Opening: It opened May 28, 1906 on a vacant lot as the National Tent Show Theatre, soon to be rebranded as Grauman's National Theatre. The venue featured both films and vaudeville. Thanks to Lily Castello for spotting the photo on eBay for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. The seller thought it was at Powell and Market as many tales note that as a location of Grauman's first post-quake venture. Later a roof was erected over the the tent without the venture missing a performance.
Seating Capacity: 1,800
This early
June 1906 article from Variety noted that both the National and the Novelty Theatre
(at O'Farrell & Steiner) got open to packed houses -- 2,400 at the
National! The Orpheum referred to in the article would have been the former Chutes Theatre at the Fulton St. Chutes park. In 1907 their new theatre (later
called the Garrick) would open on Ellis St. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the item. He added it as a comment on the BAHT Facebook page.
It's hard to get at the truth of many of the Grauman adventures as there are so many versions of the stories. Many conflicting ones were told later in life by Sid himself. One of the many tales is that Sid and his father David salvaged a
projector, went to an Oakland film exchange to get a few reels of film,
located some church pews for seats and got a tent from a traveling
evangelist and were in business. The first sign was supposedly a hand lettered one that said something like "In case of another earthquake, the only thing to fall on you is the canvas." See a photo of a Grauman tent show in San Jose at the bottom of the page.
It's been repeated many times that Sid and his father David Grauman were hard hit by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Actually, they weren't
operating any theatres in San Francisco right then. One tale is that the tent was erected on
the site of their Unique Theatre, on the north side of Market
between Mason and Taylor. Not the case. Grauman's Unique wasn't actually
in business at the time of the earthquake. Their lease on that building
ended in January 1906 and the property had been purchased by Morris
Meyerfeld of the Orpheum circuit. David and Sid trashed
the place and left because the rent was doubling. They wanted to make it difficult to get the site reopened as a theatre. "Grauman Uses Ax In His Unique Theater," an article about the trashing, appears in the January 30, 1906 Evening News. It's on Google News.
A July 1906 look inside the tent taken by F.L. Stone. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for locating the image. Visit his site about a much later Grauman adventure, the Chinese: www.GraumansChinese.org
The National's project of getting a permanent building was mentioned by Thomas Nunan in "People Here Never Stopped Playing," an October 21, 1906 San Francisco Examiner article located by Art Siegel:
"Amusement records are broken and the figures continue going higher as life grows busier, money easier and the prosperity unfolds faster. Passion for amusement of every kind is keen and more widespread than ever before. All entertainments are playing to great crowds and new amusement enterprises are being rushed to completion. Twenty-seven thousand people can now find seats on any single night in San Francisco's eighteen theatres....Two weeks after the burning of the city, D.J. Grauman attempted to open a vaudeville house in King Solomon's Hall, on Fillmore street, but he could not get the necessary permit at that time.
"Immediately afterward he opened the National Theatre in a tent at Post and Steiner streets, playing cheap vaudeville to a capacity of 2,000. Build While The Play Goes On. Now the tent is being replaced by a steel and iron structure, which is being built over the tent, and the three performances a day go on as usual, while the builders are hammering on all sides and overhead. There will be 1,800 opera chairs in the new theatre...."
A 1907 view of the Alcazar on Sutter St. On the left, looking down Steiner beyond the Alcazar's stagehouse and the Dreamland Rink we get a glimpse of the National. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this image in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
The hard-top National and its tent predecessor got a mention in a December, 1907 article in Variety. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the item. He added it as a comment to his post of the photo of the Grauman tent on the BAHT Facebook page.
Although the National got a real roof it evidently left a bit to be desired in other respects. The Fire Committee of Supervisors was inspecting theatres on 1907 and looking for improvements in the interest of public safety. An article in the December 1, 1907 issue of the Chronicle announced that the nearby Davis Theatre was hopeless and ordered it closed. The National was told to fix things up.
The Graumans had gone on to bigger things and the theatre was being operated by Sullivan and Considine by the time of this December 12, 1909 ad in the San Francisco Call. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. Those "Latest Motiograph Novelties" were film shorts rounding out the program. Perhaps even run on a Motiograph brand projector.
