The Excelsior / Granada Theatre

4631 Mission St. | map | 

Opened: August 1922 as the Excelsior Theatre. The photo is a 1929 view looking north from the San Francisco Public Library collection. 

Architect: G. Albert Lansburgh. Scroll to the bottom of the page for details from Lansburgh's 1921 blurprints that are in the Gary Parks collection. Gary notes: 

 

"In the collection of theatre blueprints I recently acquired, there is a full set of Lansburgh's original 1921 design for the Excelsior. Attractive, but rather plain, as one would expect of a neighborhood house of that time. But, there is also a separate sheet depicting a late 20s remodel of the facade by Lansburgh of the same theatre which was in a Spanish Baroque Colonial style like the facade of his El Capitan, but even more over-the-top. It was never executed, but if it had been, it would have probably been San Francisco's most ornate neighborhood theatre facade."

"New Theater Will Open This Month," an article in the August 3, 1922 Chronicle discussed the new building:

"The new Excelsior Theatre, Mission street and Ocean avenue, is to be opened before the end of the month as a motion picture theater. Robert A. MacNeill, R.E. and G.W. Bailey are interested in the  new playhouse, which will cost $300,000. The house is of the familiar 'L' construction and will seat 950 persons, with provision for a balcony to seat 700 more when the needs of the district demand such an expansion.

"The building has a frontage of 250 feet along Mission street, the space to be devoted to ten stores and the entrance to the theater. Two of the stores replace the old Panama Theatre which the new structure replaces. G. Albert Lansburgh is the architect. Italian renaissance is the style, and mural decorations, including panels and a frieze, will make the interior handsome. A Robert Morton orchestral organ has been installed, and W. Harold Wilson has charge of advertising and publicity for the new house."

A detail from the 1929 photo courtesy of Jack Tillmany. 

Running talkies in September 1929. Thanks to Wayne Miller for sharing this schedule in a post on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group.

 

Renamed the Granada: Frederick H. Meyer added the tower and did other renovations in 1931. When it reopened after the remodel on August 3 it was called the Granada Theatre. Joe Vogel comments:

"The... alterations to this theater in 1931 were the work of architect Frederick H. Meyer. The Architect and Engineer announced the planned $50,000 modernization project in its issue of March, 1931. The problem is that there were two architects named Frederick H. Meyer practicing in San Francisco from about 1900 to 1960, and I’ve been unable to discover if the Granada remodeling was the work of Frederick Herman Meyer or Frederick Heinrich Meyer."

 

 

An illustration of the new facade appearing in the September 27, 1931 issue of the Examiner.

An article from the September 27, 1931 issue of the Examiner. 

The October 3, 1931 full page opening day ad in the Examiner. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the Examiner items. Note that they hadn't planned on a vertical sign at the time the early drawings were done.

Seating: 1,421 after the 1931 remodel, 950 when it opened in 1922 without a balcony.

 

An April 1936 Calendar with all kinds of depression era promos including Gift Night and a 3 chances to win a sporty new 1936 Plymouth 4-door sedan, valued at $830! And all for the price of a 30 cent admission! Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the calendar from his collection. 

 

Manager Myla Lim was murdered in a botched robbery attempt on October 5, 1981.  

Status: The closing date of the Granada is unknown. It was perhaps November 1982.

 

 

Thanks to Patrick Carroll for locating this March 18, 1982 Examiner story.

 

A December 1, 1983 Examiner story located by Patrick Carroll. He shared these two stories as comments to a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

Status: The lobby is now a Goodwill store. Much of the rest of the building is a Walgreens.


Interior views: 

Looking in to the lobby from the entrance. It's a 1942 Jack Tillmany collection photo on the San Francisco Public Library website.

A 1942 look out toward the street from the lobby. See comment #1 for a view in the other direction into the inner lobby and upstairs. It's a Jack Tillmany collection photo on the San Francisco Public Library website.

A 1942 view of the balcony level of the lobby at the Granada. It's a Jack Tillmany collection photo via the San Francisco Public Library.   

A lobby mirror in the collection of Bruce C. Higgins. Bruce added his photo as a comment on the BAHT Facebook page.

A 1942 look down from the balcony.  It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection on the San Francisco Public Library website. 

A 1942 view to the rear. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection on the San Francisco Public Library website.

A 1960s or 70s shot from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "Time has not been kind to those draperies above the screen; So why didn't they just take the damn things down? The mid-century modern ceiling fixture adds a contemporary touch, don't you think?"


Exterior views as the Granada:

A photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Thanks to Jack for sharing it as a post on the Market Street Railway Facebook page. He comments: "San Francisco's MSRY 1590, in service on Line 12, bringing passengers home from an afternoon at the Zoo, is Northbound on Mission at Ocean Avenue, passing the Granada Theatre in September 1939. Rail service on all the Mission Street lines would end in January 1949."

A detail from Jack's 1939 photo. Here we still can see the 1931 look of the theatre -- before its moderne re-do. They were running "Young Mr. Lincoln" with Henry Fonda along with "Some Like It Hot," no relation to the much later Billy Wilder film. This 1939 film was with Bob Hope, Shirley Ross and Gene Krupa's orchestra.

