie palaces in San Francisco. The beautiful fan-like ceiling made the theatre look wider than it was deep and it has a beautiful classically painted mural over the proscenium. The balcony has chandeliers hanging from blue-lit coves. The marquee and verticle sign had to be taken down in the late 60’s when pile drivers came through building the side supports of the BART subway. The side walks were widened and street trees added when subway construction was finished – and the new “look” forbade putting back those big marquees and verticle signs on any theatre that faced Market St. That’s why they all have flat, fixed to the building plastic marquees now.
The Embassy was a unique movie going experience. The Ten-O-Win wheel was rolled out at intermission and a tuxedoed Dan McClean would call out the numbers and colors that the two arrows (each spun in a different direction) landed on. If you had the lucky ticket you would call out and an usher or usherette would come running to you hollering out “Balcony” (if the winner was seated in the balcony) “Pay $5”, or whatever the prize amount was, then peal off the ones to you. Does this sound like the 1950’s? This was still going on well into the 1980’s. By then it was not uncommon to see streetpeople sleeping it off in the front side orchestra where their snoring would not bother most of the audience. There was usually a double bill and the fare tended towards Charles Bronson pix, Peckinpaw, westerns, action films etc and occasionally something like “Nashville”. The feeling there was that it was a family operation – I remember seeing the same employees for over 15 years in the 70’s and 80’s. From the etched glass in the tunnels upstairs leading to the balcony, to the chain that dragged across the stage floor every time the curtains opened and closed (it had come loose from the left curtain’s bottom hem – I guess to weigh it down), to the free popcorn they gave away on Christmas eve, to the peeling paint over the proscenium and that colorful marquee the Embassy was unique on Market St.
Thanks to Eric Hooper for his “last look” photos. The Coronet is next on UA/Regal’s demolition list for the Richmond. It’s sad that there are so few single screen theatres left in SF. TV/Video/DVD/Home theatre have all shortened the lives of our larger theatres as well as corporate neglect. As`nice as it was to sit in the downstairs Alexandria, the sound was “digital-mushy” and the upstairs theatre’s sound systems never sounded like they’d been upgraded past the 70’s. The only thing that will keep these large thatres open is crowds ($$$$$$) or owners who want to keep them open-or-creative programming (like the Castro).
Saw “The Sand Pebbles”, “Myra Breckinridge” and “The Exorcist” in the upstairs theatre which was called The Penthouse, in the late 60’s. An escalator had been installed from the lobby to the mezzanine. The downstairs theatre showed Cinerama films – “2001” played there for a couple of years. The last time I remember going into the downstairs theatre for a film was a double bill – “Zacharia” a rock western, was being shown on a conventional wide screen, and a sneak preview of “The Andromeda Strain” (with Hollywood bigwigs in the audience), was shown on the Cinerama screen.
I saw the last showing of “Wag the Dog” on the closing night of the Alhambra. After the film ended they turned on the houselight. Unfortunately it looked as though the restoration that had been done for the “Roger Rabbit” reopening had already begun to age. During the restoration (back to a single screen theatre) part of the orginal proscenium was revealed behind another renovation and the results can be seen in the above photo. On foggy damp nights its minarets glowed beautifully. For “Roger Rabbit” a new sound system was installed – the theatre had great accoustics.
In the late 1970’s a friend of mine and I snuck inside the empty Fox. The open side front door down near the stage provided the only light inside the cavernous auditorium. All the seats had been removed but the two big gold Buddahs that flank the stage were still standing guard and it looked like homeless people were using the stage to camp on. And now with the marquee restored it looks like the Fox will be coming back to life.
The Carlos usually showed 2nd run films after the 1st run engagements had finished in San Francisco. It also featured “kiddie matinees” on Saturday afternoons in the 50’s and 60’s. At one of those kiddie shows in the 50’s the projectionist mistakenly played the trailer for “And God Created Women” instead of the “kiddie film” for the following week. The full house of mainly kids and their mothers shreiked at the sight of all that Bardot flesh!!! Longest running film in the theatre’s history was “Goldfinger” which ran for over 2 months.
Run by Mel Novikov in the 60’s thru mid 80’s, this was a neighborhood art house and one of the Surf Theatre Group (which also included the Castro, Bridge, Clay and Lumiere). By the mid 80’s, it was one of the last of the “independant” theatres in SF and after closing became a childrens day care center. It was located just a couple of blocks from Ocean Beach.
The Pagoda Palace is slated to become a taqueria in less than a year. A story in todays SF Chronicle says the theatre was sold to Joel Campos, who owns 2 La Corneta Taquerias in other parts of the City. The restaurant will take up about half the 10,000 sq ft building.
What’s also amazing that this theatre is still going after 20 years is that the screens in the 4 theatres are not much bigger than todays TV sets and they don’t have any upgraded sound.
The Palace can be seen in the 2002 documentary “The Cockettes”. Nocturnal Dream Shows were wildly popular here in the early-mid 70’s. Presented at midnight (after the Chinese movies) throngs of people would crowd the box office waiting for the box office “lady” to finish decorating the box office windows (usually with feather boas) so they could buy tickets (for about $2) to see the Cockettes. There was always a film, usually a 30’s or 40’s musical, after the stage show. Divine threw dead fish from a shopping cart on the stage out into the audience to herald the showing of her new film “Female Trouble”, Sylvester would bring down the house singing “Big City Blues” and a very stoned audience would always have a great time. Busby Berkeley films were favorites. Someone was trying to reopen it as Muriel’s Supper Club a few years ago but their financing dried up.
