El Capitan Theatre
2353 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
2353 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
5 people
favorited this theater
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Not to be confused with that other el capitan theater which went by a different name..
June 29th, 1928 grand opening ad in the photo section.
It’s still a hotel and even has a web site.
Is the hotel building still used?
Constructed in 1928
Exterior photos from July 2015.
What remains of the El Capitan Theatre and Hotel was designated a San Francisco city landmark in 1996, which was unfortunately long after the auditorium had been demolished. A PDF of the Planning Commission document with the history of the building can be downloaded with this link. The document says that while G. Albert Lansburgh did in fact act as consulting architect on the project, the architect of record was William H. Crim.
Vaudeville dancers at the El Capitan, 1932.
At least they didn’t COMPLETELY destroy it. I’d rather see it become a drive through parking lot with the facade in tact than see it demolished and becoming a Walmart or something…
Wow. This theater looked beautiful. I wish we could see some more pictures of the interior. It’s a shame that it had to become a parking lot of all things.
Some additional photos of the theater fron the San Francisco Public Library: 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Obituaries of San Francisco architect William H. Crim, Jr. list the El Capitan Theatre in San Francisco as one of his designs. I think that the current attribution of the house to G. Albert Lansburgh on this page might be the result of a conflation of the San Francisco El Capitan with the Hollywood El Capitan, which Lansburgh did design. I’ve been unable to find any sources showing any connection between Lansburgh and this San Francisco house, though I suppose it’s possible he was architect for a later remodeling job.
A few July 2012 photos can be seen here, here and here.
I had my choice on Saturday mornings of the 5 theatres:El Capitan, Grand. Crown, New Mission and Tower. They showed serial adventures. Admission was 5 cents but quite often you got in free for bottle caps. I would spend Friday afternoons down by the library going through drink machines for discarded caps so I had a supply. Unfortunately we left SF around 1953, and I didn’t return until the late 60’s and didn’t have the interest in serials anymore.
We called it “The Cap” and it was a beautiful theater. The marquee flashed in beautiful colors and the sign would spell out the letters of the theater one by one. A tall big guy named Dan Mcclean ran the place. He was always dressed in a tuxedo and top hat, greeting you as you came in. I remember his huge black handlebar moustache, my mom thought he was a cutie pie and he would flirt with her. There was a powderroom upstairs and my mom had to powder her nose one more time before we left, and she flirted with him on the way out. What I remember about the Cap, were those beautiful curtains on the stage, there were two of them. When the curtains opened there was another one right behind it that started to open and went straight up. The previews would start and on the screen it would say, “Coming Soon…..To YOUR El Capitan” it made you feel like you owned it.
This photograph of the El Capitan Theatre was taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
To comment on the previous post: It was not a bad location at all. El Capitan was, to quote the late SF theatre historian Steve Levin, “A phenomenal moneymaker before television.” From that point, the huge capacity of the house made it a white elephant very quickly, and indeed, competition from smaller, more efficient-to-run theatres in the area would have had an effect. Any need for a big house in the Mission neighborhood was filled by the smaller, but still capaceous, New Mission Theatre, across the street and to the South. The New Mission managed to keep its doors open into the 1990s, but not without having taken a turn as a boxing match venue before reverting back to a regular movie policy in its last years. Add to this the smaller Tower, Grand, and Crown, and a downtown-sized palace like El Capitan was a dinosaur, once people started staying home more to watch the Small Screen.
I’m guessing this was in a bad location, or there was oversaturation in the neighborhood. It seems like that was usually the case with the houses that closed in the mid – late 50’s.
Ken mc… FYI, regarding you notes of Feb 29, 2008;
Apart from the cluster of theaters around that part of Mission Street, there are others several miles out of downtown as this endless road winds its way through the Mission district.
Vintage photo:
View link
I’ve posted some recent photos here.
The 1930s marquee which replaced the original, and which is still on the facade as seen in the photo in the previous post, is exactly the same design as that of the Grand Lake in Oakland, just done in a typical trapezoid shape, as aopposed to the wide sweeping curve which the Grand Lake marquee has partly due to its corner location. I would guess the El Capitan marquee had tubes and color like those of the Grand Lake, and probably animated in a similar or identical fashion.
I have long had the dream that someday the Mission neighborhood will pick itself up to a point where the site of the El Capitan’s auditorium could be built upon with both an underground parking garage and a multistory multiplex. The facade would be restored, the marquee relit and outfitted with digital readerboards, and patrons would walk through the still extant foyer with its plasterwork restored, to the new structure behind. Then, down the street, the New Mission Theatre would be the performing arts center for the area.
Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cyquvh
David: I’m relying on the information accompanying the photo at the website of the San Francisco Public Library. The library identifies the photo as follows: “Dan McLean standing in doorway of the El Capitan with an unidentified woman and man.” It gives the date as 1932, which was the year “The Wet Parade” was released.
Joe, are you absolutely sure the saloon photo comes from the El Capitan and 1932? I have been told that the exact photo was of Don Maclean (the Ten-O-Win guy) of the Embassy Theater, from very early in his career, and was actually a photo from a downtown theater. Does anybody know the facts for sure about this photo?