Opened: February 12, 1944 as the Round Up, a theatre devoted to western double features. When the theatre opened there had already been another theatre in the east storefront of the building since 1925, the Egyptian/Guild. The building is on the south side of Market St opposite Jones. It's mid-block between 6th and 7th. Just to the west of the Round Up was the Imperial/United Artists.
Thanks to John Bosko for the photo of the Round Up, a post of his on the BAHT Facebook page. Gary
Parks identified the theatre based on the bit of
neon in the upper right from the United Artists next door. That "Perils of the Royal Mounted" that they're advertising on the easel was a serial from Columbia in 1942. Jack Tillmany comments:
"At the Round Up they played every B Western still in service
and had those silk banners to hang across the entrance to promote each
and every one of the well known stars of all of them, of which Barry was
just one. This saved them the time and trouble of changing individual
marquee letters of the often long and basically meaningless titles of
these things, which meant little or nothing in themselves to potential
patrons. It was lots easier to hang up the oft used Johnny Mack Brown banner
than to spell out, letter by letter, 'Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie' on
the readerboard above."
It was a Robert Lippert operation. Jack found an article in the November 3, 1943 Chronicle noting
that Lippert had purchased the Egyptian Theatre property for $250,000
from the
Hibernia
Bank. He changed the Egyptian's name to the Studio Theatre and then got
busy turning the west storefront of the building into the Round Up.
The opening day ad in the February 12, 1944 Chronicle that was located by Jack Tillmany. It's on Newsbank. Double feature westerns with a daily change of program -- "All of your Western Favorites."
A 1945 ad. The attraction at the Studio, "Bells of Rosarita," was a June release. Thanks to the Facebook page All Movie Theatres for featuring this in a post about the Round Up.
The Round Up got a remodel in 1947 and reopened as the Centre Theatre on August 15 with David O. Selznick's "Duel in the Sun." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the ad. He comments:
"Both the Catholic and Protestant churches declared war on 'Duel in the Sun' in January 1947, judging it to be 'IMMORAL.' The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it, on the grounds it was 'morally offensive and spiritually depressing,' with the usual results: audiences lined up to see it.
"It opened at the Fox in May 1947, and grossed nearly $60,000 the first week, and $30,000 the second week, despite lukewarm reviews by the critics. Only 'The Captain from Castile,' their Christmas attraction with Tyrone Power, which grossed $45,000 the first week and ran for three weeks, came close that year. So it was a wise choice to launch the newly christened Centre, and enjoyed a successful eight week sub-run, at 'roadshow' prices. Without a doubt, it was the Centre's greatest moment. But it's the only one."
"It opened at the Fox in May 1947, and grossed nearly $60,000 the first week, and $30,000 the second week, despite lukewarm reviews by the critics. Only 'The Captain from Castile,' their Christmas attraction with Tyrone Power, which grossed $45,000 the first week and ran for three weeks, came close that year. So it was a wise choice to launch the newly christened Centre, and enjoyed a successful eight week sub-run, at 'roadshow' prices. Without a doubt, it was the Centre's greatest moment. But it's the only one."
In its later years the Centre was running porno and under the same Walnut Properties management as the Guild/Pussycat next door. The projection booths for the two theatres were across the hall from each other and, in later years, shared a projectionist.
Seating: 300
Closing: Both the Centre and the Pussycat closed in 1987. The building's facade has been nicely restored. The theatre spaces became retail again. The Centre's space was a bicycle shop but as of 2022 both that space and the one next door that had been the Guild/Pussycat were vacant.
A detail from a July 1946 photo by Waldemar Sievers. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it in the Open SF History Project collection.
A June 1947 photo of the Round Up by Vic Reina from the Jack Tillmany collection. A wider version of the photo, credited to Waldemar Sievers, can be seen on the Open SF History Project website. Jack comments:
"The Round-Up was enjoying its last days as a Western venue before becoming the Centre. A couple Market Street jaywalkers, on a summer vacation spree, seem to
be on their way to check out Johnny Mack Brown in 'Six Gun Gospel.' The former Studio Theatre had recently been upgraded to its new identity as the
Guild, and is beginning its crowd-pleasing nine-week run of MGM's
re-release of 'The Great Waltz' (1938). The United Artists is offering a four week first run of David Lean's now-classic version of Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations.'"
Another June 1947 view of the Guild and the Round Up. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the photo by Waldemar Sievers on the Open SF History Project site.
An August 1947 photo by Waldemar Sievers appearing on the Open SF History Project site.
A December 1947 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. He notes:
"'Killers All' was a exploitation-styled paste-up roadshow documentary about John Dillinger, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and all the gang. It was a September 1947 release that had its San Francisco premiere with the December run at the Centre. The crowd outside is gathered around a bullet-riddled vintage automobile that traveled with the show. 'Blue Steel' is a retread of a 1934 John Wayne Lone Star western."
We get a little slice of the Centre on the right of this 1948 view. The photo is on a Bold Italic page of Market St. views from 1920-1956 from the San Francisco Public Library collection.
