A homeowner in the Balboa Park district of SF has found original blueprints of the Fox in a cabinet in her garage. She has arranged to donate them to the SF Public Library’s History Center.
Recently found a 1967 ad in one of the local peninsula newspapers and posted it in photos. In 1967 it was called the Palo Alto Automovie. The Oregon Expressway turnoff from the Bayshore Freeway mentioned in the ad is just north of the actual location of the drive in.
Hi bigjoe59…seem to remember a discussion about this (Titanic) but cannot find the comments on either the Presidio or Marina theater pages here which are the 2 theaters on Chestnut St. - Titanic played at both. I saw it at the Presidio, G. DeLuca posted a pic on the Marina page from when it played there. The first THX installation in SF was at the UA Galaxy on Van Ness according to a Feb 2018 comment on the AMC Kabuki page.
bigjoe59 - I’ve uploaded a screen shot from google maps to Photos of the Coliseum. The ground floor is now a Walgreens. The rest of the building has been turned into condos.
A Alverez…and where did his/her posts go???? In fact this most recent thread (up until yesterday’s date) completely disappeared from the “Recent Comments” list accessible from the Home page.
The Arlington is celebrating it’s 90th anniversary and has reopened.
“Kicking off the day’s events on Saturday, May 22 at 12:30pm will be a free live performance featuring organ music provided by the Santa Barbara Theatre Organ Society with special guest organist Adam Aceto. Aceto will play on the Arlington’s Great Theatre Pipe Organ, a 1928 Robert-Morton “Wonder Morton” of which only 5 were ever made.”
With the $5 admission ticket the organ performance, a film and free popcorn were included.
Hi Bigjoe59….according to Michael Coate’s chronology of large format and roadshow exhibition list 1953 - present, Circus World ran 13 weeks beginning Dec 21, 1964.
The Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters, two historic performance venues along Market Street in San Francisco, will be taken over by the Ambassador Theatre Group, the British company that also operates the Curran Theater on Geary Street.
The Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters, two historic performance venues along Market Street in San Francisco, will be taken over by the Ambassador Theatre Group, the British company that also operates the Curran Theater on Geary Street.
terrywade…Did some digging and found the Time Space Group developer website still lists this project in 2021 as “active”. The City’s Planning Commission held a conditional use permit hearing in summer 2019 and approved the project so guessing the covid 19 pandemic slowed the whole thing down. Here is their website with photos and renderings:
Here is one of the documents presented to the Planning Commission in June 2019 with historical photos and Time Space plans to incorporate the interior walls into the project as wells as elevation development plans for the 3 levels:
The adjacent parking lot condo development apparently was the first part of the project. I’ve driven out Geary Blvd numerous times recently and didn’t even notice The Alexandria Residences had been built on the lot!
bigjoe59…..In 2016 John Glatt’s book Live at the Fillmore East and West was published. I read it about 2 years ago and still have a copy of it. The closing of both Fillmore East and West (the SF venue’s closing was announced the day after Fillmore East had its last concert) was a long time coming.
I went to many concerts at the original Fillmore and then Fillmore West. Graham occasionally was called out on stage from the audience whenever he raised ticket prices (“capatalist pig” etc) while he was on stage in the middle of announcing the next act. Every time he would point out that it was the bands that wanted more money and he had no choice. (Ticket prices at the time as I recall were $2 - 3.50). At one show I attended he asked a heckler to come up on stage and debate it with him. The heckler declined -(if you ever heard that Bronx accented angry profanity laden mouth you would decline too!!)
In the book he’s quoted as saying that “Woodstock syndrome would be the beginning of the end”. That is, that the bands would want a lot more money from a lot more people than could attend old theaters and ballrooms, even SF’s Winterland that had 5400 occupancy for rock shows.
High overhead at all the venues plus drugs and police problems, Graham feeling abuse from the press and public and a front page story in the SF Chronicle that moved up the closing of Fillmore West signaled the end. Apparently somebody spiked some “liquid refreshment” during a Grateful Dead show at Winterland with acid that sent a lot on bad trips to the emergency room at nearby Mt Zion hospital. More bad press for Graham.
Graham decided that if you can’t beat em, join em. So he started doing mega concerts at stadiums and indoor and outdoor arenas where he wouldn’t lose money and the bands could get rich. He went into acting briefly (Apocalypse Now) and staged the final show at Winterland (The Last Waltz) in 1976.
In the book, the last concert held at Fillmore East sounded like one for the ages.
