The Chez Paree / Pussy Cat / Pink Kat / Spartan Cinema

 150 Mason St. | map |

This location was listed as the Chez Paree in city directories sporadically between 1942 and 1948. In phone directories it's there from 1956 to 1968. Peter Field notes that at one point it was owned by Rudy Eichenbaum who later served time for his extortion schemes of Tenderloin bar owners. 

 

Presumably it got the famous 'Leg sign' sometime around 1963. This was the first of three Mason St. locations to display the sign. As Jack Tillmany noted: "The Leg hopped up and down Mason, working both sides of the Street!" 

 

The sign had once been on the Barbary Coast bar at 535 Pacific Ave. Prior to the installation at 150 Mason the sockets for the incandescent lamps spelling "Barbary Coast" had been removed and the area was redone with "Chez Paree" neon. 

 

The leg sign when it was on Pacific. Thanks to Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan of the organization San Francisco Neon for the screenshot from "Pal Joey." George Sidney's 1957 Columbia film starred Rita Hayworth and Frank Sinatra. The 535 Pacific address and an adjacent building became the Little Fox Theatre in the 1960s. See that page for some more photos of the leg when it was there.

An August 1964 view of the Barbary Coast's re-lettered sign when it was at 150 Mason St. It's a photo by Alan J. Canterbury in the San Francisco Public Library collection. The sign came down in 1968.

The 'Leg Sign' moves on: The sign's next destination was 115 Mason St., a building that had been called the Robin Hood Burlesque before it was rebranded as the Chez Paree. 

 

This venue at 150 Mason was rebranded the Pussy Cat Theatre in 1968, here seen running "Return of the Salesman" and "Kuddly Kats Love In." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this photo taken by Tom Gray.

 

 

On December 5, 1968 it became the Pink Kat Theatre. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating that day's ad from the Examiner. We're assuming that the "140" address was just a typo as that would have been in the Downtown Hotel building.  

 

 

 

Making the transition between the Pussy Cat and the Pink Kat names. It's a photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack Tillmany collection. 

 

It became a gay porno operation called the Spartan Cinema beginning December 26, 1975 with the slogan "Glorifying the American Male."  Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating that day's ad in the Examiner. 

This was a swap in policies with the Tom Kat/Pink Kat Theatre at 181 Ellis St. That one had been a gay operation and went straight in December 1975 with its re-branding as the Pink Kat. Here at 150 Mason the opposite format change happened at the same time. 

A shot of the theatre rebranded as the Spartan. Note the Pink Kat 25 cent Arcade next door at 142 Mason. It's a photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack Tillmany collection.

Closing: Jack Tillmany notes that 150 Mason closed January 22, 1980 as a result of a fire. The building was later demolished.

 

 

The locations of the Barbary Coast / Chez Paree 'Leg Sign':

 

535 Pacific Ave. - Barbary Coast / Little Fox Theatre 

150 Mason St. -   Chez Paree / Pussy Cat / Pink Kat / Spartan Cinema

115 Mason St  -   Robin Hood Burlesque / Chez Paree / Union Square Sports Bar

139 Mason St. -   Irisher / Frolic Room / All-Star Theatre / Chez Paree 

220 Jones St.  -   Screening Room / Chez Paree / Power Exchange - 'Leg sign' never installed

 

 

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.   

Thanks to Peter M. Field for his research. For a fine history of the neighborhood see his 2018 Arcadia Publishing book "The Tenderloin District of San Francisco Through Time." It's available through Amazon.  

 

See the Cinema Treasures page about the Spartan Cinema. 

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