The Panorama / People's Palace / Circus Royal / Olympia Music Hall / Tivoli Opera House

SW corner of Mason and Eddy Streets | map |

The Tivoli pages: 1874-1879 Tivoli Gardens | 1879-1903 Tivoli Opera House - 30 Eddy St. | 1903-1906 Tivoli Opera House - Eddy and Mason | 1913-1951 Tivoli Opera House / Theatre - 70 Eddy 

 

AS THE PANORAMA:

Opened: The building opened in 1884 with the panorama "The Battle of Waterloo," a painting by Joseph Bertrand and Lucien Sergent, of Paris. 

Architect: Albert Pissis. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page on Pissis but they're a bit confused about which of the two panorama buildings he designed.  

 

An engraving from page 217 of the December 1884 issue of California Architect and Building News. They noted on page 213 that it had been "lately erected." The issue is on Internet Archive. 

 

The article that appeared on the page opposite the engraving of the building in the December 1884 issue of California Architect and Building News. 

 

The cover of the program for the opening exhibition, "The Battle of Waterloo." Thanks to Glenn Koch for spotting this when it was for sale online.  

 

Inside the "Waterloo" program. "The building is illuminated by 24 Electric Lights."

  

A page about the battle. 

 

About the "Waterloo" artists. 

 

The "Waterloo" program's page about the building. Thanks, Glenn!

In the 1885 and 1886 city directories it's listed as The Panorama with the United States Panorama Co. of Chicago as proprietor and Albert Pissis (the architect!) as manager. 

 

 

 

The "Waterloo" panorama ended up with William Wehner of Chicago who was trying to find an exhibitor for it in Los Angeles. Evidently that didn't happen. Thanks to panorama researcher Gene Meier for finding this ad in the October 29, 1887 issue of the Los Angeles Times. He comments:  

 

"Howard H. Gross bought 'Waterloo' from Wehner to show in Melbourne [at the Cyclorama]. The newspapers presented panorama entrepreneurs Gross and Wehner as bitter rivals in the Twin Cities panorama wars. Reed & Gross presented 'Battle of Gettysburg' in St Paul while Wehner presented 'Battle of Atlanta' in Minneapolis. These two characters may have appeared as 'rivals' in the press, but behind the scenes worked hand-in-hand."

 

"The Siege of Vicksburg," also by Joseph Bertrand and Lucien Sergent, opened in July 1887. The 1887 directory doesn't list an attraction but the 1888 directory lists the title and noted that Edward A. Schmitt was the manager. 

 

A c.1887 ad for the Panorama when the attraction was "The Siege of Vicksburg." Thanks to Glenn Koch for spotting this when it was for sale online. 

 

Another promotional item for the "Vicksburg" attraction that was located by Glenn. 

 

An ad for the Battle of Vicksburg panorama that appearing in the July 11, 1888 issue of the Chronicle. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this. The attraction closed in 1889 or 1890 and was dismantled. It doesn't get any city directory listings in 1890, 1891 or 1892.

 

 

IN USE AS A MUSIC HALL:

 

In 1892 or 1893 the building reopened as the Peoples Palace Music Hall. The 1893 city directory notes that Cliff Phillips was the proprietor, Albert Walterstein the manager and adds "first class Music Hall and family resort, performance every evening & Sunday matinee, change of program every week."

 

 

"The Finest Music Hall in America." It's a May 1, 1894 Peoples Palace ad from the Chronicle. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. We get a mention of Cliff Phillips here but no Walterstein.

In the 1894 directory it's listed again the Peoples Palace. The directory's listing for the theatre in 1895  noted that the Peoples Palace Music Hall was "now Circus Royal and Venetian Water Carnival." In the 1896 directory listing the circus and water carnival are gone but they noted that the Peoples Palace Amusement Co. was the proprietor with Cliff Phillips as manager. "Music Hall" had been dropped from the name. 1897 was the last listing for Peoples Palace.

In the 1898 directory the building was listed as the Olympia Music Hall. The 1899 listing added that Albert Walterstein was managing, still around from the initial Peoples Palace days.

An 1898 view up Mason toward the building as the Olympia Music Hall. It's a photo on the Open SF History Project from the Martin Behrman Negative Collection of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding it in the collection. He comments: 

 

"That's a political poster, not a theatre poster. Edward Holland was a politician, and campaigned in the 1898 SF election for supervisor, so that's probably the date of the photo."

