Market Street Cinema
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 76 comments
The theater as a strip club had several people die in it and was haunted. Paranormal investigators were terrified to go into the basement where the deaths occurred.
bigjoe59 Both the comments earlier in this thread and in other sources lead me to believe that The MSC locale began exclusively showing “adult” films in 1980 and then brought back mainstream “roadshow” films for just a few months before returning to adult films until 1986. At that time it seems that they moved over to a combined nude strip club in front section/ projected video of adult film in back section setup, its final advertised format when the locale went dark in Jan. 2013.
Hi bigjoe59- Getting the answers to your 2 questions may not be as simple. There are a lot of links to this theater online but no definitive timeline after 1972 that would provide answers for you. My recollection (and going back 45 years may be hazy) but I seem to remember 1st or 2nd run martial arts films playing in the 70’s, for a period the theater hosted live bands (late 70’s-early 80’s?), then XXX in the 80’s and “live” XXX shows added (90’s?) before closing in 2013.
Hello From NYC-
i have a simple 2 part question-a)when this theater close down as a regular movie theater was it still a 1st run venue or had it become a 2nd/3rd run grind house? b)what time passed between it closing down as a regular movie theater and reopening as an adult cinema?
Former owner of this and the Campus has passed away.
http://hoodline.com/2016/11/rip-habib-carouba-a-san-francisco-porn-pioneer
Here is the link to the article (with some pictures) about the beginning of the demo and what will be built on the Market St Cinema site:
UA
Demolition of the structure commenced on Thursday, July 7, 2016. The current developer’s goal is to have a new structure finished there by March 2018.
Go by the old United Artists Theatre and say goodbye. Many 70mm roadshow movies played here like Sound Of Music, Patton, The Bilble and L of Arabia. A sad loss to SF another movie theatre about to be torn down.
From the (San Francisco) Examiner October 24, 2015
“The Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a project to demolish the concrete building, constructed in 1912 as the Grauman’s Imperial Theater, and build a 90-foot-tall, eight-story building with about 90 residences and 8,500 square feet of retail space.
“An auditorium takes up about half the building’s footprint, where there is also a vacant theater and three small retail spaces along Market Street. Significant interior and exterior alterations have occurred since the structure was built, preventing the building from qualifying for the California Register of Historical Resources.”
The burlesque/adult movie house here actually ceased its operations in January of 2013.
Fifty years ago today “The Sound of Music” premiered at the United Artists Theater. With a reserved-seat run of 93 weeks, do you think it is the long-run record holder for this venue?
Also, on a related note, I would like to mention my new 50th anniversary retrospective for “The Sound of Music” can be read here.
I am writing an article on the end of the Market Street Cinema Theater at 1077 Market Street. I am looking for people that have been there for punk bands or any other venues. Please get back to me. Michael
Market St Theaters
In this morning’s SF Chronicle John King details the Mid Market push for more high-rise housing/office and the lack of esthetics of some of them. A few of the addresses sounded familiar. The project for 1066 Market (across the street from the Market St Cinema) will replace a small building and parking lot that was once the long ago demolished Paramount. The empty lot mentioned at 1125 Market is the site of the quake damaged, then demolished Embassy Theater.
I am pleased to see so much active dialogue about the fate of this theatre. I live in the neighborhood and have spoken with a local archivist advocate and friend who tells me:
The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as an intrusion. It has historical value, but the integrity of the original architecture has been lost due to alterations; hence intrusion and not landmark status. There is nothing left of its former grandeur."
In other words, it’s already been ruined and there is nothing left to save. I had always thought that that horrible red, white and blue effrontery was covering the original Grauman grandeur facade and would one day be eradicated and restored. I don’t know whether to be relieved or more depressed.
If it’s on the National Registry how can they raze it?
If you go to the photo page for the theatre I posted the photo there. Sorry for the mistake.
This link leads to a very cool picture of The auditorim of The Market Street Cinema, taken from the balcony. It shows how the strip club was built on the main floor leaving the balcony and rest of the theatre intact. This gives me hope that someone will be able to save this theatre from demolition, if they can deal with the ghosts…. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/–_RFLvjKtYNQ/Ua4An1JIC6I/AAAAAAAAAek/GtMC03BBrzI/s1600/DSCN0318.JPG
The old United Artists aka Market Street Cinema is now CLOSED. Was by the old locked up gated old palace today (4/29/2013) that at one time ran 70mm roadshows like Sound Of Music, Lawrence, Patton, The Bible and so many more. They had a big flat screen not curved but advertised they had Todd AO. The booth was a very long distance to the screen. When the porn girl gang took over the lease they put in a false ceiling. Now today I talked to the two remaining stores in the theatre building on the right and left side and they have not been given any close or vacate notice. I don’t think this old movie theatre is going to be torn down. It’s almost across and down the street from the Cinerama Orpheum Theatre that is to play the musical Mary Popins soon. Heard a rumor that another Chinese restaurant will move in the UA space? To bad the ACT people didn’t wait as the UA is a larger theatre then the Strand Theatre they may take over down the street If they get the funds. It’s time for the SHUBERTS to look into this old large Market Street theatre and give the Neederlanders some compition in San Francisco. Who ever takes over the theatre we hope they re paint the front as the bold RED and DARK BLUE outside paint is bad news.
My Fair Lady played a long reserved seat engagement at the Coronet out on Geary Blvd. Long reserved seat engagements at the United Artists included West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music, among others.
Sad to see what this theater has become. Didnt My Fair Lady play here? You’d never know it now!
A 1931 remodeling of the Imperial for the United Artists chain was the work of the Los Angeles architectural firm of Walker & Eisen, with Clifford Balch, associated. The project was reported in the April 17 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor that year.
Now that I look at the recent pictures of the theater’s facade and the sketch, it looks to me that the theater did get at least a version of the proposed new marquee (though it seems flatter than that in the sketch), but not the panels above, especially the arched ones with the lanterns. They probably would look dated now, but would still be an improvement over all that blue blahness and that section now painted red from the theater’s original entryway.
Thanks Cwalczak!
Well, here’s a site that has a sketch of what the the front of the theater was supposed to look like after Loew’s took it over, but I don’t think it actually ever got this facelift: View link
Any photos of when it was a LOEWS?