Not so odd a name davidcoppock to longtime Bay Area residents who remember that the Santa Clara Valley was covered with orchards before it was covered with concrete and sprawl starting in the 1950’s. Prunes were one of the local crops and Santa Clara County had the largest prune growing area of the state.
I don’t think this is the Esquire in SF. Looking down Market St in the photo above it appears that the block this theatre is on goes quite a ways. The Esquire (or Frolic in this picture) was located right near the intersection of Eddy, Market and Powell.
bigjoe59….I posted the link because as Mr Louis says in the article it is the most common problem he encounters in other (than Alamo I assume) theaters. The only sure way to find out if CM was projected dimly at the Orpheum would be to see it at another theater and compare. Or ask the manager at the Orpheum if films projected there meet the industry standard of 14 foot-lamberts. I’ve only been to an Alamo theatre once and it was to see one of the Star Wars films a couple of years ago in 3D. It was the best projected digital/3D film I’d ever seen. At the neighborhood theatre I go to regularly here in SF, digital film brightness is inconsistent and sometimes disappointing.
Mark Louis, Director of Presentation for the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, was interviewed on the linked website about screen brightness, masking, 3D etc. noting that “all digital movies are supposed to be projected at 14 foot-lamberts, an industry standard established by a group called DCI. In practice, many theaters fall short of that level of illumination.” You can read the entire article here:
Translation:
Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park is where the SF 49ers played until they moved to Candlestick Park.
(Red) Hickey was the team’s head coach in the early 1960’s.
Last game of the season for the 49ers and Hickey.
Too bad the “Movie Theatre News” on the home page has been ignored for so long. So I will post this here since SF is one of the 7 cities and the Castro one of the theaters presenting Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma in 70mm in Dec/January.
“Cuarón shot “Roma” on the Alexa65 digital camera, mastering at 4K resolution. FotoKem, the only remaining 70mm print lab worldwide, handled the transfer from digital to film, as well as the production of 70mm film prints.”
46 years have gone by since the last reserved seat engagement in SF (Man of La Mancha at the Golden Gate 1) began in Dec 1972. This past August 2001: A Space Odyssey played in 70mm/IMAX for a week at the Metreon IMAX as a reserved seat engagement.
bigjoe59….10 theaters are listed at the link in MSC77’s link. One of them, the Orpheum Cinerama started reserve seating in 1952 with This Is Cinerama but that and subsequent 3 strip Cinerama at the Orpeheum is not listed because the link is for 70mm/roadshow.
Added 3 photos, all taken about a week ago, one of which is the plaque displayed in front of the theatre regarding it’s status as the nation’s oldest theatre built for feature films.
moviebuff82….Balboa High School is in the southern part of San Francisco in the Excelsior District 6-7 miles from the Balboa Theatre which is in the Outer Richmond District.
My last time seeing a film in this theatre (then known as the York) was during this same time (late 80’s) that sfinthe80’s mentions. The film was Stop Making Sense. I don’t know if Dolby had been installed but the acoustics were fantastic and shown on a fairly large screen.
bigjoe59….I don’t have a subscription to Variety online to double check this in their archives but just unearthed my Preston Kauffman hardbound Fabulous Fox book which has every film listed that played there by year (including weekly grosses) from opening to closing of the theatre. The Diary of Anne Frank played there during the 30th and 31st weeks of 1959 – sometime in late July. It was released on March 18, 1959, (the premier was at the Palace?). So wondering if that indeed was a first run engagement. Or if so, it may have been moved over to another smaller theatre. It grossed $12,652 the first week and $10,198 the 2nd, about average for films that played this 4651 seat theatre during a time of declining movie attendance. The highest grossing film that year was The Shaggy Dog which had a $26,151 1st week gross (and played a 3 week run). Throughout the time the Fox was open (1929-1963) 1 and 2 week runs were the norm. The longest running films (at 9 weeks) were The Robe and The King and I.
Not so odd a name davidcoppock to longtime Bay Area residents who remember that the Santa Clara Valley was covered with orchards before it was covered with concrete and sprawl starting in the 1950’s. Prunes were one of the local crops and Santa Clara County had the largest prune growing area of the state.
I don’t think this is the Esquire in SF. Looking down Market St in the photo above it appears that the block this theatre is on goes quite a ways. The Esquire (or Frolic in this picture) was located right near the intersection of Eddy, Market and Powell.
