Eureka Theater

Tillmany: Jack, I literally grew up in your theater. My parents took me to all the perennial double features as a kid (Robin Hood, San Francisco, Seven Samurai, et al), and I spent most of my teenage weekends in your theater. I still remember closing night, the secret screening of a private collector’s print of “Vertigo,” and shaking your hand and wishing you luck. I know a lot of tearful friends and customers were there for you that night. “Vertigo” was just icing on the cake.

You were one of the greats of old film revival and restoration, and won’t be forgotten.

Tillmany, I still have the ‘San Francisco’ t-shirt from the Gateway. My brother worked there in the late 1970’s – Ralph Osborn. Did you know him?

ken mc: The Amazon is listed as the Apollo.

The Gateway Cinema opened in the Golden Gateway Center on 15 November 1967 with the Japanese film, Chushingura; it was initially operated by Edward and Roslyn Landberg who, at the time, were also operating the Cinema Guild on Telegraph Avenue and the Cinema on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. After two years, the location had failed to find an audience, and, in December 1970, I took it over and introduced a policy of full-time revival programming which became its trademark for the next ten years. The 1936 MGM classic, San Francisco, was a perennial favorite every April on the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire, and other popular titles were such evergreens as The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, as well as most of the well known Alfred Hitchcock thrillers. I sold out my interests in the Gateway in March 1981, after which time the revival policy was abandoned by the new operators in favor of foreign and independent films. It was eventually taken over by Landmark Theatres, and closed its doors as a film theatre on 22 September 1996. Since that time, it has been taken over by Eureka Theatre Company and renamed the Eureka. Seating has been cut in half, a stage has been built where none existed before, and live performances are now presented.

I recall seeing two films here in the past—Hard Boiled(US premier) and Henry:Portrait of A Serial Killer. The Gateway was run as an independent as a movie house most of its life(I believe Landmark did run it towards the end for a few years). In its earlier days, it shared bookings with the Cinema(aka Fine Arts) in Berkeley.

Tillmany(who posts on here on occasion) did manage the theater at one point and would probably know a lot more details.