In 1965 my cousin and I drove across the country to see the World’s Fair in NY. On the way back we stayed with my mother’s cousin in Dayton and went to this theatre and saw Crack in the World. As soon as I walked in I wished I’d brought my camera. Not many people there for a weekday matinee so I roamed the theatre marveling at the marvelous (Rapp and Rapp?) architecture. It’s a shame it couldn’t hang on.
For those of you with access to films at Kanopy.com you can watch Abel Ferrara’s The Projectionist, mentioned in the NYT link in CC’s Oct 29, 2020 post. Numerous shots of vintage Times Sq theaters and other NYC theaters (including the Alpine) owned by Nick Nicolau.
Translation:
The Princess Theater in the Jonquière district to the west of the city, inaugurated in 1943 and closed in the early 1960s. It reopened in the early 1970s under the name Cinéma Elysée and closed at the end of the 1980s. It belonged to Leo Choquette and France-Film. Adult films have been shown here.
Thanks for posting this kinospoter. Had never seen one of the ToddAO screen. By the time I saw my first movie at the Coronet (early 1960’s) it had been removed.
ridethectrain….I wouldn’t go into a movie theater right now whether they were selling refreshments or not and believe me, one of the joys of a recently retired (about 1 year ago) lifestyle was going to at least one film a week at various SF theaters. SF is in the least restrictive category for California’s counties however the mayor seems to have listened to her Dept of Public Health head from the get go last January and imposed even stricter restrictions across the board than the state’s standards. That and recent news reports of almost universal mask wearing (appx 95%) has kept the level of infections and deaths at one of the lowest per capita for a large city in the US. Apparently because of Halloween/parties and people letting their guard down SF’s positive percentage rate has tripled in the last month so would not be surprised if theaters (and other businesses) were ordered to close completely again or be further restricted if this trend continues (very limited indoor restaurant dining was curtailed just this past week). Stay safe.
Added to above:
“RESTRICTED
For indoor movie theater complexes with multiple individual theaters, the capacity limit for the entire complex is 25%, and the limit for each individual theater or auditorium is 50 people.”
Outsidelands.org El Rey page here.
A homeowner in the Balboa Park district of SF has found original blueprints of the Fox in a cabinet in her garage. She has arranged to donate them to the SF Public Library’s History Center.
Fox Blueprints
Recently found a 1967 ad in one of the local peninsula newspapers and posted it in photos. In 1967 it was called the Palo Alto Automovie. The Oregon Expressway turnoff from the Bayshore Freeway mentioned in the ad is just north of the actual location of the drive in.
Hi bigjoe59…seem to remember a discussion about this (Titanic) but cannot find the comments on either the Presidio or Marina theater pages here which are the 2 theaters on Chestnut St. - Titanic played at both. I saw it at the Presidio, G. DeLuca posted a pic on the Marina page from when it played there. The first THX installation in SF was at the UA Galaxy on Van Ness according to a Feb 2018 comment on the AMC Kabuki page.
bigjoe59 - I’ve uploaded a screen shot from google maps to Photos of the Coliseum. The ground floor is now a Walgreens. The rest of the building has been turned into condos.
The Great Star has reopened. From their website:
Great Star
Just scrolled through the lot of them Cinerama- thanks for taking the time to post them.
Market St tunnels for metro lines K, L and M being dug and Castro St station where the fenced open hole is at right.
A Alverez…and where did his/her posts go???? In fact this most recent thread (up until yesterday’s date) completely disappeared from the “Recent Comments” list accessible from the Home page.
The Arlington is celebrating it’s 90th anniversary and has reopened.
“Kicking off the day’s events on Saturday, May 22 at 12:30pm will be a free live performance featuring organ music provided by the Santa Barbara Theatre Organ Society with special guest organist Adam Aceto. Aceto will play on the Arlington’s Great Theatre Pipe Organ, a 1928 Robert-Morton “Wonder Morton” of which only 5 were ever made.”
With the $5 admission ticket the organ performance, a film and free popcorn were included.
Photos added.
Hi Bigjoe59….according to Michael Coate’s chronology of large format and roadshow exhibition list 1953 - present, Circus World ran 13 weeks beginning Dec 21, 1964.
The Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters, two historic performance venues along Market Street in San Francisco, will be taken over by the Ambassador Theatre Group, the British company that also operates the Curran Theater on Geary Street.
SF Chronicloe
The Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters, two historic performance venues along Market Street in San Francisco, will be taken over by the Ambassador Theatre Group, the British company that also operates the Curran Theater on Geary Street.
