San Francisco Theatres: The Regency I / Regency Ballroom

1320 Van Ness Ave. | map |

Opened: 1911 as a Scottish Rite Tremple. The building is on the northeast corner of Van Ness and Sutter. The photo is from an article in the February 1918 issue of Architect and Engineer on various Masonic Temples in California.

Architects: O'Brien & Werner. William B. David was the architect for the Blumenfeld renovations in 1967 that turned it into a film house.

Seating: 800 as a movie theatre. As a concert venue the capacity is now 1,424.

Website: www.theregencyballroom.com

A floorplan from the February 1918 issue of Architect and Engineer. Van Ness runs along the bottom of the image, Sutter St. along the right.

The Blumenfeld circuit turned it into a film theatre, the Regency 1, in 1967. Despite the small screen size and bad sightlines due to the flat floor, it was one of the city's major first run houses for 30 years. It was eventually eclipsed by the nearby UA Galaxy 4 and the AMC Van Ness complexes.

Boxoffice covered the renovations in their May 20, 1968 issue:

Thanks to Justin Humphries for locating the article. He's the author of the Taschen book "Life. Hollywood."

The Blumenfeld's Regency II, the former Avalon Ballroom, was just around the corner on Sutter.

Closing as a film house: It closed as a film theatre in 1998. It's now called the Regency Ballroom, a concert venue operated by AEG/Goldenvoice.

Stage Data:

Proscenium: 30' wide x 20' high

Stage depth: 19' Stage wall to wall: 46'

Thrust: 9' deep x 42' wide

Stage height: 4' 4" above dance floor

Ceiling height above stage: 24'

Battens onstage: 32' long - 1 CS, 2 US - on winches - 150 lb. weight limit

Trusses: 2 onstage, 1 FOF - all 36' long

Power: 400A 3 phase SR, 100 A 3 phase SR

Dressing rooms: 4 Bathrooms: 2 Showers: none

Projection: Sanyo XF60 projector on FOF truss. 15' x 20' screen dead hung on upstage wall.

A floorplan from a 2014 Goldenvoice tech packet. It's available as a PDF: https://aeglive-theregencyballroom.s3.amazonaws.com/doc/regency_ballroom_tech_april2014.pdf

A house light plot from 2010. Thanks to Mike Hume for locating the tech data. Visit his Historic Theatre Photography site for tech information and thousands of great photos taken in the many theatres he's explored.

Status: The building was offered for sale or lease in 2021. Madeline Wells had the news in an October SF Gate story titled "Historic San Francisco concert venue the Regency Ballroom is up for sale." Thanks to Rob Doughty for spotting the story.

Interior views:

The building's rotunda in pre-snack bar days. From here one entered the side of the auditorium. The photo comes from the February 1918 issue of Architect and Engineer. It's on Internet Archive.

A photo from the May 20, 1968 issue of Boxoffice: "Carpet in atmospheric standee-foyer area is selected Regency period 'Crestwood.'"

A lobby view from the building's days as a Blumenfeld circuit film house on Film-Tech. It's a photo by Scott Neff. Head to their index page for a list of theatre photos on the site.

A view of the rotunda at the Regency, leading into the side of the auditorium space. Source and date unknown.

Thanks to Andra Young for sharing this 2016 look at the ceiling of the rotunda on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group. Her post included many other views she took of the complex during an Edwardian Ball held there.

The auditorium's original look. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this fine version of the photo seen in the February 1918 issue of Architect and Engineer.

A photo from the May 20, 1968 issue of Boxoffice: "Regency-styled Regency Theatre has 800 green and white pushback seats in staggered pattern...."

The view to the rear of the house from the Boxoffice article: "Irreplaceable Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers grace auditorium. 'Garden balconies' are decorated with realistically colored shrubbery in boxes. Advanced projection booth is 13x20 feet."

An auditorium view as a film house. The 1998 Scott Neff photo appears on Cinema Tour.

It's a view of the theatre using Hiroshi Sugimoto's technique of taking a long exposure the length of a feature film. Thanks to Gary Meyer for the link to a review of Sugimoto's new book "Hiroshi Sugimoto: Theatres" from Damiani/Matsumoto Press. The photo is from 1992 -- the theatre closed in 1998. Carey Dunne's review, titled "Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Otherworldly Photographs of Movie Theaters," also includes many other photos. It's on the blog Hyperallergic.

Gary also did a post on the BAHT Facebook page about the two Sugimoto exhibitions at the Frankel Gallery in Fall 2016.

A balcony view of the former film theatre, now back to ballroom mode. It appears on an UpOut page called "5 Historically Badass Places in SF You Can Still Visit Today."

A main floor view of the former theatre appearing on an eVenues page about the space.

A proscenium view. The photo is one of 26 with a February 2016 SF Gate article on the building by Ayssa Pereira.

A main floor view with the venue set up for a film. The photo appeared with the February 2016 SF Gate article.

A sidewall detail from the February 2016 SF Gate article.

A look toward the rear. The photo appeared with the February 2016 SF Gate article.

The ballroom set up for an Edwardian Ball. It's a photo with the February 2016 SF Gate article.

Don't miss the 2+ minute drone tour that sails through the three main performance spaces in the building. It's from the real estate firm CompassCAG and included in "Regency Ballroom Up for Sale...," an October 2021 story from SFist that also features a rendering of imaginary condos atop the structure. They noted that Goldenvoice would continue as tenant for at least part of the building after any sale. The fly-through can also be seen on Vimeo. Thanks to Mike Hume for spotting the story.

The lodge room upstairs -- the film theatre was in the ballroom downstairs that's seen in the photos above. The photo is one of 26 with the February 2016 SF Gate article on the building by Ayssa Pereira.

More exterior views:

The Van Ness facade in a photo from the February 1918 Architect and Engineer. It's on Internet Archive.

A 1925 photo looking west toward Van Ness. The building this side of the Scottish Rite Temple is the 1911 Trianon/Avalon Ballroom, later the home of Blumenfeld's Regency II. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the photo on the Open SF History Project site.

A c.1949 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A 1969 photo by Tom Gray that's from the Jack Tillmany collection. The Regency I was running "Candy." On the right the future Regency II is seen as still the Avalon Ballroom.

"The Great White Hope" running in 1970. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this photo taken by Fred Beall that's in his collection.

"Let's Do It Again" running in 1975. It's a photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A 1978 view looking north on Van Ness. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the shot in the SFMTA collection. He had it as a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

The theatre in 1979 during the run of "Star Trek." Thanks to Isabella Acuña for the post on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered.

Trekkies still lining up in February 1980. It's a photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack Tillmany collection.

It's the summer of 1981 and the customers are lined up to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The Steve Ringman photo for the Chronicle appears with Peter Hartlaub's September 12, 2015 SF Gate article "Our SF: The city's movie palaces make an unexpected comeback."