 

In the foreground is sculptor Douglas Tilden’s Native Sons Monument. Since 1977 it's been at Market and Post. It had been moved to Golden Gate Park in 1948.

 

A detail from an 1899 photo appearing on the Open SF History Project website from the Goecker Family album, courtesy of the O'Keefe Family. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it in the collection. Also see a similar c.1899 photo taken a bit closer to the Column that's also on the Open SF History Project website. 

 

 

The Olympia is seen in this detail from image 50 in Volume 1 of the 1899 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Library of Congress collection. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. Note the entrance on the corner and the stage and dressing rooms diagonally opposite. That's Mason St. along the bottom and Eddy St. up the right side. 

 

A 1901 program for  the Olympia,"San Francisco's Great Music Hall." The program is on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. Inside: "Beginning Monday evening, July 15, 1901 every evening and Sunday afternoon Hungarian Orchestra under the direction of the famous violinist, Isidore Fenster and a superb company of specialty artists. Publishers, Horwinski Bros." 

The 1901 city directory, in addition to listing the Olympia Music Hall, added a listing for the Olympia Amusement Co. 1902 is the final listing for the Olympia.  

 

 

REBUILT AS THE TIVOLI:

The building got another rebuild and reopened as the Tivoli Opera House on December 23, 1903. It was a larger and more opulent replacement for the Tivoli Opera House at 30 Eddy St. 

 

 

 

A look at the entrance after the rebuild into an opera house. It appears with Blanche Partington's "With the Players and the Music Folk" article in the November 29, 1903 San Francisco Call. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the article via the website of the California Digital Newspaper Collection. Partington discusses the history of the Kreling family's two earlier venues, the Vienna Garden and the 1879 vintage Tivoli Opera House at 30 Eddy St. 

 

 

A look at part of the block from Volume 1, pages 47-48 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas. It appears on the website of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Also see a discussion page on the site's blog with links to various pages of the six volume publication. That's Mason St. on the bottom, Turk St. on the left and Eddy on the right.  The map notes that the theatre had two balconies.

 

In this 1905 San Francisco Public Library view we're looking north on Mason from Market. Up at the first corner (Eddy St.) note, on the left, the roof of the circular building that had become the Tivoli Opera House. Mark Ellinger noted: 

"Center left is the third incarnation of the Tivoli Opera House in the reconfigured Panorama Building at Eddy and Mason, across from the mansard-roofed Golden State Hotel and Spider Kelly’s saloon. In the distance, near the center of the skyline, is the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill."

A March 1905 photo looking up Mason St. from Market with "The Burgomaster" playing at the Tivoli, over on the left at Eddy St. It's a photo from a private collector that appears on the Open SF History Project website. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it.

A 1906 UC Bancroft photo with "Miss Timidity" on the sign, a "musical eccentricity" starring Cecelia Rhoda that had opened April 2. Thanks to Art Siegel for researching the production. He found items about the show in the S.F. Call issues of March 29 and April 3. They can be viewed via the California Digital Newspaper Collection. 

Mark Ellinger noted that across Eddy St. from the Opera House was  the mansard-roofed Golden State Hotel with Spider Kelly’s saloon on the main floor. Behind the hotel was the Techau Tavern. He adds: 

"When director W.H. Leahy took charge of the house in 1890, he began producing Italian opera four months of the year with companies he recruited from small opera houses in Italy. In 1903 he built a new Tivoli Opera House around the old Panorama Building on the southwest corner of Mason and Eddy, where now stands the Ambassador Hotel. 

"While traveling in Mexico late the same year, Leahy heard soprano Luisa Tetrazzini singing with an itinerant Italian opera company in Mexico City. Leahy engaged the entire company and in 1904 they opened the new opera house with 'Rigoletto.' Singing the part of Gilda despite a cold, Mme.Tetrazzini became an immediate sensation. For the next two years her many performances at the Tivoli packed the house to overflowing and Luisa Tetrazzini became a star of international repute."  

Closing: The Tivoli was destroyed in 1906 by the April 18 earthquake and fire.  

Status: The location is now the site of the Ambassador Hotel, a building that was supposed to have a theatre -- but the theatre part never got built. See the page about the Ferris Hartman Theatre. 