A 1942 view as the Granada  giving us a nice look at their roof sign along the house right edge of the auditorium. It's a Jack Tillmany collection photo that also makes an appearance on the website of the San Francisco Public Library. 

A 1944 photo looking north toward the theatre. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this version of it. The San Francisco Public Library notes that it is a newspaper photo that originally appeared with this caption: "So this week we're out in the Excelsior District. Picture was taken at Persia and Mission-sts, looking toward Brazil-st, along Mission-st, of course. The Excelsior still is one of the town's busiest neighborhoods, although the traffic isn't as thick as it used to be. But that goes for any part of town." The photo has also been on the Facebook page Lost San Francisco in a "then and now" version. 

An April 1947 photo by Waldemar Sievers. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it in the Open SF History Project collection.

A December 1957 look north on Mission toward the Granada. The photo by Sid Tate from the News-Call Bulletin is in the San Francisco Public Library collection. It can also be seen on Lost San Francisco in a "then and now" version. 
 

A January 1963 photo taken by Jack Tillmany.

An August 1964 Alan J. Canterbury photo in the San Francisco Public Library collection. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this version of it. The one on the SFPL website is substantially smaller.

"Sound of Music" playing in March 1968. It's a photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection. 

 

 

A November 1971 view from the Sean Ault collection. "Tokoloshe" was a 1965 film that didn't play in the U.S. until 1971. "Custer of the West" was out in 1967.  Thanks to Art Siegel and TJ Fisher for dating the photo.  

 

 

Another November 1971 photo, taken the same day as the previous shot. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing this one from his collection.

A classy triple bill playing in 1972: "The Thing With Two Heads," "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and "Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the photo by John Harder appearing on the Open SF History Project website. Jack comments: "Actually, 'Dr. Phibes' is pretty good, but the less said about 'The Thing' and 'Sister Hyde,' the better. Obviously, the Granada is near death. No need any more to spell out full titles on the readerboard. Nobody's going to bother to read them and show up anyway."

Gary Parks adds: "At that point, the theatre was probably making more on the rental from the billboards on the outside of the auditorium that the box office."

 

 

Disney reissue time in 1973 with "That Darn Cat" from 1965 and "Dumbo," dating from 1941. Thanks to Dave Hunter for sharing his photo. 

 

The Granada running "American Graffitti" in May 1975. It's a photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A November 1980 view. It's a photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack notes that "Halloween" is the timely attraction.

A detail from the November 1980 photo. 

It's a 1981 photo by Susan Gilbert for the Chronicle appearing in Peter Hartlaub's 2011 SF Gate story "San Francisco movie theaters - then and now." The article notes that it was playing Filipino movies in the 80s. 

 

A July 1982 photo from the now-vanished American Classic Images website.  

 

A shot by Gary Parks from 1982 or 1983. He comments: "This is a slide I took back soon after the Granada ended its life as a theatre, and assumed its first retail incarnation as Consumers Distributing store and warehouse."

An aerial view of the theatre building from Google Maps.
 

A 2016 look at the former theatre, now a Goodwill in the lobby and a Walgreen's (off to the right) in what had been the auditorium and storefronts. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for the photo, a post on the BAHT Facebook page.


Details from G. Albert Lansburgh's original blueprints in the Gary Parks collection: 

A title block on a page of the 1921 prints for the Excelsior.

A facade elevation. 

A section of the auditorium. 

A section detail showing the lobby, shallow balcony and booth. 

A detail of ornament on the side wall of the auditorium.  

The original organ grille design.  

Drawings by Lansburgh for the 1926 remodel: 

  

Gary comments: "When you compare Lansburgh’s drawings for improving the auditorium in 1926 to the interior photos which exist, they are remarkably similar. The Islamic fretwork on the proscenium ceiling sounding board was not done—instead being simple faux wood beams. I’m wondering if Lansburgh’s plans were executed on the interior in 1926 or so, but the exterior (and renaming) were indeed done by Meyer for the 1931 remodel?"

The new organ grille design.

A detail of the 1926 proscenium.

A section showing the expanded balcony. 

The elaborate facade Lansburgh planned in his 1926 drawings. Gary comments: "Best for last…
Look closely at the drawing, and you can see where Lansburgh drew the outline of the original facade—giving you an idea of how large his new, 1926 facade would have been. It would have doubled in height. 

A side view of the facade. Gary calls our attention to the custom vertical sign he had planned.

 

 

 

A facade detail.  

Another detail.  

 

 Lansburgh’s stamp and date. Gary comments: "Interesting to note that it was the REVISED exterior—wonder what his first idea for the remodel was?" Thanks, Gary!

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 Cinema Treasures and Cinema Tour pages on the Granada.

The other Granada Theatre: The larger and more famous Granada Theatre was on Market St. It opened in 1921 and got renaned the Paramount in 1930. The only connection the Mission St. house had with the larger theatre was grabbing its name when it was no longer in use.

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