Lucky me. There are 7,021 open movie theaters within 30 miles of my zipcode.
bigjoe59….I posted the link because as Mr Louis says in the article it is the most common problem he encounters in other (than Alamo I assume) theaters. The only sure way to find out if CM was projected dimly at the Orpheum would be to see it at another theater and compare. Or ask the manager at the Orpheum if films projected there meet the industry standard of 14 foot-lamberts. I’ve only been to an Alamo theatre once and it was to see one of the Star Wars films a couple of years ago in 3D. It was the best projected digital/3D film I’d ever seen. At the neighborhood theatre I go to regularly here in SF, digital film brightness is inconsistent and sometimes disappointing.
Mark Louis, Director of Presentation for the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, was interviewed on the linked website about screen brightness, masking, 3D etc. noting that “all digital movies are supposed to be projected at 14 foot-lamberts, an industry standard established by a group called DCI. In practice, many theaters fall short of that level of illumination.” You can read the entire article here:
Screencrush.com
MSC77….just saw your Oct 23 post – forgot all about the LTIP Royal engagement. Thanks.
From helicopter or drone TV coverage of the Russian River flood that I saw this evening on local (SF) news this theatre appears to be inundated.
Translation: Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park is where the SF 49ers played until they moved to Candlestick Park. (Red) Hickey was the team’s head coach in the early 1960’s. Last game of the season for the 49ers and Hickey.
That looks like Eddie Mueller introducing the films at the Tab Hunter tribute.
Too bad the “Movie Theatre News” on the home page has been ignored for so long. So I will post this here since SF is one of the 7 cities and the Castro one of the theaters presenting Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma in 70mm in Dec/January.
70mm Roma
From a paywalled LA Times article:
“Cuarón shot “Roma” on the Alexa65 digital camera, mastering at 4K resolution. FotoKem, the only remaining 70mm print lab worldwide, handled the transfer from digital to film, as well as the production of 70mm film prints.”
46 years have gone by since the last reserved seat engagement in SF (Man of La Mancha at the Golden Gate 1) began in Dec 1972. This past August 2001: A Space Odyssey played in 70mm/IMAX for a week at the Metreon IMAX as a reserved seat engagement.
bigjoe59….10 theaters are listed at the link in MSC77’s link. One of them, the Orpheum Cinerama started reserve seating in 1952 with This Is Cinerama but that and subsequent 3 strip Cinerama at the Orpeheum is not listed because the link is for 70mm/roadshow.
Current photo added.
Added 3 photos, all taken about a week ago, one of which is the plaque displayed in front of the theatre regarding it’s status as the nation’s oldest theatre built for feature films.
moviebuff82….Balboa High School is in the southern part of San Francisco in the Excelsior District 6-7 miles from the Balboa Theatre which is in the Outer Richmond District.
The Grand Lake has been sold to it’s leaseholder Allen Michaan who says he will continue to show films far into the future.
Grand Lake
This theatre’s status should be changed to Closed.
After a 50 year run the Nob Hill had it’s finale yesterday.
Nob Hill
My last time seeing a film in this theatre (then known as the York) was during this same time (late 80’s) that sfinthe80’s mentions. The film was Stop Making Sense. I don’t know if Dolby had been installed but the acoustics were fantastic and shown on a fairly large screen.
Looks like Hitchcock’s Rope was playing.
Hwy 17 (now Interstate 880) was named after Chester W Nimitz, chief of naval operations for the Pacific fleet and fleet Admiral.
The curtain is coming down on the Nob Hill August 19.
Nob Hill closing
Photo taken Jan 1, 2016.
The cut and paste link in Howard’s 2001 70mm Imax link post says “Not Found”. I think this is it:
2001 IMAX list
The address given for this theatre at the Joe Vogel’s link is 1281 Market.
Recently saw this photo attributed to the SF Public Library and dated 1942.
bigjoe59….I don’t have a subscription to Variety online to double check this in their archives but just unearthed my Preston Kauffman hardbound Fabulous Fox book which has every film listed that played there by year (including weekly grosses) from opening to closing of the theatre. The Diary of Anne Frank played there during the 30th and 31st weeks of 1959 – sometime in late July. It was released on March 18, 1959, (the premier was at the Palace?). So wondering if that indeed was a first run engagement. Or if so, it may have been moved over to another smaller theatre. It grossed $12,652 the first week and $10,198 the 2nd, about average for films that played this 4651 seat theatre during a time of declining movie attendance. The highest grossing film that year was The Shaggy Dog which had a $26,151 1st week gross (and played a 3 week run). Throughout the time the Fox was open (1929-1963) 1 and 2 week runs were the norm. The longest running films (at 9 weeks) were The Robe and The King and I.