SW corner 7th & Market Streets |
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Opened: The venue was opened on Labor Day 1902 by David J. Grauman as Grauman's Continuous Theatre. David's son Sid was also involved in the management. It was in the auditorium of the Odd Fellows Building on the southwest corner of 7th and Market with the theatre using the entrance on 7th St., over on the left in the photo. The building itself dated from 1885. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the 1885 image.
An early view of the 7th St. entrance from the Jack Tillmany collection. At the time of the photo the auditorium hadn't yet been leased to Grauman.
A June 22, 1902 item in the Chronicle located by Art Siegel:
"NEW VAUDEVILLE THEATER. The people who own a controlling interest in the Odd Fellows' Hall have just leased the main portion of the building, which includes the auditorium, to D.J. Grauman of the Unique Theater. He will take possession at once, and expects to open the place as a vaudeville theater on August 1st.
"He has deposited money with the owners to cover an agreement to alter and equip the place at his own expense, and it is announced that this work will begin at once. One of the provisions of the lease requires the lessee to give the theater to the Grand Lodge for its session one week in each year."
Another story about the Grauman lease appeared in the June 28, 1902 San Francisco Call. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.
This item appeared in the September 17, 1902 San Francisco Call. Art found it via the CDNC:
"Fine moving pictures and a good vaudeville show make up the programme at Grauman's Continuous Theater on Seventh street, near Market. The house, which is the old Odd Fellows' hall transformed into a theater, which compares favorably with any show house in town, has been filled at every performance since its opening on Labor day. Three performances are given every day, one in the afternoon and two in the evening, one at 8 o'clock and the last one at 9:30. The theater is under the same management as the Unique on Market street, and has the same admission price. A complete change of programme is made every week."
An August 7, 1903 article in the San Francisco Call discusses David Grauman's split with his partners of the Pacific Coast Vaudeville Co. and a name change to the Lyceum Theatre:
Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the article via the Library of Congress website. It's also on the California Digital Newspaper Collection website. Although not mentioned by name, John W. Considine was one of the principals of the Pacific Coast Vaudeville Co. With his partner Tim Sullivan, the firm morphed into the Sullivan and Considine circuit. See a Wikipedia article on Considine.
The August 9, 1903 San Jose Mercury and Herald also ran a story about the breakup. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this. Somehow the story's writers got the idea that the elder Grauman was named Dennis instead of Dave:
"Dennis [sic] J. Grauman Resigns Position - No Longer Connected With Pacific Coast Vaudeville Co. Syd Grauman Says Father’s Idea of Refined Playhouse Caused Trouble. Dennis J. Grauman of San Francisco has served his connection with Grauman's Theater in that city. He has turned his share in the Pacific Coast Vaudeville Company over to S. L. Ackerman, manager of the Grand Opera House, who already had a controlling interest in the enterprlse. Syd Grauman, son of D. J. Grauman, and the manager of the Unique Theater in San Jose, was seen yesterday in regard to his father’s action.
"'Ackerman has been dissatisfied for some time with my father’s management,' said Mr. Grauman. He claimed that the Grauman policy of refinement in vaudeville and no smoking did not fill the theater at Seventh and Market streets. He remonstrated, but their views on the proper exploitation of vaudeville talent were radically different, and they could reach no agreement. Ackerman wanted more enterprise whether or not it involved permission for the audience to smoke, but my father refused to give up his idea of a refined family playhouse. The result is my father has retired, and will hereafter give his whole managerial attention to the Unique Theater on Market street, which he controls with Mrs. Strauss, formerly owner of the Bay State Market.' Henry T. Bush, assistant manager of the Chutes Theater in San Francisco. will succeed Grauman as manager of the circuit as well as of the theater at Seventh and Market streets."
In the 1904 city directory it's called the Lyceum and is listed as having Pacific Coast Vaudeville Co. as the proprietors. The Lyceum is in the 1905 city directory with the address listed as "7th cor. Market."
The front of a c.1904 program for the Lyceum. Thanks to Jeff Greenwood for
sharing this from his collection of memorabilia related to his
great-grand-aunt Anna Robinson and her husband, magician Frederick Palmer. She was a singer, billed with Palmer as "The Sorcerer and the Soubrette." Before she teamed up with Palmer she was billed as "The Little Girl with the Big Voice" and "The
Great Coon Shouter." See some inside program pages at the bottom of this page.
In an ad in the
January 6, 1905 Chronicle
they noted that starting on January 9 they would be offering "3 -- Big
Shows Daily -- 3" with "Great Vaudeville Acts" and the "Latest in Moving
Pictures." Perhaps they had been closed for awhile. The Chronicle page is on Newsbank.
A Grand Jury inspected the fire safety
conditions at the Lyceum in January 1905 and they weren't happy. Their visit was discussed in
"Playhouses Do Not Conform With Ordinance," an article that appeared in
the January 27, 1905 issue of
the San Francisco Examiner. Some of the text:
"The
investigation of the local theatres, which was commenced a week ago by
the Grand Jury, was resumed yesterday, and further flagrant violations
of the city ordinances were brought to light.. The first place visited
was the Midway Theatre, on Market street. This resort was unanimously
condemned... Some time was spent by the investigating party at the
Tivoli... no attempt had been made to comply with the law...
