A c.1964 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Thanks, Jack!
Opened: 1909 as the Silver Palace Theatre, one of the first to open on Market St after the fire. The San Francisco Call's October 31, 1908 issue announced that the Silver Palace had signed a lease for space in the Bancroft Building. The building is on the south side of the street opposite Grant Ave. In researching an opening date for the theatre, Jack Tillmany offered this report:
"The Silver Palace first appears in print 17 March 1909 advertising for a 'bright boy' with a uniform to act as usher; then on 19 March 1909 advertising appeared for a 'very tall man, the taller the better.' Incorporation papers were filed 19 March 1909 listing directors G. Polk Young, A.R. Fouratt and A.L. Bennett, so I'm ready to accept 19 March 1909 as its official opening date. We'll never have it any better than that."
The theatre was renamed the Hub Theatre in 1951 and had a glorious career continuing as a triple feature grind
house.
Seating: 299 in later years, 400 originally. "The Little Theatre With the Big Marquee"
This was one of six "Palace Theatres" included in a May 1, 1909 S.F. Bulletin advertorial featuring then-proprietor Ben Michaels, aka "The Nickelodeon King." It was at the top of the paper's three-page salute to "San Francisco's High-Class Moving-Picture Theatres," part of their Pacific Progress Issue:
The entrance of the Silver Palace is seen as theatre #4 in the spread. Michaels dreamed of having seven theatres, one "for each
day of the week." In addition to this one, at least two
others actually got open. The Gold Palace was at 1110 Market and "The Palace (First Theatre Built)," was at 644 Broadway. Later that was the site of the Verdi/World Theatre.
As for the Diamond Palace, the Ice Palace and the Crystal Palace, there's no data. There was a Palace Theatre at 2315 Market that opened later in 1913 but it was a Nasser Bros. operation and didn't look like any of the sketches. Another Palace Theatre was at 1708 Union. It opened in 1908 and also doesn't resemble any of the drawings.
In
addition to Ben's coverage, 25 other nickelodeons also advertised in
the Bulletin's section. Featured were the
long-winded articles "Education on Wheels - The Nickelodeon a Factor in
Modern Civilization," "The Nickelodeon a Permanent Factor in Public
Amusement" and "The 5-Cent Theater Opens Wide the Door of Pleasure to
the Scanty Purse." Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the section. More interesting were the ads for Miles Bros., selling the Edison Kinetoscope, and Western Amusement, selling the Motiograph #1, a machine that "prevents tired eyes and headaches." See the full pages of the section, which you can download and enlarge: page 36 | page 37 | page 38 |
The Silver Palace was listed as being among theatres that were participating
in a May 11, 1911 benefit for Children's Hospital in this article from
the May 27 issue
of The Film Index. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this list via Internet Archive.
The Silver Palace location is indicated as "Moving Pictures" in this detail from page 145 in volume 2 of the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. It's a narrow entrance but the space widened out as you went back. Stevenson St. is at the back of the building. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it as image 39 of this set on the Library of Congress website. Also see a detail from the 1949 version of the Sanborn as well as the full 1949 south side of the block.
What a busy block! Here's an annotated view of the south side of the block with the five theatres that were on the map in 1913:
See the pages for the Odeon Theatre at 747, the Unique Theatre at 757, the Portola/Paris at 779, the Pastime at 787 and the California/State, arriving in 1917 at 787.
The July 15, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World had this to say about the Silver Palace:
"The first moving picture house to be opened on Market street following the fire of 1906 was the Silver Palace, just above Third, with a seating capacity of about 400. This house, which was conducted by the late Benjamin Michaels and Harry M. Lichtenstein, was fitted up at a heavy expense and at the time was considered quite a wonderful place. It is still being operated and is now under the management of N. K. Herzog, who also has charge of the Pastime theater in the same block. Both of these houses make a daily change of program and charge an admission of five cents."
Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding the article. That Pastime Theatre they noted
was at 789 Market and came down to make room for the California
Theatre, erected in 1917.
A December 1, 1929 ad for Goldberg Theatres. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it.
The April-May 1949 calendar for the "Little Downtown Theatres" -- the Silver Palace, the
Newsreel (Crest,) the Regal and the Peerless. It's from the Jack Tillmany
collection.
The
August-September 1949 calendar for the Silver Palace, the
Newsreel/Crest, the Regal and the Peerless. It's from the Jack Tillmany
collection.