SF Chronicle
terrywade…Did some digging and found the Time Space Group developer website still lists this project in 2021 as “active”. The City’s Planning Commission held a conditional use permit hearing in summer 2019 and approved the project so guessing the covid 19 pandemic slowed the whole thing down. Here is their website with photos and renderings:
TimeSpace
Here is one of the documents presented to the Planning Commission in June 2019 with historical photos and Time Space plans to incorporate the interior walls into the project as wells as elevation development plans for the 3 levels:
SF Planning Commission
The Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon article describing the plans:
Richmond Review
The adjacent parking lot condo development apparently was the first part of the project. I’ve driven out Geary Blvd numerous times recently and didn’t even notice The Alexandria Residences had been built on the lot!
bigjoe59…..In 2016 John Glatt’s book Live at the Fillmore East and West was published. I read it about 2 years ago and still have a copy of it. The closing of both Fillmore East and West (the SF venue’s closing was announced the day after Fillmore East had its last concert) was a long time coming. I went to many concerts at the original Fillmore and then Fillmore West. Graham occasionally was called out on stage from the audience whenever he raised ticket prices (“capatalist pig” etc) while he was on stage in the middle of announcing the next act. Every time he would point out that it was the bands that wanted more money and he had no choice. (Ticket prices at the time as I recall were $2 - 3.50). At one show I attended he asked a heckler to come up on stage and debate it with him. The heckler declined -(if you ever heard that Bronx accented angry profanity laden mouth you would decline too!!) In the book he’s quoted as saying that “Woodstock syndrome would be the beginning of the end”. That is, that the bands would want a lot more money from a lot more people than could attend old theaters and ballrooms, even SF’s Winterland that had 5400 occupancy for rock shows. High overhead at all the venues plus drugs and police problems, Graham feeling abuse from the press and public and a front page story in the SF Chronicle that moved up the closing of Fillmore West signaled the end. Apparently somebody spiked some “liquid refreshment” during a Grateful Dead show at Winterland with acid that sent a lot on bad trips to the emergency room at nearby Mt Zion hospital. More bad press for Graham. Graham decided that if you can’t beat em, join em. So he started doing mega concerts at stadiums and indoor and outdoor arenas where he wouldn’t lose money and the bands could get rich. He went into acting briefly (Apocalypse Now) and staged the final show at Winterland (The Last Waltz) in 1976. In the book, the last concert held at Fillmore East sounded like one for the ages.
And a follow up story Feb 12, 2021:
Empire West Portal
Here is the SFGate story on the Empire’s closing:
Empire
In 1965 my cousin and I drove across the country to see the World’s Fair in NY. On the way back we stayed with my mother’s cousin in Dayton and went to this theatre and saw Crack in the World. As soon as I walked in I wished I’d brought my camera. Not many people there for a weekday matinee so I roamed the theatre marveling at the marvelous (Rapp and Rapp?) architecture. It’s a shame it couldn’t hang on.
Interview with David Hegarty, house organist from today’s (Jan 22, 2021) SFGate:
SFGate
For those of you with access to films at Kanopy.com you can watch Abel Ferrara’s The Projectionist, mentioned in the NYT link in CC’s Oct 29, 2020 post. Numerous shots of vintage Times Sq theaters and other NYC theaters (including the Alpine) owned by Nick Nicolau.
Trailer
Translation: The Princess Theater in the Jonquière district to the west of the city, inaugurated in 1943 and closed in the early 1960s. It reopened in the early 1970s under the name Cinéma Elysée and closed at the end of the 1980s. It belonged to Leo Choquette and France-Film. Adult films have been shown here.
Thanks for posting this kinospoter. Had never seen one of the ToddAO screen. By the time I saw my first movie at the Coronet (early 1960’s) it had been removed.
This photo was posted May 2019.
ridethectrain….I wouldn’t go into a movie theater right now whether they were selling refreshments or not and believe me, one of the joys of a recently retired (about 1 year ago) lifestyle was going to at least one film a week at various SF theaters. SF is in the least restrictive category for California’s counties however the mayor seems to have listened to her Dept of Public Health head from the get go last January and imposed even stricter restrictions across the board than the state’s standards. That and recent news reports of almost universal mask wearing (appx 95%) has kept the level of infections and deaths at one of the lowest per capita for a large city in the US. Apparently because of Halloween/parties and people letting their guard down SF’s positive percentage rate has tripled in the last month so would not be surprised if theaters (and other businesses) were ordered to close completely again or be further restricted if this trend continues (very limited indoor restaurant dining was curtailed just this past week). Stay safe.
Added to above: “RESTRICTED For indoor movie theater complexes with multiple individual theaters, the capacity limit for the entire complex is 25%, and the limit for each individual theater or auditorium is 50 people.”