The Premium / Quality Theatre

1305 Fillmore St. | map |

 

A July 1910 trade magazine photo of the Premium from the Jack Tillmany collection. The caption noted: "Premium Theatre, San Francisco, Cal. Dane Ross, proprietor. Seats: 400. Admission: Five cents. Photo by Wm. Wright."

Dates: It's running as the Premium Theatre in September 1909 with the first city directory listing in the October 1, 1909 edition. The location is the northwest corner of Fillmore and Eddy. The Premium operation evidently moved to 1525 Fillmore sometime in late 1910, a house that eventually was called the Progress.

This theatre at 1305 was renamed the Quality Theatre in late 1911 or early 1912. The first telephone book listing for it as the Quality is February 1, 1912. 

 

A view of the neighborhood from the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Fillmore St. runs up the middle with Eddy running horizontally across the center. The Quality Theatre is shown on the northwest corner of the intersection. That's the Orpheum/Garrick and the Princess Theatre in the upper left with Ellis St. across the top. The Chutes Park block is on the lower right. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the Library of Congress collection.

 

 

 

A closer look at part of the block with the Quality, shown as "Moving Pictures" at the northwest corner of Fillmore (on the right) and Eddy St. (along the bottom). Here they're giving it a 1303 Fillmore address. That "Sal." in the corner space of the building was a saloon. Up the block at 1331 is the building that had briefly been the Camera Phone Theatre.

The only city directory listing for the venue as the Quality Theatre was in June 1914. At the time it was listed as being operated by A.R. Greenfield. Greenfield, with his partner Leon Kahn, would soon be taking over the Premium Theatre Company and then running their Progress and Idle Hour locations, the latter a house that in 1916 would become the lobby of the New Mission. The firm opened their first version of the New Fillmore in 1915. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research. He notes that the Progress is the only theatre building still standing on Fillmore St. in the Fillmore district. It's now a restaurant.

Closing: The date for the closing of the Premium/Quality Theatre is not known.

Status: The building that housed the theatre has been demolished.

In 1922 Louis Greenfield, the surviving partner of the firm Kahn & Greenfield, looked back on the the history of the circuit. He evidently was a bit mistaken about the name of his first theatre. Or the 1908 date he gives. He was profiled in "Good Luck Fairy's Magic Wand Nothing But Hard Work..." a story that was located by Art Siegel in the December 10, 1922 issue of the Chronicle. An excerpt:

"...Greenfield and his late partner, Leon L. Kahn, began their operations at the Quality Theater, at Eddy and Fillmore streets, a house seating 199 persons, with one 'hand grind' machine in the operating room. That was in 1908... After the Quality had succeeded, Kahn & Greenfield bought out the Premium Theater Company, a corporation that operated seven small houses in the Mission and on Market-street. They soon gave up on the Market-street theaters and devoted themselves to the neighborhood houses..."

A December 1909 view down the block toward Eddy St. and the arched entrance of the Premium / Quality Theatre on the corner at 1303/1305 Fillmore. We're on the west side of the street with Ellis St. behind us. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this detail from a photo by John Henry Mentz for United Railroads (URR). Art Siegel notes that it's in the SFMTA Photo Archive.

On the right the building nearest us is the building that briefly was the Camera Phone Theatre at 1331 Fillmore. Just to its left would be the location of the New Fillmore in 1915. If you could back up the street to Ellis and look west, there would be the Orpheum/Garrick Theatre and the Princess Theatre there.

Other Premium Theatres:  

 1525 Fillmore
-- opened in 1909 the Venice

-- known as the Premium in 1910 and 1911, a move of the name from 1305 Fillmore

-- later called the Gayety, in 1913 became the Progress

1063 Market Street

-- building survives, now a restaurant
-- in the 1911 city directory as the Premium, operated by Premium Theatres Co.

2692 Mission Street @ 23rd (NW Corner)

-- first telephone directory listing as the Premium October 1, 1909

-- last telephone directory listing April 1, 1911

-- evidently closed up and moved to the 2550 Mission location in 1911

2550 Mission St. (between 21st and 22nd)

-- called the Premium in 1911
-- 2550 is in the 1911 Crocker Langley city directory as operated by Premium Theatres Co.

-- renamed Idle Hour c.1913 

-- listed as the Idle Hour in the June 1, 1913 telephone directory and the July 1913 city directory

-- last phone directory listing was February 1, 1916 --  last listing in the city directory was June 1916

-- became the lobby of the New Mission Theatre

Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research. His 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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