June 4, 1949, the first day of Muni's first electric bus service on Market St. The Bob Campbell photo for the Chronicle has us looking west for views of the Centre, United Artists and Embassy verticals. Thanks to Ernie Manzo Jr. for spotting the photo.
Another shot of the 1949 debut of the electric buses, this time with the Guild's readerboard visible. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding this one for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
"3 Top Hits - 5 Cartoons & Serial." A July 1957 view by the Morton-Waters Co. from the SCRAP Negatives Collection that appears on the Open SF History Project website. Woody LaBounty notes that their SCRAP collection was just that: a bunch of photos given to some school to be cut up for collages or other art projects that were saved from the scissors just in the nick of time. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the photo in the collection. He comments:
"Programming
was NOT as haphazard as you might think, actually, quite the opposite.
The intent was not to match films by type but to give the greatest
variety possible so something on the program would appeal to everyone.
Playing at the Centre we have: 1) 'Hell's Island,' an 'Island Western.' The title tells it all. 2) 'Flying Saucer,' a 1950 release, possibly the first of the lot. 3) 'Street Bandits,' a 1951 Republic pot-boiler. Again, the title tells all, more street crime.
"The reason for the retreads at the Centre was that the auditorium was so narrow, their 'wide-screen' was still 4:3 even after it was extended wall-to-wall. So they tried to sidestep wide-screen features, not easy to do by 1958. Occasionally, the booking department would make a mistake and if they landed a CinemaScope the only thing they could do was run it across the middle of the screen, letterbox style, but with no top or bottom masking. That's how I caught The Oklahoman there on one occasion. Porno saved their ass."
"The reason for the retreads at the Centre was that the auditorium was so narrow, their 'wide-screen' was still 4:3 even after it was extended wall-to-wall. So they tried to sidestep wide-screen features, not easy to do by 1958. Occasionally, the booking department would make a mistake and if they landed a CinemaScope the only thing they could do was run it across the middle of the screen, letterbox style, but with no top or bottom masking. That's how I caught The Oklahoman there on one occasion. Porno saved their ass."
A detail from an August 1958 photo in the Jack Tillmany collection. Also see the full photo, an image showing "China Doll" with Victor Mature running at the United Artists next door.
A 1960 view at Market and Jones with the Centre (on the far right) in the soft core porn business while the Guild is doing a triple feature policy. The photo by John Harder appears on the Open SF History site courtesy of a private collector.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this great 1963 photo of the Guild, Centre and United Artists. To the left of the Guild is the building that was once the Premium Theatre.
A 1964 Alan J. Canterbury photo from the San Francisco Public Library collection. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for some work on the image.
A very religious July 1967 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments:
A very religious July 1967 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments:
"The UA is six months into the much heralded film version of
'The Bible,'
which replaced the two year run of 'Sound of Music' the previous
December,
and had kept the wickets turning, many suspect, due in no small way to
that nude mural of Michael Parks as Adam, with the usual knee raised
just enough to attract attention but not trouble; and the Guild is once
again running the re-release of 'The Ten Commandments' which also
enjoyed
renewed popularity the previous year. Wedged between these 2 Cathedrals
of Holy Writ, the Centre politely offers an alternate view, 'Flesh and
Lace' and 'Nudes-a-Rama.' Decisions! Decisions!"
A March 1969 photo by Tom Gray. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for
sharing this one from his collection. It was
included in a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
A
detail from another March 1969 photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack
Tillmany collection. Here we get to see that the Centre had the exciting
program of "Love Camp Number 7" and "Looking Through a Mirror." See the full photo.
An April 1970 photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A
detail from a May 1973 Tom Gray photo from the Jack Tillmany
collection with the Centre seen running "Deep Throat" and "Mona." The Guild had become a Pussycat operation but hadn't
yet done the name change. Loew's had left town and the theatre on the
right had become General Cinema's Market St. Cinema. Thanks, Jack! See the full photo.
A photo of the Pussycat and Centre taken by Tom Gray. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing it. TJ Fisher comments: "It
appears this was June 1975. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when because
neither the Chronicle nor the Examiner printed adult listings daily and
sometimes they don't seem to agree with each other."
A March 1986 look at the Centre from chapter 13 of Jay Allen Sanford's "Pussycat Theatres: The Inside Story," a 2010 article on the Pussycat chain originally appearing in the San Diego Reader.
Thanks to John Rice for this 80s photo appearing on the Cinema Treasures page for the Centre Theatre.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this photo from his collection appearing on the Cinema Tour page about the Centre Theatre.
The remodeled building. The Guild was on the left side, the Centre on the right. The doorway on the far left went upstairs to projection booths and office space. Photo: Bill Counter - 2015
In this 2019 view the Guild's space on the left was evidently vacant and the bike shop was in the Centre space. Photo: Google Maps
By 2022 both spaces were vacant. Huckleberry Bicycles had moved to Battery St. Thanks to Glen A. Micheletti for sharing this photo he took in May.
The Market St. Theatres album on the BAHT Facebook page has many photos of other theatres nearby.
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