People's / Isis Theatre

2507-2515 Mission St. | map | 

Opened: The first version of the People's Theatre opened around February 1908 as a vaudeville house but later went to movies. It was on the east side of the street three lots south of 21st St. Jack Tillmany reports that the first telephone directory listing for the Peoples was in May 1908. The first city directory listing in September 1909 gave an address of 2515. 

 

The initial operators were Harris, Pincus and Bauer. Presumably the Bauer of the partnership was Joe Bauer, also involved in the Wigwam, at 2557 Mission. When a later version of the Wigwam was sold in 1925, Ralph Pincus was listed as secretary-treasurer of the corporation.  

 

 

A 1908 view north from the Jack Tillmany collection. The People's vertical on the far left is down the block near 21st St. Closer is the first version of the Wigwam Theatre, running until 1913 when it was replaced by a new building, later known as the Rialto, Crown and Cine Latino. On the right is the Mission/Grand/Realart Theatre, on the SE corner of 22nd and Mission.

 

This column of ads appeared in the May 1, 1909 issue of the San Francisco Bulletin. The People's was one of 30 theatres advertising in the paper's three-page salute to "San Francisco's High-Class Moving-Picture Theatres," part of their Pacific Progress Issue. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the section. 

In June 1910 the theatre had a telephone directory listing as the Davis Theatre. The 1910 and 1911 directories list it as the Peoples (no apostrophe) with an address of 2507.

 

 

People's Theatre was listed as being among houses that were participating in a May 11, 1911 benefit for Children's Hospital in this article from the May 27 issue of The Film Index. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this list via Internet Archive. 

The theatre got a mention in "Many 5 Cent Firetraps," a page 37 story in the September 3, 1911 issue of the San Francisco Call. The paper had been doing an investigation into theatres with blocked or poorly lit exits, inadequate aisle lighting, and non-fireproof construction in violation of city codes. People's and the Grand (aka the Mission) were two of the Mission district theatres found in compliance with regulations. They had many complaints about the Wigwam and the Globe. 

 

The first version of People's was evidently of wood frame construction. It got replaced in 1912 with a new building with brick walls and concrete slab roof. 

 

In this May 1913 photo by John Henry Mentz from the SFMTA Archives we're looking south toward the theatre, a squat building just beyond the gleaming white bank on the left. The bank would later get expanded into the lot to the south and the facade reworked. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the photo in the collection.

 

A detail that Art extracted from the from the 1913 SFMTA photo, with a bit of added horizontal expansion. The People's was in that first bay of the building just south of the bank. Note the heavy reinforcement of that flagpole. Perhaps they were getting ready to reinstall their vertical sign on the recently upgraded building to compete with the replacement Wigwam Theatre down the block, here seen in the final stages of construction. It opened July 24, 1913 and in later years was known as the Rialto, Crown and Cine Latino

 

 

A look at the east side of Mission between 21st and 22nd from page 578 of the 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the Library of Congress website. That's Capp St. running up the right side. 

 

 

A closer look at the People's. It's noted that this version of Peoples was built in 1912. They had automatic sprinklers over the stage.   

The Peoples gets a mention in an article in the July 16, 1916 Moving Picture World. It's on Google Books. The magazine notes that in 1915 it had been taken over by by Bradley and Ekstrom and was a building of brick construction.

The 1916 city directory again gives a 2507 address. The last city directory listing as People's was in July 1919. It's listed as the Isis Theatre in city directories from 1920 through 1924. A 1922 Paramount ad in the Call listed the address as 22nd and Mission.

Seating: Originally it was 450, later down to 362.

Stage specifications:

Proscenium: 18' wide x 14' high
Stage depth: 20'
Grid height: 20'
Stage wall to wall: 25' 

The data comes from page 52 of the 1907-08 edition of Henry's Official Western Theatrical Guide. It's on Google Books.

Closing: Presumably it didn't make it past 1924.

Status: The building currently using the addresses of 2515 and 2517 is evidently a remodeled version of the theatre building. The expanded bank building on the corner of 21st and Mission now uses the 2507 address.

A 1938 aerial view showing the expanded bank building on the corner. Note the light well cut into the theatre building next door -- something that shows up on the Sanborn map below. Thanks to Woody LaBounty for the photo. 

 

A detail from the 1950 Sanborn Map showing the bank's expansion into the second lot from the corner and the People's Theatre used for other purposes. Here it's shown with an addresses of 2515 and 2517. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the map.  

 

 

A 2018 view of the revamped bank building on the corner and the gray building next door, a remodeled version of the building once housing the People's Theatre. The tenants at the time of the photo were a dentist at 2515, a Peruvian Arts & Crafts shop, and an entrance for 2nd floor apartments at 2517. Photo: Google Maps

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.

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