The Aftermath:

 

A color postcard featuring the ruins of the Tivoli. Thanks to Nick Wright for sharing the card on the San Francisco History Facebook page.

 

 

A wider view by an unknown photographer. It appears on the Open SF History Project website courtesy of a private collector. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it in the collection. That's Mason St. on the left, looking toward Market. On the right we're looking west on Eddy St. 

The post earthquake ruins as we look up Mason St. toward the ruined Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. A bit of Tivoli signage is visible on the left. That 6 story building on the right, at the NE corner of Mason and Eddy, housed the Poodledog Restaurant. The building survived, after a fashion -- it lost several stories off the top. The UC Bancroft Library photo appears with Mark Ellinger's Up From the Deep article on the Tenderloin.

A superb look at the Tivoli ruins from above (center left) with the damaged City Hall beyond. Straight ahead up toward the upper right it's Eddy St. heading west. In the foreground is Mason St. Take a left to get to Market, right would get you to Nob Hill. It's a California Historical Society photo on Calisphere. On that site click on the image once to get a larger view, then click again for another increase in size -- then you can pan around. 

A UC Bancroft Library view looking west on Eddy. It's on the Calisphere website. 

 

 

A view west on Eddy with the theatre on the left and the building that had housed the Poodledog Restaurant on the right. It's a photo taken in May 1906 by Dietrich H. Wulzen, Jr. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting it on Flickr from the San Francisco Public Library collection.  

 

 

A detail from the photo by D.H. Wulzen. Thanks, Art! 

A peek inside the theatre's ruins. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating the photo in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. Another ruins view with a "This property for lease" sign is in the San Francisco Public Library collection.

A corner view of the ruins of the 3rd Tivoli taken by Bear Photo that's in the UC Bancroft Library collection. The photo is also in the California State Library collection. A similar shot is on Calisphere from the California Historical Society.

A detail of the corner from the California Historical Society is on Calisphere. There's also a closer look at the lower portion of the corner from CHS.

 

A view south on Mason St. toward Market from Mason & Ellis. The Tivoli ruins are down in the next block, at Mason & Eddy. It's a California Historical Society photo on Calisphere.

 

A view of the Eddy St. side of the corner appearing on the Online Archive of California from the California Historical Society, where they mistakenly label it as at Mason and Ellis. There's also a copy from the California State Library on Calisphere. A more closely cropped shot from this angle from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library appears on Calisphere.

 

A wider look at the Eddy St. side of the building. On the left there's a view down Mason to the Native Sons monument at Market St. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating the photo in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. 


The Tivoli in the Movies:  Jack Tillmany comments that in "San Francisco" (MGM, 1936) Jeanette MacDonald sings the title song "...at the Chickens Ball, on the Barbary Coast, just prior to the earthquake. Previously we had seen her at the Tivoli Opera House, with a pretty accurate night image of the facade to introduce that sequence."

MGM's version of the Tivoli Opera House 52 minutes into "San Francisco." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the screenshot. He notes: "Obviously, it's a matte shot, but it's only on the screen for a couple seconds, so gets the job done."  

It's unknown where MGM got their image of the building as there seem to be no decent views that have surfaced of the theatre prior to the earthquake. A clip of Jeanette MacDonald singing "San Francisco" is on YouTube. 

More information: See the pages on the Tivoli Gardens, the 1879 Tivoli Opera House and the 1913 Tivoli Theatre.  

An early panorama exhibition was the painting "Paradise Lost" shown at the Eureka Theatre in 1865, accomplished by having it or rollers so it slowly moved across the stage. A Tent Panorama on Market St. at City Hall Ave. exhibited "The Battle of Gettysburg" in 1886. The Panorama Building at 10th and Market exhibited "The Storming of Missionary Ridge" beginning in 1887 and then a different version of "The Battle of Gettysburg." One attraction at the 1894 Midwinter Fair was the panorama "Kilauea Volcano." And we had another panorama that was converted into a theatre. The building at 8th and Market that had exhibited the "Battle of Manila Bay" panorama was rebuilt to become the Central Theatre in 1900.

Several versions of the "Siege of Vicksburg" panorama are discussed on a HistoryNet page "Vicksburg in the Round." 

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. 

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