220 Jones St. | map |
The early years: This little screening room and headquarters for the Filmack Trailer Co.
was part of the Film Row establishment for decades. The building is on
the east side of the street between Turk and Eddy.
Peter Field notes
that architectural historian Ann Bloomfield gives a construction date
of 1936 and that architectural historian Michael Corbett credits the
design to Bliss & Fairweather, who built it for owner S. G.
Buckbee of Buckbee, Thorne & Co., a real estate firm. Peter notes
that city directories show Karl Romaine Photography was the tenant from
1936 to 1955 and adds:
"Romaine
was a
legitimate photographer with clients like KNBC at Taylor and O’Farrell
streets who sent their disc jockeys and other talent there for
professional photos. Karl and his wife Emilie quickly achieved stature
and success as one of the premier professional photography studios in
the city, specializing in photographing dancers and theater performers,
as well as entertainers in general. Both were well-known photographers.
He was the president of the Professional Photographers Association of
California, and active in the annual Western States Photographers
Convention and the Photographers Association of America."
Peter reports that no tenants were listed at 220 Jones in 1957 and 1958.
Zeus Film
Production was listed in the 1959 directory. A Chronicle item in 1960
had "Bomont Productions—Motion picture studio and sound recording" at
the 220 address.
Mohawk Productions Film
Studio was listed from 1961 to 1964, managed by a guy named Walter
Bowley. Peter notes that they
advertised acting classes in 1961 (mentioned in 'Special Notices,' on
page 43 of the March 26, 1961 Chronicle). Also sharing the premises in
1961 was the TV-Film Registry -- "no experience necessary.” Peter notes:
"Walter
Bowley was listed as the director for an effort titled 'The Saucy
Aussie,' also known as 'The Oblong Couch' in 1963, associated with a
production company that did only XXX titles. A Herb Caen item on page 17
of the June 30, 1964 Chronicle mentioned Mohawk filming a nudie movie,
'Follow That Skirt.' So it seems pretty clear that Mohawk’s film
production business was pornography."
Evidently Mohawk was a co-tenant with Filmack but, as Peter notes,
Filmack doesn't appear in the city directories between 1955 and 1970.
The city directories in 1965 and 1966 list it as the Screening Room but
at that point it was still a trade venue, not yet a public theatre. In
the 1966 and 1967 city directories Color Films Distributing Productions
was also listed as being at 220.
Turning to porno exhibition: The venue went to porno as the
Screening Room on April 10, 1967, according to Jack Tillmany. He adds:
"Once
upon a time, it was The Screening Room, a quite respectable member of
The Film Row Society. It was the home of the Filmack Trailer Co., 'An
organization of craftsmen specializing in announcement films for TV and
theatre use.'"
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this c.1967 Tom Gray photo from his collection. He comments:
"This photo caught it just in time, as it had just recently
been abandoned by its former occupants and had taken on a new identity
as The Screening Room, a pioneer tenderloin X-rated venue, but had not
yet changed the original signage."
The
facade in 1968 after a bit of a remodel and added signage. It's a Tom
Gray photo that's in the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack comments:
"Tom's
photo shows its transition into the X-Rated World with a boxoffice
added. The signage here is plain but more colorful signage eventually
appeared, along with the pickets."
A
Tom Gray Photo from the Jack Tillmany collection showing the venue's
remodeled facade and new signage. Jack notes that the Musicians Union
was upstairs in the brick building on the left.
Peter Field notes:
"A 1977 San Francisco Examiner expose of the Tenderloin listed the Screening Room
property as owned by Alex DeRenzy, the guy who made the first
feature-length XXX movie in the United States after attending a film
festival in Scandinavia. The business permit owner was one Kathryn A.
Reed."
The theatre started by running as a straight venue but in 1980 switched to presenting gay male shows.
A 1981 ad for the Screening Room as a gay venue. Thanks to Peter Field for providing it. He notes that it came from Chris Carlsson.
A Screening room membership card from the Chris Carlsson collection. Thanks to Peter Field for providing it.
It reopened September 15, 1982 as Savages. This 1984 Tom Gray photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection.
On August 22, 1986 it was renamed the Campus Theatre. This 1987 Tom Gray photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection.
Peter Field has a story about new tenants next door:
"An only in San Francisco moment happened during this period when the San Francisco Rescue Mission (which has been in the neighborhood since around 1987) bought the old Musicians Union building next door in 1997. In 2001, they started picketing the Campus Theatre next door, so Terrance Allen, who himself was a gay pornographer of many years standing (who mostly starred in his own films), complained to the Mayor’s Office of Community Services, claiming his business was being harassed, coming up with lines like they 'aggressively prayed' in front of his business and calling the behavior 'homophobic.' Allen made enough money in the Sixties and
Seventies to donate to the Democratic Party, which eventually earned him
an appointment to the Entertainment Commission. He was a controversial
figure in the Tenderloin because of his proliferation of XXX businesses
and his later opening of several clubs that all became major trouble
spots.
