Opened: 1905 as the Mission Theatre for legit stage attractions. The location was on the southeast corner of Mission and 22nd. In this August 2, 1907 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection the theatre's over on the right. There's also a version of the photo on the Open SF History Project website.
Jack calls our attention to the bar on the corner: "Note that the bar on the corner is called the Idle Hour under the command of C.J. Morgan. I wonder if he had anything to do with the Idle Hour Theatre across the street that grew into the New Mission? Could be?"
Architects: O'Brien & Werner. They listed the theatre in their ad in Henry's 1908 Theatrical Guide.
A program for the theatre for the week commencing Monday, March 26, 1906. It's on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library collection.
After the quake: It required a fixup after the quake. An article in the May 19, 1906 issue of Billboard reported that the theatre "withstood the shock and was thought to not be seriously damaged by the fire, has since collapsed and will have to be rebuilt entirely."
The article later mentions that "A small army of men are working on the Mission Theatre, and the management announces that it will be re-opened before the first of June." Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full article, a discussion of how the various San Francisco theatres fared in 1906.
It reopened June 16, 1906. It's listed as the Mission Theatre, Mission near 22nd, in the 1907 Crocker Langley city directory.
Seating: The
seating chart from a 1908 guidebook in Kevin Walsh's collection. Thanks to Kevin for the post on the BAHT Facebook page. It looks like 751 plus perhaps 24 in the boxes for a total of 775. Did the theatre have a balcony? Perhaps not.
700 is the later capacity as a film house given in a July 15, 1916 article in Moving Picture World. The issue is on Google Books.
Renamed: It was renamed the Grand Theatre sometime around 1907 or 1908 and became a film house. In the 1908 and 1909 city directories we get a listing for it as the Grand Theatre at Mission near 22nd and also a listing for the Mission Theatre Building at the SE corner of Mission and 22nd.
In the 1908 and 1911 listings for the Grand they note that Alburn & Leahy were the operators. In the 1911 directory it finally gets the
2605 address. In the 1909 and several later city directories under "Theatres and Resorts" it's still there as the Mission Theatre -- they obviously hadn't updated that section.
This Grand Theatre shouldn't be confused with
the present Grand Theatre, also on the block between 22nd and 23rd. It's at 2665 Mission St. and didn't open until 1940.
The theatre got a mention in "Many 5 Cent Firetraps," a page 37 story in
the September 3, 1911 issue of the San Francisco Call. The paper had
been doing an investigation into theatres with blocked or poorly lit
exits, inadequate aisle lighting, and non-fireproof construction in
violation of city codes. The Grand and People's were two of the Mission district theatres found in compliance with regulations. They had many complaints about the Wigwam and the Globe.
The Grand got a new facade that gets mentioned in an August 5, 1916 article in Moving Picture World. The issue is on Google Books. In
the 1919 city directory a listing for the Mission pops up again -- evidently a mistaken listing
for the New Mission up in the next block. There's also a listing as the
Grand at 2605. Jack Tillmany reports that the last city directory listing for it as the Grand was July 1919.
The theatre was renamed the Realart in late October or early November
1919. The November 8, 1919 Motion Picture News issue noted that it had happened the previous week. Kahn and Greenfield were the operators of this and, at the time, about 80 other California theatres. The name was a tribute by K&G to their friends at Realart Pictures. That 80 number was actually closer to 8. They also had the Progress, New Fillmore and New Mission.
Jack reports that the Chronicle didn't cover the Realart's opening.The first telephone directory listing for the theatre as the Real Art [sic] was August 1919. In the 1920 city directory it's listed as the Real Art Moving
Picture Theater at 2605-2607 Mission.
Greenfield, the surviving partner of the firm Kahn & Greenfield, was profiled in "Public Is Boss Slogan, Key To Success,"
an article in the December 9, 1922 issue of the San Francisco Call.
Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the California Digital
Newspaper Collection. The history of the circuit was also discussed in
"Good Luck Fairy's Magic Wand Nothing But Hard Work...," a
story that appeared in the December 10, 1922 issue of
the Chronicle.
Status: It closed in 1925 and was then demolished. The last telephone directory listing for the Realart was May 1925.
A 1908 view north from the Jack Tillmany collection. That's the theatre, renamed the Grand, on the far right.
Down beyond 22nd St. we have on the far left the Peoples Theatre, a vaudeville house at 2507 Mission, later called the Davis and the Isis. To its right is the 2nd version of the Wigwam Theatre, another vaudeville house, at 2547 Mission. It ran from 1907 until 1913 when version #3 opened at 2555 Mission. The pre-1906 version of the Wigwam had been downtown.
The Grand Theatre, on the far right, in a 1914 photo looking north toward 22nd. On the right in the block beyond is the 3rd version of the Wigwam Theatre, opened in 1913. It was later called the Crown, Rialto and Cine Latino.
On the left the first building beyond 22nd would get a remodel and become the Mission Market. Beyond the 2nd Building (later Hale Bros.) is the location of the Idle Hour, later to become the New Mission. The photo appears on an Open SF History page.
An article on the theatre's reopening appeared in the November 8, 1919 issue of Motion Picture News. It's from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A closer look at the Realart's entrance with flowers for the opening. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
An article in the May 19, 1906 issue of Billboard described how the theatres fared in the earthquake and fire. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the article and posting it on the BAHT Facebook page.
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.
See the Mission District Theatres album on the Bay Area Historic Theatres Facebook page for photos of many other theatres in the neighborhood.
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