Gate Theater

According to an article by the Sausalito Historical Society the opening date was May 28, 1915. At that time Bridgeway was known as Water Street. Presumably the street number would have been different. When it opened it featured electrically run projectors while the competing Swastika had hand driven ones.

The obituary of John Elliott in the January 20, 1917, issue of the Suasalito News said that he had built and operated the Princess Theatre. An item from the February 6, 1915, issue of the same paper had said that Elliott would open the Princess about April 1. He had previously operated the Swastika Theatre since 1913.

Here’s an Article about The Gate Theater from the Website “Our Sausalito”: The Gate Theatre — Located at 668 Bridgeway in Sausalito in a spot now occupied by an art gallery, this movie theatre was built as the Princess Theatre (being near Princess St.) and was renamed the Gate in honor of the new Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930’s. By 1953 it had come under the control of the Blumenfeld family, who over time acquired most of the movie houses in the County. As television sets became standard features of American homes movie attendance dropped and The Gate was closed in favor of the nearby Marin Theatre (now Cinearts at Marin, a modernized three-screen facility), also then owned by the Blumenfelds. Some stage productions were still held at The Gate through the mid-60’s, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe called the place home in 1965. The Grateful Dead played there at least once in the mid-1960’s.

Here’s a picture of The Gate Theater from the 1950’s. http://gallery.me.com/jason.lewis/100678/slide991/web.jpg

Something’s a little wrong with the 668 Bridgeway address. In the 1948 movie, “Impact” there’s a scene filmed further up Bridgeway, where the square borders it. The Gate Theater is clearly visible in the background, on the left side of the street. I think the theater stood where the oddly shaped modern building is now, the last building on the left, at the t-bone intersection of Bridgeway and Princess. The building I’m referring to is occupied by the store, “Jewelry by the Bay”.

Thinking about jerry kovar’s introductory paragraph, I suspect that the reason attraction board lettering on the Gate’s marquee said “Marin Theatre” when the signage said Gate in the 1955 photo is most likely that the Gate was closed and its attraction board was being used to advertise the Marin Theatre.

The October 24, 1953, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Gate Theatre had been closed by the Blumenfeld circuit. I found a 1945 Boxoffice item mentioning the Marin Theatre, and the Gate Theatre was also in operation at that time, so they were different theaters. Both houses were operated by Blumenfeld. It’s unlikely that Marin Theater is an actual aka for the Gate Theatre.

lostmemory;
Yet another one added to the list!

The Sausalito history link given above by MagicLantern gives an opening date of 1915 as the Princess Theatre with a street address of 668 Bridgeway Ave, Sausalito,CA. It was re-named the Gate Theatre in the 1930’s (in honour of the newly built Golden Gate Bridge).

It is still listed as the Gate in 1952, but in both the 1950 and 1952 Film Daily Yearbook’s there is a larger 604 seat Marin Theatre also listed. The address of the Marin is given as Pine and Caledonia Street’s

Film Daily Yearbook’s give a seating capacity for the Gate as 325.

This theatre was located at 668 Bridgeway; a photograph of the facade as it stands today can be found here: View link