A Silver Palace ticket. Thanks to Chloe Ginnever for including the image in a 2020 post on the BAHT Facebook page highlighting various items recently found at the Vogue Theatre.
Donald Johanson comments:
"I worked the Hub in the mid-60's, the booth was a corrugated box on a landing that at one time might have been the balcony. The generator for the arc lamps was right up against one of the walls. Noisy in the booth like you can't believe. What a way to spend the night. I remember the marquee said 'Servicemen in uniform get in free.'"
Thanks to Gary Meyer for sharing this. He comments: "In going through old papers and repertory cinema flyers I found this 1968 press release for the Hub's last gasp programming. Manager Wally Levin was famous for his marquee jokes and they carried over to press releases."
Page 2 of the February 1968 press release. Thanks, Gary!
By 1969 the theatre had gone to porno.
Status: It closed in 1972 when the Yerba Buena Center construction was underway. The building is still there but the theatre space, and the rest of the ground floor retail area, is now a CVS.
Interior views:
A rare interior view from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "The original 1909 Silver Palace Cupids smile down approvingly as the renamed Hub updates to Wide Screen CinemaScope."
Regarding the masking Jack notes: "... I was there several times and there was no change in the ratio between flat and scope; the scope was tolerable, considering the size and limitations of the room, no worse than what was offered at a lot of other larger venues, (such as the Royal & Embassy as well as the 4-Star, before they were later corrected, and Serra/Colma which never changed & so even showed 'Jaws' that way), but Hub at least offered a last chance to see wide screen films theatrically before (and even sometimes after) being 'formatted to fit your screen' which is how they described the godawful pan/scan treatment they received on television. Pre-1954 standard ratio titles suffered the most because of the chopped off tops and bottoms, another common problem at that time, which can be traced back to Paramount's promoting 'Shane' as Wide Screen in 1953, when it was actually filmed, and should have been shown, in the 4:3 Academy Ratio; ditto MGM's 'Julius Caesar.'"
A detail of the one of the side wall cupids from the collection of Jack Tillmany.
More exterior views:
An October 1909 Portola Day Parade photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. The Silver Palace is down the block with its "Theatre" sign swung out over the sidewalk. And, no, it's not being called the Post Theatre. That's a separate sign beyond the theatre entrance for the Evening Post newspaper, another tenant in the building. In the foreground that's the California Dairy Kitchen at 743 Market and the Gallery of Scientific Wonders at 745.
Thanks
to John Bosko for this 1910 view of the Bancroft Building from his
collection. He notes that they're running "A Georgia
Possum Hunt" and "The Skippers Yarn," both January 1910 releases.
More from John: "The business on the left is C.O.Hahn Co. at #725...The Evening Post is headquartered in this building. This is the Bancroft building, main entrance on the right, which is listed at 731 Market Street." It was a 2015 post on the BAHT Facebook page.
More from John: "The business on the left is C.O.Hahn Co. at #725...The Evening Post is headquartered in this building. This is the Bancroft building, main entrance on the right, which is listed at 731 Market Street." It was a 2015 post on the BAHT Facebook page.
A detail of the theatre's entrance from the photo above. Thanks again to John Bosko for the 2017 post on the BAHT Facebook page. The "Theatre" sign is movable -- it could be swung out over the sidewalk.
A May 1910 shot by John Henry Mentz. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it in the SFMTA Photo Archive. It's their #UO2654. This is a cropped version. John gave us a lot more asphalt and tracks in the foreground.
A detail that Art extracted from the SFMTA shot. Note that by this time they had added a "Silver Palace Motion Pictures" sign above the entrance. Art notes that they have a poster out for "A Sister's Devotion," a film IMDB gives May 3 release date for, the same day as the photo.
A look east on Market between 3rd and 4th c.1912. The Silver Palace is down the block left of center The Odeon at 747 Market, with it's protruding marquee, is in that squat building second from the right -- above the front of the forward streetcar. It's a Jack Tillmany collection photo. The San Francisco Public Library has a smaller version on their website.
A detail of the Silver Palace entrance from the c.1912 photo. It appears we have at least two of what appear to be lights dangling in front of the remodeled facade. Note they've added more in the photo below.
An early postcard view east from the Jack Tillmany collection. The Silver Palace is in the lower right.
