San Francisco Theatres: The Everyman Theatre

3316 24th St. | map |

Opening: Alexander Francis Horn and his wife Sharon Gans-Horn opened this legit theatre in the Mission District on January 5, 1973. It used a second floor space in a building on the northwest corner of 24th and Mission with the entrance on 24th St. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the photo from his collection. It was taken by Tom Gray.

A ticket for the play "Adam King" at the Everyman. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this when it appeared on eBay. He notes that the show was playing in 1975. It was listed in the February 23 Examiner.

The back of the "Adam King" ticket.

Closing: The theatre closed after a fire on September 17, 1976.

After this one burned, Horn and his wife leased the auditorium of the building that had opened in 1912 as the Knights of Columbus Hall at 160 Golden Gate Ave. They renamed the space The Theatre of All Possibilities. The duo left town after lots of bad press exposing the operation as a cult that abused its members.

Status: The building is still there at 24th and Mission. Gary Parks discusses it:

"I recognized this building immediately. In the 90s, the upstairs theatre space was occupied by Third Wave Dance House, a dance studio, and on Sunday Nights was home to Barefoot Boogie, a four-hour, freestyle dance jam with eclectic, recorded music. And yes, Shoes Off was the requirement. No drugs, no booze, just dancing. I don’t know when the weekly event moved to this building, but Barefoot Boogie as an institution was founded in the late 60s.

"I was part of that Tribe nearly every weekend from early 1992 to mid-1995. It was both therapy and 'church' —a release of stress during a difficult time of life. And oh—how wild it was when Boogie night fell on Halloween or Valentine’s Day—and the costumes! One of the founders, Gary Knight, passed away not long after I stopped going, and for a time the event was renamed Knight Boogie, in his honor. I heard it later moved to the East Bay, but have not kept up with it since.

"The fire it had when it was Everyman would explain the reason the interior upstairs was so Spartan. Other than the tiny lobby just inside that marquee’d entrance, and the old stairway leading to the performance space above, the interior was thoroughly modern, and looked a bit hastily constructed. In the main room, the ceiling was open to the steel rafters, and the no-nonsense walls and floor contrasted heavily with the c. 1910s or 20s exterior. I remember making a note of this at the time. My wife and I played a gig in the little cafe just to the left of the building’s entrance a few years ago. I don’t know what the upstairs theatre/dance space is used for now."

The building in 2019. On the left we're looking west on 24th St. 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.

3 comments:

Matthew KingAugust 23, 2021 at 11:51 AM
I was an actor there when the theatre first opened. The play was called ADAM KING. It was a three act play that told the story of how the Kennedys and King were killed, who killed them, and why. The play ran for a year and a day.
UnknownNovember 27, 2021 at 2:34 PM
i was the longest going member of Barefoot Boogie(that originated from Dance Jam, the Friday night dance event in Berkeley, which began in '75...i went for the first time in '77) until i left America in 2001...it was not the late 60s when Gary and Michael began Boogie...it was the late 70s...otherwise, i think the author did a pretty good job describing the event...