The Kabuki 8 was San Francisco’s first multiplex. The Kabuki Theatre was orginally built for roadshow type Kabuki presentations. There just wasn’t enough Kabuki companies to keep the theatre going full tilt and since the whole idea was to enhance Japantown businesses the theatre was rented out for plays, music concerts and revues. Local producer Sebastian presented Divine in a big flop here called “The Heartbreak of Psoriasis” in the mid 70’s, by then the rows of seats had been replaced with tables and chairs so food and drinks could be sold with the shows. AMC put back the traditional seating and built the other 7 theatres on the Fillmore St side of the theatre. The main theatre (AMC called it “the Big House”) has a gigantic screen and was the first SF theatre to install a THX sound system.
Loew’s Warfield boasted one of the more impressive marquees of the Market St movie palaces. It was 3 sided with the street side arched. Full of lights and neon it also featured an inner marquee above the inside of the arch. The towering verticle sign was 6 stories high (like its neighbor around the corner, the Golden Gate). May West was there for the premier of her film “Sextette” in the 70’s. Looking a little “waxy” and seated in a big chair, she was carted across the stage to a mic by a couple of oiled up bodybuilders. They propped her up and she said in her best Westian “Thanks for commin' to my picsha” and then was carted back to the wings. The sold out crowd went wild. Architecturally, I think this is one of the nicest of the remaining movie palaces in San Francisco. The beautiful fan-like ceiling made the theatre look wider than it was deep and it has a beautiful classically painted mural over the proscenium. The balcony has chandeliers hanging from blue-lit coves. The marquee and verticle sign had to be taken down in the late 60’s when pile drivers came through building the side supports of the BART subway. The side walks were widened and street trees added when subway construction was finished – and the new “look” forbade putting back those big marquees and verticle signs on any theatre that faced Market St. That’s why they all have flat, fixed to the building plastic marquees now.
The Embassy was a unique movie going experience. The Ten-O-Win wheel was rolled out at intermission and a tuxedoed Dan McClean would call out the numbers and colors that the two arrows (each spun in a different direction) landed on. If you had the lucky ticket you would call out and an usher or usherette would come running to you hollering out “Balcony” (if the winner was seated in the balcony) “Pay $5”, or whatever the prize amount was, then peal off the ones to you. Does this sound like the 1950’s? This was still going on well into the 1980’s. By then it was not uncommon to see streetpeople sleeping it off in the front side orchestra where their snoring would not bother most of the audience. There was usually a double bill and the fare tended towards Charles Bronson pix, Peckinpaw, westerns, action films etc and occasionally something like “Nashville”. The feeling there was that it was a family operation – I remember seeing the same employees for over 15 years in the 70’s and 80’s. From the etched glass in the tunnels upstairs leading to the balcony, to the chain that dragged across the stage floor every time the curtains opened and closed (it had come loose from the left curtain’s bottom hem – I guess to weigh it down), to the free popcorn they gave away on Christmas eve, to the peeling paint over the proscenium and that colorful marquee the Embassy was unique on Market St.
Thanks to Eric Hooper for his “last look” photos. The Coronet is next on UA/Regal’s demolition list for the Richmond. It’s sad that there are so few single screen theatres left in SF. TV/Video/DVD/Home theatre have all shortened the lives of our larger theatres as well as corporate neglect. As`nice as it was to sit in the downstairs Alexandria, the sound was “digital-mushy” and the upstairs theatre’s sound systems never sounded like they’d been upgraded past the 70’s. The only thing that will keep these large thatres open is crowds ($$$$$$) or owners who want to keep them open-or-creative programming (like the Castro).
Saw “The Sand Pebbles”, “Myra Breckinridge” and “The Exorcist” in the upstairs theatre which was called The Penthouse, in the late 60’s. An escalator had been installed from the lobby to the mezzanine. The downstairs theatre showed Cinerama films – “2001” played there for a couple of years. The last time I remember going into the downstairs theatre for a film was a double bill – “Zacharia” a rock western, was being shown on a conventional wide screen, and a sneak preview of “The Andromeda Strain” (with Hollywood bigwigs in the audience), was shown on the Cinerama screen.
I saw the last showing of “Wag the Dog” on the closing night of the Alhambra. After the film ended they turned on the houselight. Unfortunately it looked as though the restoration that had been done for the “Roger Rabbit” reopening had already begun to age. During the restoration (back to a single screen theatre) part of the orginal proscenium was revealed behind another renovation and the results can be seen in the above photo. On foggy damp nights its minarets glowed beautifully. For “Roger Rabbit” a new sound system was installed – the theatre had great accoustics.
In the late 1970’s a friend of mine and I snuck inside the empty Fox. The open side front door down near the stage provided the only light inside the cavernous auditorium. All the seats had been removed but the two big gold Buddahs that flank the stage were still standing guard and it looked like homeless people were using the stage to camp on. And now with the marquee restored it looks like the Fox will be coming back to life.
The Carlos usually showed 2nd run films after the 1st run engagements had finished in San Francisco. It also featured “kiddie matinees” on Saturday afternoons in the 50’s and 60’s. At one of those kiddie shows in the 50’s the projectionist mistakenly played the trailer for “And God Created Women” instead of the “kiddie film” for the following week. The full house of mainly kids and their mothers shreiked at the sight of all that Bardot flesh!!! Longest running film in the theatre’s history was “Goldfinger” which ran for over 2 months.
Run by Mel Novikov in the 60’s thru mid 80’s, this was a neighborhood art house and one of the Surf Theatre Group (which also included the Castro, Bridge, Clay and Lumiere). By the mid 80’s, it was one of the last of the “independant” theatres in SF and after closing became a childrens day care center. It was located just a couple of blocks from Ocean Beach.