A detail of the theatre's entrance taken from Jack's card. Quite different signage than we saw in the 1910 photo. Also note that we have carved heads on the corbels either side of the entrance -- items that are not on the building in the earlier photo. Note that we no longer have that swing-out sign saying "Theatre." And it appears, compared to the c.1912 photo, that we have added many more of those dangling lights.
A detail from a September 1944 photo by J. Lehane appearing on the Open SF History Project site. The occasion was Governor Dewey making a campaign appearance. 
A c.1948 look at the Silver Palace taken by R.W. DeMoro. It's just to the right of the street lamp. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the photo on the Open SF History Project website.
A look east on Market between 3rd and 4th c.1912. The Silver Palace is down the block left of center The Odeon at 747 Market, with it's protruding marquee, is in that squat building second from the right -- above the front of the forward streetcar. It's a Jack Tillmany collection photo. The San Francisco Public Library has a smaller version on their website.
A detail of the Silver Palace entrance from the c.1912 photo. It appears we have at least two of what appear to be lights dangling in front of the remodeled facade. Note they've added more in the photo below.
An early postcard view east from the Jack Tillmany collection. The Silver Palace is in the lower right.
A detail of the theatre's entrance taken from Jack's card. Quite different signage than we saw in the 1910 photo. Also note that we have carved heads on the corbels either side of the entrance -- items that are not on the building in the earlier photo. Note that we no longer have that swing-out sign saying "Theatre." And it appears, compared to the c.1912 photo, that we have added many more of those dangling lights.
A 1913 photo by Gabriel Moulin that's in the Jack Tillmany collection.
A detail of the Silver Palace entrance from the Moulin photo. Note the addition of a swing out "5 cents" sign.
A view west with the 5 cent sign swung out over the sidewalk. It's a detail from a larger photo that's in the Jack Tillmany collection.
A March 1915 view with the theatre running the Biograph release "For Her People" with Florence Turner and Clifford Pembroke. It's a detail from a much wider shot from the H.C. Tibbetts collection that Al Schwoerer shared on the San Francisco Bay Area Vintage Photos Facebook group. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting the post. Also see the full photo.
A closer view that Jack Tillmany extracted from the March 1915 image.
The remodeled entrance is seen in this detail from a November 1918 World War I Victory Parade photo taken by Moulin Studios. Admission was 5 cents. But the signage at the entrance notes that after adding on the war tax the total would be 6 cents. Thanks to Al Schwoerer for sharing the photo on the San Francisco Bay Area Vintage Photos Facebook group. And thanks to Art Siegel for spotting the post. Also see the full photo.
Another look at the entrance. It's a detail Art Siegel extracted from a photo of the 1918 parade in the Open SF History Project collection. Also see another view appearing on their website.
The Silver Palace is over on the right in this 1922 parade view east from O'Farrell St. The women are supporting passage of the Wright Prohibition Enforcement Act. The image is one appearing in the scrapbooks of Hamilton Henry Dobbin where he gave it a November 4 date. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the California State Library collection, their #001382131.
The Library's caption notes: "The Palace Hotel, and the Monadnock, Hearst and Call Buildings are visible on the right side of the street. The Mutual Savings, Chronicle, Crocker, and Hobart buildings can be seen on the left."
A detail from a September 1944 photo by J. Lehane appearing on the Open SF History Project site. The occasion was Governor Dewey making a campaign appearance.
A c.1945 view down O'Farrell St. taken by Waldemar Sievers. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting it in the Open SF History Project collection.
A detail from the c.1945 Waldemar Sievers photo. Thanks, Art!
A July 19, 1945 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A c.1948 look at the Silver Palace taken by R.W. DeMoro. It's just to the right of the street lamp. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the photo on the Open SF History Project website.
A 1950 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A 1954 photo plus a few Hub ticket stubs from the Jack Tillmany collection. The top of the three feature bill is "All The Brothers Were Valiant," a 1953 release with Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger. Jack comments: "Cable Car service on O'Farrell Street from Market & Grant Avenue ended 15 May 1954, just about the time you could have caught this triple bill at HUB across the street for 50 cents (as I occasionally did)."
Looking down O'Farrell St. toward the theatre in 1954. The photo is on the Open San Francisco History Project website courtesy of a private collector.
Thanks to Art Siegel for this detail from the 1954 photo above.