"By 2004 the Mission had started a Christian school on the site and the business, now the Chez Paree, was being picketed by students from the school. Interestingly, the students would picket from 3 to 5, 5 being when Chez Paree opened for business. Meanwhile, Reverend Huang, the Korean minister who runs the Mission, went on a hunger strike over the issue. Articles on the issue included 'Missionaries pray for gay club’s demise, but city helps to settle the dispute' (Central City Extra, August/September 2001), 'Rescue Mission tries to save face' (Central City Extra, June 2004) and 'Dog Bites' (San Francisco Weekly, August 4, 2000)."
Peter Field notes that in ads in the Bay Area Reporter from 1999 through 2001 it was advertised as the New Meat Campus Theatre. It was Club 220 from 2001 through 2003.
It was the Chez Paree from 2004 to 2007. Peter Field notes it's listed as that in the 2004 through at least the 2006 telephone directories. But
the famous Barbary Coast 'Leg' sign that was displayed at three earlier Chez Paree
locations on Mason St. was never installed here.
A c.2005 photo taken by Peter Field of the venue as Chez Paree, the last of four locations to use that name. He comments:
"The Leg never made it to the last site on Jones Street, as my photo confirms. My friend John Law, who has worked in the Bay
Area sign industry for decades, says the last he heard a friend of Terrance Allen
had acquired it. Allen was (maybe still is) the owner of 220 Jones where
the last incarnation of Chez Paree was located. But Allen never installed the sign on
Jones Street."
By 2007 it was a late-night club called Vixen. By April 2008 it had been renamed Pink Diamonds, running through 2010. Peter Field comments:
"The clubs were both trouble spots, with frequent complaints from neighbors, violence, and police involvement, and Pink Diamonds was closed down by the city. Articles included '50 cops called as unruly crowd at strip club turns violent' (Central City Extra, October 2008) and 'S. F. closes Tenderloin club' (Chronicle, October 4, 2009)."
Status: By April 2011 the former screening room had become Power Exchange. It's still in business. Peter comments:
"It's a sort of quasi-consensual sex joint that moved from Mason near Market because of the objections of many neighborhood activists and residents. It got more objections in its new location, but somehow managed to hang on."
The
building's historic marker. Thanks to Michael Thomas Angelo for sharing
his photo as part of a 2016 post about the theatre on the BAHT Facebook page. He noted:
"The incarnations of this theater in San Francisco's Tenderloin at 220 Jones have always been blue. In 1968, it was the site of the first pornographic film to be screened in public. Today it's a last ditch reconstituted rehash of a once popular sex club called the Power Exchange."
Michael Blythe comments:
"Love how this says 'to avoid legal problems.' The story I heard is the police would arrest him when he started the projector. For exhibiting pornographic material. His wife would go bail him out with the money from the till, he would go back and the same routine would happen over and over. They were selling out the house constantly, and oddly the police wouldn't stop the movie they just let it play. I knew his wife. She was still owner/bookkeeper for the theatre when I started and she enjoyed telling the tales!"
A 2016 Power Exchange shot by Michael Thomas Angelo.
The premises as Power Exchange. That's Turk St. on the right. It's a 2017 Google Maps photo.
And what of the "Leg"? Gary Parks offers a March 2019 report:
"Last weekend, at SF
History Days at the Old Mint, I walked up to the Tenderloin Historical
Society’s table—staffed by two very knowledgeable and enthusiastic women
of late young or early middle age, and all I had to say was, 'So—is
anyone trying to figure out what happened to the Leg?' That’s all it
took.
"They
both lit up with big smiles, and said, yes, and they are on
the heels (so to speak) of a rumor that it was broken up into sections,
and is stored in the basement of the building that was the last Chez
Paree location, 220 Jones -- although it never got installed there.
"They
both knew the places where it had been displayed previously, its status
as a former light-bulb unit, and that those bulbs originally spelled
out 'Barbary Coast.' One of their members is trying to get access to the building, to
verify the rumor. So—hopefully this quest is continuing on the right
foot."
The locations of the Barbary Coast / Chez Paree 'Leg Sign':
220 Jones St. - Screening Room / Chez Paree #4 / Power Exchange - 'Leg sign' never installed
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.
Thanks
to Peter M. Field for his research. For a fine history of the neighborhood see his 2018 America Through Time/Sutton Publishing book "The Tenderloin District of San Francisco Through Time." It's available through your local bookseller or Amazon.
See Greg Keraghosian's "Meet the man who made San Francisco the porn capital of America 50 years ago, " a 2020 Datebook article about Alex DeRenzy. He died in 2001. Thanks to Michael Blythe for locating the article. Mark Kleim comments: "Les Natali, a former psychology major who managed De Renzy's Screening Room, said 30 percent of the customers at his North Beach Theater were women – many of them tourists."
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