Opened: March 14, 1925. And it didn't last long. The location was on the south side of the street just east of 8th, across from the present Orpheum Theatre. This theatre, along with the Egyptian, was operated by Max and Louis Graf. Another Graf project on Market St. was the Pompeii, later known as the Regal.
The April 15, 1925 photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection. We're looking west with the Aztec down there beyond the Crystal Palace Market. On the far left is a bit of the marquee of the Francesca Theatre, in 1928 to be renamed the Strand. The Civic Center Market building was later the home of Wonderland, an amusement arcade.
A detail of the Crystal Palace and Aztec from the April 1925 photo.
Seating: 400
Architects: Possibly the Rosseau Brothers. They were mentioned as having "opened" the Aztec and Egyptian in a trade magazine item located by Jack Tillmany. If this is accurate, they may have also been involved in the conversion of existing store space into the Pompeii Theatre. Arthur F. Rousseau and Oliver M. Rousseau were prominent San Francisco architects best known for designing downtown apartment houses.
Architects: Possibly the Rosseau Brothers. They were mentioned as having "opened" the Aztec and Egyptian in a trade magazine item located by Jack Tillmany. If this is accurate, they may have also been involved in the conversion of existing store space into the Pompeii Theatre. Arthur F. Rousseau and Oliver M. Rousseau were prominent San Francisco architects best known for designing downtown apartment houses.
Closed: July 1925. Jack comments:
"Both the Egyptian and the Aztec, Market Street's 'Twin Theatres'
opened with the first run showing of 'The Last Man on
Earth.' As fate would have it, the Egyptian
ran more or less continually for the next 60 years, ending up as the
Pussycat, whereas the Aztec only lasted about 5 months. My best guess is
the location was too far up Market Street, nearly a full block beyond
the Francesca, which we know today as the Strand, a year before
Pantages/Orpheum extended the 'theatre district' to 8th Street and of
course, 4 years before the Fox extended it to 9th."
A pre-opening ad for the Aztec and Egyptian that appeared in the March 12, 1925 Chronicle. An article on the same page titled "Twin Theaters Open Saturday" noted that other than their decor both theatres were identical. The Chronicle couldn't keep them straight -- the locations they give in the article are reversed. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the ad via Newsbank. He notes:
"In April, the two theatres experimented with an all comedy program of
short features, promoted in the trade magazines of the era but otherwise of little consequence, followed by Lon Chaney in
'The Monster,' actually more of a spoof than a horror film, with Chaney
not even appearing until the film was more than half way over, and a big
disappointment to his fans, especially because of the promising title."
A program opening May 16 at both theatres mentioned in the Chronicle was "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" backed up by a presentation of Stereoskopics, a pioneer 3D series of short subject motion pictures.
The comedy program evidently worked well as there was later a second program assembled for a week's run. In July there was a third program to begin the week of July 25 at both the Aztec and Egyptian. This trade magazine item from the Jack Tillmany collection is about that third comedy week's bill that was headed with the Harry Langdon feature "Horace Greeley, Jr." Jack comments:
"Interestingly, if you look at the Egyptian/Aztec photos carefully,
you will see the one for the Aztec has been 'photoshopped' (1925 style), using one that's actually
the Egyptian, with just the name of the
venue changed and a other few modifications."
That third comedy program didn't actually play at the Aztec. An ad appearing in the July 25, 1925 Chronicle shows only the Egyptian. They intended to run it in both theatres as there's an article on page nine of the same issue with a headline noting that would be the case. Evidently at this point they decided to close the under-performing Aztec. The Chronicle issue is on Newsbank. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research. He comments:
"That's probably why the trade magazine photo photo had to be faked. Apparently the Aztec was a failure from the beginning and never
sparked. The third week in July was evidently its last hurrah. The last city directory and telephone directory listings are May 1925."
An interior view:
A trade magazine photo looking to the back of the Aztec's auditorium. Thanks to Cinema Treasures contributor Dallas Movie Theaters for posting it on the site's page about the Centre Theatre.
More exterior views:
A 1925 photo from the Jesse Brown Cook scrapbooks at the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the photo in the collection.
A detail from the Bancroft Library photo. By the time of the photo the theatre had
already closed and all the milk glass letters had been removed from the marquee.
We get a partial view of the Aztec marquee after the space was repurposed as some sort of a museum. This undated collage is in the San Francisco Public Library collection.
A September 1953 photo. The space formerly occupied by the Aztec is in the six story building just this side of the Crystal Palace Market entrance. The photo, from the San Francisco Public Library collection, can be seen on "Detailed Photos: Vintage Market St. 1920-1956," a page on the website Bold Italic. Jack Tillmany comments:
"Far more successful than the Aztec was the popular Awful Fresh MacFarlane's Candy Store which took over the space about 10 years later
and operated for about 30 years next door to the popular Crystal Palace
Market. On the left is the Orpheum in
its last weeks before closing down to install Cinerama, which opened 25
December 1953."
The market closed in 1959.
More information: The Egyptian, at 1069 Market, was also called the Studio, Guild and Pussycat during its long life. See the page on the Guild Theatre for more details on that one.
On the end of the Aztec block close to 8th St. there were several earlier theatres. An elegant venue called the Central Theatre perished in 1906. An ungainly wood replacement Central Theatre soon rose on the site.
About "The Last Man on Earth" Jack notes: "The good news is that it has
survived, and has been shown at a couple vintage film festivals much to
the delight of lucky attendees. We can only hope it will some day find
its way to DVD. It's on IMDb."
Jack'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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