"The
Lyceum Theatre, at Seventh and Market streetswas next examined. The
place was equipped with an asbestos curtain but the stage, fly
galleries, rigging loft and staircases were all of wood. The stairways
leading from the exits were also of wood. At the Empire Theatre, on
Market street near Seventh, the same conditions prevailed. The exits and
stage were not of fireproof material, as required by the ordinance...."
Thanks to Art Siegel for
locating this. The full article is reproduced on the page about the
Midway Theatre.
It's still identified as
Grauman's Theatre in this detail from the 1905 Sanborn Real Estate Map located by Art Siegel. That's Market St. across the top of the image. The Bell Theatre on the left would, after several other names, end up as the
Embassy. Here in 1905 it was under construction but enough survived the 1906 earthquake for a rebuild. It opened as the American in 1907.
The January 30, 1906 San Jose Evening News had a story about David Grauman taking an axe to his Unique Theatre on Market. It's on Google News. The article also discusses the Lyceum and the problems with John Considine:
"The story of Grauman's troubles is a long one and encompasses several years. He was one of the primary establishers of the 10 cent vaudeville house in this city. Several years ago he opened the Lyceum Theater in the Odd Fellows Building and the Unique on Market street, between Mason and Taylor. John Considine of Seattle who conducts a number of 10 cent houses along the coast, bought a half interest in Grauman's Lyceum. A year ago he purchased the remaining interest from Grauman, it being rumored that he spent something in the neighborhood of $40,000 to rid himself of Grauman.
"Grauman continued to run the Unique Theater. He went to New York and is said to have lost heavily in 10 cent show ventures there. He returned to San Francisco and last week secured the lease of the Lyceum over Considine's head. The lease does not expire for a year yet, but Grauman worked early to get the coveted house..."
Alas, that lease wasn't worth much after the events of April 1906. The recollection of Considine (or perhaps the story's author) that Grauman sold his interest in the Lyceum a "year ago" was fuzzy. It was more like two and a half years earlier.
The 7th St. entrance as the Lyceum c.1906.
Thanks to Glenn Koch for the photo, one that appeared in an October 1906 souvenir program in his collection for the Colonial Theatre, a house
later known as the President.
It was part of a portfolio honoring theatres lost in the fire and
earthquake plus a few of the hasty replacements. See Glenn's post on the
BAHT Facebook page for 26 more images from the program.
Demise: The Lyceum was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of
April 1906.
An April 18, 1906 view looking south on 7th from Market. The Odd Fellows Building, on the right, has survived the earthquake but the fire is approaching. That's the Grant Building and the main Post Office on the left. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the photo by an unknown photographer that's in the
Open SF History Project collection.
The fire getting closer on 7th. The theatre entrance is over on the right with Market St. in the foreground. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this photo from the UC Berkeley collection on the
Online Archive of California site. It's also on the
UC Berkeley Library website. Art comments: "The
fire just getting to the Post Office / Courthouse at 7th and Mission, which was miraculously saved."
A ruins view looking east from the Jack Tillmany collection. What's left of the Odd Fellows Building is in the center behind the fuzzy gentleman in the foreground. The unfinished Bell Theatre is on the right. Jack comments:
"I always thought the other building in this well known April 1906
view of what was going to be the Bell but was eventually completed and
opened as the American, was the Odd Fellows Building, but looking at it
more closely now, I
see that it's actually the Market Street Bank, which was on the SE
corner of 7th & Market, whereas the Odd Fellows was on the SW
corner, and you
can see the ruins of it here. So there are two theatres in this shot!
The rubble of one past and gone, one still in the womb!"
Looking southwest at the ruins of the Odd Fellows Building with the
Bell/American / Embassy Theatre beyond. It's a Miles Bros. photo from the
Marilyn Blaisdell collection appearing on the
Open SF History Project website. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. A similar shot is in the collection of the
UC Berkeley Library.
"1000 lbs Dynamite Destroying IOOF Bldg." Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this photo by Pillsbury Picture Co. that's in the
Open SF History Project collection. The image also appears on the
UC Berkeley Library website.
Status: The Odd Fellows later rebuilt a smaller structure on the
corner
but there wasn't a commercial theatre operation in the new building.
That new building opened in June 1910 and still stands.
Lyceum program pages from the collection of Jeff Greenwood:
A c.1904 program cover.
A nice ad for Murine from the same program.
On the page after the Murine ad we get the second half of this particular program. It's sometime in the winter. Note the ad for "The Fountain" at the top of the page mentioning a location to open in February.
A page from a June program c.1904 with Palmer and Robinson as act #3. Presumably this was also from the Lyceum.
A 1905 trade magazine ad for Palmer and Robinson. Thanks to Jeff Greenwood for sharing these items from his collection.
More information: The theatre was mentioned in a page 6 and 7 article in the October 10, 1920 Chronicle. They noted the 1902 opening date and say it was
initially called Grauman's. Thanks to Jack Tillmany
for finding it. The article, "From the Bull Fights to the Girl Show and
Back" discusses many other early theatres as well. It's on Newsbank.
See the pages here on this site about Grauman's Unique Theatre on Market, a house they opened around 1898, and the National Theatre in the Fillmore district, the first post-quake venture in San Francisco for the Graumans. Other adventures before they decamped for Los Angeles included a spell at what was later called the St. Francis Theatre and the opening of Grauman's Imperial in 1912.
"D.J. Grauman Dates Back," an article about David Grauman, is in the July 10, 1915 Moving Picture World. It's on Internet Archive.
There was an earlier Lyceum Hall on Montgomery St, around in the 1860s.
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.
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