The Ghirardelli Square Cinema

901 Beach St. | map |

Opening: As a film house, the Ghirardelli Square Cinema debuted August 20, 1971 with "Two Lane Blacktop." The photo with the initial attraction on the marquee is from the Jack Tillmany collection. Note his ticket stub. The complex dates from 1893. It reopened as a shopping, dining and entertainment destination in 1964.

The theatre was operated by General Cinema. The space had been the location of the Hungry I nightclub from 1967 to 1970. They had moved from North Beach.

The Ghirardelli complex is bounded on the north by Beach St. (at the bottom of the drawing), on the west by Polk St. (on the right), on the south by North Point St. (at the top), and on the east by Larkin St. (on the left). The theatre was in the Power House building on the southeast corner of Beach and Polk Streets, seen here in the lower right. 

Jack comments: "The place never sparked, for good reason: It wasn't designed as a theatre, movie or otherwise; the entrance-way included non-ADA friendly stairs; the screen was in a corner where two walls met at a 45 degree angle, in order to get enough width; the floor was flat; the location was bad; parking was tough; obviously the brainchild of somebody who didn't have a clue as to what moviegoing or theatregoing was all about."

Donald Johanson adds: "That was a strange theater to work. From the booth, the screen was down and to the left, the shape of the aperture plates was unbelievable. Showing Cinemascope pictures there was a real challenge to focus across the width of the screen, almost impossible."

Closing: General Cinema closed it around December 1986.

It reopened April 3, 1987 as the Waterfront Theatre with a production callled "Pocket Opera." Jack Tillmany notes: "This was followed by live shows operated by entrepreneur Steve Dobbins. But the October 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake left it a shambles, and Dobbins walked away from it, claiming it was never intended as a theatrical space. It reopened again, and hung on until 31 December 1990 when it disappears off the radar with Comedy Showcase offering 'Countdown to 1991.'"  

 

The Ghirardelli Square Cinema in the Movies:

We get a shot of the theatre's marquee advertising "Exorcist IV" in Nicholas Meyer's "Time After Time" (Orion/Warner Bros.,1979). Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the theatre in the film.  

 

 

Malcolm McDowell, as H.G. Wells, leaving the theatre with Amy, played by Mary Steenburgen. She's a bank employee who will become Wells' wife after she time-travels back to London. Jack comments:  

 

"This is of my favorites of its era and which not only stands the test of time but has become a time capsule in itself showing a great deal of San Francisco as it was in 1979 long before it had been taken over by the homeless. Those were the Hare Krishna years - today's viewers probably don't know what they were all about. For plot purposes the (now long gone) Chartered Bank of London figures in the story. Having  'Exorcist IV' on the marquee is a joke which today's viewers won't comprehend. On the down side, there are a few of the usual geographical mistakes, and the special effects are primitive, even by 1979 standards, but overall it's still A-OK."

Later in the film we see McDowell going into a pawn shop next to the Tower Theatre in the Mission district. He's after a gun to finish off Jack the Ripper.

More exterior views:

A December 1974 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "The Ghirardelli shared 'Young Frankenstein' (which didn't seem to fit very well on the narrow size-controlled marquee very well) with the Empire."

An October 1975 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection with the theatre running "Rooster Cogburn."

An April 1987 look at the building as the Waterfront Theatre running "Pocket Opera." It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.


Elsewhere in the complex: 

Something called the Ghirardelli Square Theatre (aka Ghirardelli Theatre in the Square) was in the complex somewhere with a production of "The Fantasticks" beginning c.1963. A November 1966 ad located by Jack Tillmany notes that they had been running three years. In 1966 they added a Jolly Roger Show during the day for kids. See a marquee photo at the bottom of the page. It's possible this was the same space later used by the Hungry I and the Cinema but there's no data to confirm that.

The San Francisco Experience, a 29 projector seven screen tour of the city had a long run elsewhere in the Ghirardelli complex beginning in 1970. In 1974 it moved about three blocks away to location #2 - 333 Jefferson St., a building called Anchorage Square between Jones and Leavenworth. It reopened in late 1979 at location #3 - Stage Door Theatre and ran until September 1981. In 1984 a final version opened at location #4 - Pier 39.
 

A 1967 photo from Robert Larson on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. Thanks to Kevin Walsh for spotting it.

More information: Jack Tillmany's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco" can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller. 

Wilipedia has an article on the Ghirardelli Square complex. Wikipedia also has an article on the Hungry I. The Cinema Treasures site has a page about the theatre.

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