A 1955 view of the theatre (with Neal Cassady and Natalie Jackson in front) as we look east on Market. The photo, with Allen Ginsberg's commentary underneath, appeared on Art Blart, the art blog by Dr. Marcus Bunyan, in a 2010 post about the exhibition "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Thanks to Michael Flanagan on San Francisco Remembered for a link to the sad story of Natalie Jackson on CultureCounterMag: "Wild Ones - Natalie Jackson 1931-1955."
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this 1958 photo from his collection. Down the block we get a glimpse of the red vertical for the Farros Theatre, the name at the time for the Portolá Theatre at 779 Market.
Jack comments: "Honestly, that Hub triple bill of 'The Great Sioux Uprising' (with Jeff Chandler), 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (with Anthony Quinn) and 'Decision Against Time' (with Jack Hawkins) is a real winner! And would have provided about 5 hours of solid entertainment. Which only emphasizes what a comedown [sic] occurred as a result of the late 60s panic transition into porn, 2 hours of c-s-ing. Little wonder so many of them closed so quickly. Ditto the poor little Powell."
A c.1959 look across the street toward the theatre. Two of their titles were "The Left Handed Gun" with Paul Newman and "Macabre," both 1958 releases. Thanks to Maria Iclea Kava for posting the photo on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page.
Thanks to John Bosko for sharing this c.1960 photo from his collection. It was a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
Thanks to John Bosko for sharing this c.1960 photo from his collection. It was a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
The Hub loved gag marquees. Here it's 1963 in a News Call-Bulletin photo by Bob Warren. The copy: "The Hub, a small Market St. theater offering its usual triple bill of old movies, gagged up its marquee today anent the 49ers and the departure of coach Red Hickey. The billing stirred up considerable attention and a few laughs." The photo is in the San Francisco Public Library collection.
We're looking west on Market. Down the street we can see the vertical for the Portola, at this time called the Paris. It's a 1964 News-Call Bulletin photo by Howard Robbins in the San Francisco Public Library collection.
A September 15, 1964 UPI photo. The caption read: "At least one Giants' fan -- the owner of the Hub Theater here --has conceded the National League pennant to the Phillies. As of 9/15, the Giants have 17 games left to play this year. Only if they win them all, can they win the pennant. If they win most of them, the Giants might make it into second place." Thanks to Lily Castello for posting her eBay find on the BAHT Facebook page.
Jack Tillmany comments: "As usual, the informative SF Chronicle fails to mention the name of the owner of the theatre, who was responsible. That was Manny Levin, who enjoyed bringing attention to his little corner of the universe with many such displays."
A 60s look east with the Hub on the far left. The red vertical of the Paris (former Portola) is down the street. But the California/State at 4th & Market is gone -- replaced by Roos-Atkins. Thanks to John A. Harris for the photo on San Francisco Remembered. Kevin Walsh spotted it and shared it on the BAHT Facebook page.
A c.1966 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection showing a typical Manny Levin joke on the marquee.
An April 1967 photo by an unknown photographer. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding it on the Open SF History Project website.
A 1967 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A
c.1968 photo taken by Clay Geerdes. Thanks to
David Miller for posting the photo on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page. And thanks to Kevin Walsh for spotting the post.
A c.1970 view east from the Sean Ault collection. On the marquee: "My Body ers" and " ? Confidential." Thanks, Sean! TJ Fisher comments:
A 1970 photo from the Sean Ault collection. The Hub was running porno with "Bang Bang" and "The Kill." Also on the marquee: "Golden Gate Park & Variety Club Flower Show June 5, 6, 7." Thanks to TJ Fisher for coming up with the second title and noting that this program played June 3 through 9. He found the ad in the Examiner calling this "a female explosion." Art Siegel notes that the Paris Theatre is also visible farther down the street.
The Market St. beautification program at work. The Hub lost its marquee to the program around 1970 and when it came down the old signage from its Silver Palace Theatre days was revealed. It had been the Silver Palace from 1908 until 1951. The theatre closed in 1972. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
Jack comments: "Note the WE'RE OPEN! sign in the former Hub Box Office! By that time, you would have entered on your own, walked up the ramp, and bought your ticket at the snack bar. Such a sad end for a 60 year veteran of Market Street!"
The Bancroft Building that contained the Hub is still around with a CVS on the main floor. Photo: Google Maps - February 2015
Cinema Treasures has a page about the Hub Theatre. Boxoffice had an article in their March 25 1968 issue about the theatre's 59th anniversary.
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