A detail from page 277 of volume 3 of the
1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map with the Natinal in the lower
right at Post St. (along the bottom) and Steiner (on the right). Just
north of the National, and also behind it, was the Dreamland Rink, also opened in 1906. The Dreamland and National properties were the later location of Winterland. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the Library of Congress collection. Their site calls it image 54.
Pierce St. is on the left, Sutter across the top. The Pavilion Rink seen on the left of the drawing, later known as the Winter Garden, opened in September 1906. In the upper center along Sutter is a
house plus the Golden Gate Commandery Hall, a building used by a number
of fraternal organizations. In the upper right is the Republic Theatre.
It had opened in 1907 as the Alcazar and would end up as a film house
called the Uptown.
Also see a black and white version of the map detail that John Freeman located and scanned from Digital
Sanborn Maps 1867-1970, volume 3, sheet 277 via the San Francisco Public Library. He notes: "There was only
one dwelling, but the rest of the entire block was taken up with some
variation of entertainment or fraternal secrecy!"
Closing: The closing date is unknown as is the date when the
Grauman clan left the operation. Jack Tillmany notes that the last city
directory listing for the National was June 1917. The theatre lot and
the lot occupied by the adjacent Dreamland Rink to the north became the
site of the new Dreamland building erected in 1928, later renamed
Winterland.
The
Grauman myth-building had already begun in this 1937 excerpt from a magazine article. The
Graumans were hardly "flattened by the catastrophe." Rather, they took
great advantage of it and came out smiling. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the item. He added it as a comment to his post on the BAHT Facebook page.
Cinema Treasures has a page on the National.
"D.J. Grauman Dates Back," an article about David Grauman, is in the July 10, 1915 Moving Picture World. It's on Internet Archive.
The Grauman Canvas Theatre in San Jose:
This image of Sid Grauman's Canvas Theatre has appeared in a number of places with the location identified as being in San Francisco. Thanks to Martin Turnbull for locating this version for a post on his Hollywood's Garden of Allah Novels Facebook page. There's a watermarked version from the B'hend - Kaufmann Collection on the AMPAS website.
The photo certainly wasn't taken at Post and Steiner. Note the building behind the theatre with the ad for a meat and grocery firm. If this had been taken on the National's site that would have been the location of the Pavilion Rink, which opened in September 1906.
Art Siegel went on a hunt to determine where the photo was shot. He comments: "A Worthpoint entry on the photo identifies it as San Francisco, but it was stamped on the back with a San Jose photo studio, "Mission Art Company 115 Fox Ave. San Jose, California." Since Grauman had the Unique in San Jose, I began wondering if he did a post-quake tent there too."
Art located a November 17, 1903 San Jose Mercury article titled "Playhouse Second To None on Coast" that detailed a remodeling Sid did of the Unique in San Jose. In "Work Will Begin Soon on New Theater," the February 8, 1904 San Jose Mercury detailed Sid's plans, in partnership with Sam Loverich, to build a new theatre to be called the Novelty. These articles, and the others below, appear on the website of the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"The Safest Place of Amusement in the World." It's an ad for the theatre that Art located in the July 5, 1906 San Jose Mercury.
In an article titled "Large Crowd Witnesses Big Show Under Canvas," the July 10, 1906 San Jose Mercury reviewed a show at the theatre, mentioned in the article as "Grauman's Canvas Theatre." The show didn't last long, at least in its initial location. Art found this article in the July 19, 1906 San Jose Mercury:
"Grauman Vaudeville Theater Closed Down - Show House Met With Opposition Because of Its Location. Report Is That Tent Was Required in San Francisco. May Secure Another. [San Jose] - The Grauman tent theater closed down on Sunday night. The reason, it is claimed by the friends of the proprietor, is that he desired to take the tent to San Francisco and establish himself there. On the other hand, it is recalled that strong objection was made at a meeting of the City Council about three weeks ago from a delegation representing the Baptist Church, whose edifice is located across the way at the eastern side of San Antonio and Second streets.
"The opposition became very formidable when the vaudeville company played at hours corresponding with church services. The company has dispersed. The tent remains but the leading officials did not report there yesterday afternoon. Sid Grauman was expected in town last night doubtless to erect another tent theater in some other lot in this city."
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