Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre

895 O'Farrell St. | map |

Opened: July 4, 1969 as O'Farrell - The Adult Theatre. At first it was just film but live shows were later added. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this "Now Open" photo from his collection that was taken by Tom Gray in 1969. 

KRON featured the O'Farrell in a 1970 segment. It's on the Bay Area Television Archive "Censorship of Skin Flicks" page where they comment:  

"KRON-TV Newswatch footage from August 4th 1970 with Phil Wilson featuring a report on the making, screening and censorship of pornographic movies in San Francisco, focusing on O'Farrell Theatre owners the Mitchell Brothers. Includes exterior views of downtown adult movie theaters and of a film production set at the O'Farrell Theatre.."

The BATA page also includes links to other footage about porno exhibition in the Bay Area. Thanks to Gary Meyer for spotting this for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. He noted that the footage includes a great collection of shots of XXX marquees.

The venue was perhaps the first in the country to get the girls off the stage and into the laps of the customers. Hunter S. Thompson declared it "the Carnegie Hall of public sex in America." In 1991 Jim Mitchell fatally shot his brother Artie. The club had been managed by Jim's daughter Meta in its later years.

The building, at the southeast corner of O'Farrell and Polk, dates from 1924. It had once been a Pontiac dealership.

Closing: October 2020, after 51 years of operation. Jay Barmann covered the story for Hoodline in his story "Legendary porn palace the O'Farrell Theatres closes after 51 years." 

 

A 1972 photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack Tillmany collection.  

 

A June 1975 photo by Tom Gray.

 

An August 1975 photo taken by Tom Gray. 

 

March 1979. It's a photo by Tom Gray. 

 

 

 

A July 1979 photo taken by Tom Gray. Many thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing these photos by Tom that are in his collection.

A photo that appeared on Yelp. 

 

 

 The whale mural on the Polk St. side of the building. It's a photo by Jim Heaphy, aka Cullen328. 

 

A c.2006 photo by Black Asker that appeared with Adam Brinklow's 2018 Curbed SF article "Mitchell Brothers Theatre strip club for sale." Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for spotting the article.

More Information: The O'Farrell is discussed on page 64 of Jack Tillmany's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco." The book can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller.  

There's a listing for the building on Loopnet in pdf format. 

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