The Oriental Theatre

1035 Grant Ave. | map |


Opened: 1909 or a bit earlier. It was on the west side of the street between Jackson and Pacific. Jack Tillmany notes it was in the October 1909 edition of the telephone directory. The city directories list it from 1910 to 1917. It's in the 1912 city directory as being at 1035 Grant. Evidently in some listings the address shows as 1037 Grant. 

We get a look at the theatre in this ad for Wurlitzer Automatic Musical Instruments in the October 4, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World. It's on Internet Archive. Charmaine Zoe gets the points for finding this one. It's in her Vintage Cinemas: California album on Flickr.  The caption read: 

"The Wurlitzer PlanOrchestra in Oriental Theatre, San Francisco...Wurlitzer Instruments furnish better music than musicians and reduce expenses. 50 different styles; time payments; big catalog free. If you can't call, write to our nearest branch."
 
In case you were wondering about the placement of the instrument, Jack Tillmany found the same photo being used by Wurlitzer back in 1909 with a different caption: 
 
"The Plan-Orchestra forms an ornamental centerpiece in the vestibule. In this location it attracts passers-by and then entertains them after they come in; the music being heard equally well both in and outside."  
 

The Oriental appears with the designation "Motion Pictures" in this detail from page 44 of volume 1 of the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. That's Grant running up the right with the theatre shown at 1037-39. Pacific Ave. is across the top and Jackson St. at the bottom. Stockton is out of the frame, another half-block off to the left. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the Library of Congress collection. That big vacant lot mid-block would become the home of the Mandarin/Sun Sing Theatre in 1924.    

Status: The theatre ran at least until 1917. The 1035 address is currently the retail store New Look Fashions in a two story retail building that looks like it dates from the 40s.


1035 Grant Ave now.  It's a 2017 Google Maps view. On the left side it's the north end of the Mandarin / Sun Sing Theatre building.



A 2017 Google view north toward Pacific.

More information: Well, there really isn't any.

| back to top | San Francisco Theatres: by address and neighborhood | alphabetical list | list by architect | pre-1906 theatre list | home |  

No comments:

Post a Comment