Opened: April 18, 1904 with Harry Bishop as the operator. The Majestic was on the south side of the street just east of 9th St., opposite Larkin. Both the theatre and the Majestic Building were listed at the 1281 Market address in the 1905 city directory. This 1904 photo from the Glenn Koch collection appeared as a post on his Facebook page Vintage San Francisco. He comments:
"At the beginning of September, 1904 a monumental gathering was held in San Francisco of the Masonic body known as the Knights Templar. This Grand Encampment Triennial went on for the whole first week of September and filled the city with thousands of visitors. The decorations that lined lower Market Street for the event were breathtaking including the lighting of the Ferry Building tower with a giant Templar shield. The culmination of the festivities was a giant parade that stretched down Market Street to Van Ness. The photo, taken just in front of the newly opened Majestic Theater, just east of 9th Street and opposite Larkin Street, shows part of the parade from that day. Today this is solidly in the heart of Mid-Market with all its associated issues, but in the days before the quake and fire this was a flourishing stretch of the city's main thoroughfare."
Architect: William Curlett. Well, at least he was the architect when the venture was first announced. It's unknown if he continued with the project.
Seating: Around 1,700. it was a two balcony house.
The project had been announced in 1902 as the Bouvier Theatre, a project of "young capitalist" William Ede with Alfred Bouvier as the intended operator. A July 13, 1902 San Francisco Call
article located by Art Siegel via the California Digital Newspaper Collection website had the news:
It ended up looking slightly different than in this drawing from the Call. And the final version also incorporated an office building into the project, something not envisioned in the 1902 announcement.
Construction, for unknown reasons, took almost 20 months. Due to the construction delays, Bishop had lost several bookings he had planned. When the theatre opened on April 18, 1904 it was still not complete. The first attraction was "The Crisis," starring Isabel Irving. The theatre closed after that engagement so the contractors could finish. The "formal opening" didn't happen until September 3 when the historical romance "In the Palace of the King" debuted. Bishop also operated the Ye Liberty Playhouse in Oakland.
An item about the new theatre that appeared in a fall 1904 issue of Sunset magazine. Thanks to Kevin Walsh for locating it.
The Majestic is seen in this detail from page 144 of Volume 2 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this on the website of the David Rumsey Map Collection. That's Stevenson St. on the left and the stage end of the theatre along 9th St. across the top.
A wider look at the south side of Market from the 1905 Sanborn map. 9th St. crosses the center of the image. At the top it's Varney's Rambler Biclorama, a building that opened in 1887 as the 10th & Market Panorama with its initial attraction a monumental painting titled "The Storming of Missionary Ridge."
In late 1905 H.W. Bishop began running the Central Theatre in addition to the Majestic. The Central had previously been operated by Belasco and Mayer. There are several stories mentioning these two sets of operators at the top of the page about the Embassy, in 1905 still under construction. Both Bishop and the Belasco and Mayer forces were trying to get control of that one as well.
Destroyed: April 17, 1906. Jack Tillmany comments that this was just a few hours before its 2nd birthday.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this photo from his collection that was taken by T.E. Hecht. The show at the time was "The Senator," playing in early 1905. There's a smaller version of the photo on the San Francisco Public Library website.
A January 1906 view looking east along Market St. The photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection. A smaller version is on the San Francisco Public Library website. Jack notes: "Nellie Stewart in 'Sweet Nell of Old Drury' was a big success; it opened 22 January 1906 and closed 18 February 1906."
Thanks to Glenn Koch for this 1906 photo, one that appeared in an October 1906 souvenir program in his collection for the opening of 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.
Art Siegel notes that "The Proud Prince" opened February 26 and closed in March. He located this item in the February 25 issue of the S.F. Call:
"The Majestic will revive to-morrow evening Justin Huntly McCarthy's play, 'The Proud Prince,' recently admirably produced at the Uptown theater. Franklyn Underwood, Miss Amelia Gardner and Donald Bowles will have the chief roles."
See a number of stories and reviews Art located concerning the production via the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.
Interior views:
A look over toward house right by Strobel from the Jack Tillmany collection. The image can also be seen on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library.
There's also a version in the San Francisco Public Library collection. On the back of theirs it says: "The interior of San Francisco's Majestic Theatre, which had opened on Market Street opposite Larkin Street in 1904, as it appeared before the great Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906. 'Who Goes There?' a farce by and starring Walter E. Perkins, was this house's last attraction."
Thanks to Glenn Koch for this undated photo from his collection. A rally or celebration of some sort -- we have dignitaries, sailors, flags. Glenn shared the photo on a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
After the earthquake and fire:
A look out from stage right after the 1906 earthquake. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this photo in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
There's a cropped version of this image on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. Another cropped version appears on the San Francisco Public Library website, credited to the Bancroft.
Another May 18, 1906 view from backstage. This one was taken by Theodore Kytka. It's on Calisphere from the California Historical Society.
Thanks to Brooklyn-based theatre historian Cezar Del Valle for this postcard view house left. It was a post of the card on the BAHT Facebook page. Visit Cezar's Theatre Talks blog for other great material he's discovered. The original shot, by Bear Photo is in the California State Library collection, their item #001475208.
A postcard view of the shell of the theatre after the 1906 earthquake. It's on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. We're looking east across 9th St. at the back of what's left of the stagehouse
"Work." Another 9th St. ruins view - with added posters on the back wall. There's a bit of the rear of the proscenium arch visible and the structure of the auditorium beyond. It's a photo on Calisphere from the UC Bancroft Library.
If you had a stereo card viewer handy, you could see the ruins of the Majestic in 3-D. The card is on Calisphere from the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.
Looking south toward Market with the ruins of the Majestic at the left and Varney's Cyclorama at the right. Take a left at that wagon in the center and you'd be on Market St. Varney's had earlier been the Gettysburg Panorama. It's a photo in the San Francisco Public Library collection.
A similar view but taken from farther back. It appears to have been taken a bit earlier as there's more remaining of the Cyclorama ruins on the right. It's a San Francisco Public Library photo. They say it's the "Sight of the former St. Nicholas Hotel and the Majestic Theater on Van Ness Avenue looking south east]." That hotel was north of Market at Market and Hayes.
A later shot from about the same angle. Not the added postings on the back wall of the stagehouse. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this photo in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
Another nice view with the ruins of City Hall in the distance. With this angle we get a better look at the fire escapes on the house left side of the auditorium. It's from the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee library, Brigham Young University. It's their item #MSS P 585.
A closer look along Stevenson St. at the house left wall and its fire escapes. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.
On the right it's the back of the auditorium. That upper level on the fire escape was the house left exit from the second balcony. This is another photo that Bob Ristelhueber located in the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library collection. Thanks, Bob!
More Information: See "The Majestic," chapter 11 of George Hanlin and Alan Harrison's "Famous Playhouses of San Francisco." It's a 1942 publication from the Writers' Program of the WPA that was sponsored by the City and County of San Francisco. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it on Internet Archive. This publication formed the the basis of Edmond M. Gagey's "The San Francisco Stage," Columbia University Press, 1950.
There was also a downtown post-quake Majestic Theatre south of Market on 3rd St. The Tower Theatre in the Mission district opened as the Majestic in 1912.
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.
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.
There's a lovely view purporting to be a 1906 Majestic lobby shot on the blog Dos Artistas but we suspect it's actually of City Hall.
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