Film Fair

 732 Chenery St. | map |

Dick Mayfield's revival house career began in a guest house on Jackson St. beginning in 1961. From 1965 until January 1970 he was in a storefront on Steiner St. The third location was a 40 seat venue in an upstairs apartment in the Glen Park neighborhood beginning in January 1970.

This article by Monique Benoit appeared in the July 8, 1965 Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. At the time, Mayfield's location was on Jackson Street: 

 

 

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the article. 

 

Art also located comments about the Film Fair, by then relocated to Chenery St., in a "Movies" column that Norman K. Dorn wrote for the April 5, 1970 issue of the Sunday San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. Mayfield was going to be running "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town" and Dorn commented: 

"... And there's now a chance to see it on screen again during a four-night run, Thursday through next Sunday, at the Glen Park revival residence, the Film Fair. Since last January movie-mad Dick Mayfield has weekly projected his retrospective double-bills in a house at 732 Chenery street off the Central Freeway, a half-block from the Municipal buses No. 26 (Valencia) and No. 10 (Monterey). Such classics as 'The More the Merrier,' 'A Star Is Born,' 'Roxie Hart,' 'Rebecca' have already shown. Mayfield looks forward to 'Flying Down To Rio' (June 4-7), 'Under Two Flags' (June 25-28) among many others...

"The 40-seat Film Fair is the third location for Dick Mayfield's operation in film nostalgia. He started offering movies to members of his guest house in 1959 when a can of film was delivered by mistake to his office on the Embarcadero. In 1961, Mayfield opened his first Film Fair on Jackson street and later moved to a store front on Steiner street. Increases in rent forced the Fair to its present Glen Park location. Here the showman not only projects the past on the screen. 

"His improvised showhouse also saturates the patron with the memorabilia of movies such as canvas director's chairs to seat the audience. Vivid, trade magazine advertisements of near-forgotten productions are framed on the walls and all decor is touched with the Old Hollywood. It's doubtful that any setting could be more fitting for viewing an excursion into the calculated innocence of the '30s and '40s back when we believed Gary Cooper also played tuba and Edmund Gwenn was surely Santa Claus!" 

In a "Cinema" column that listed various art houses and film societies in the Sunday October 24, 1971 Examiner and Chronicle they noted that the admission was $2 and that the Chenery St. venue was open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Thanks to Art Siegel for finding the listing:

"Dick Mayfield used to rent a projector and show old movies to the roomers at the guest house where he lived until his landlady suggested he open his own theater. American films of the thirties, forties and fifties have been his fulltime hobby for the last fifteen years and he gives a loving running commentary on the merits of each film he presents. 

"The remarkable thing is that more people haven't discovered his small, friendly duplex-turned-theater with its stand-up card table chairs. It's on the second floor of an old house in the Excelsior district. Mayfield introduces himself as you come in and tells you what other good movies are presently playing in The City..."

Norman K. Dorn wrote another big plug for Film Fair with his "Movies" column about many vintage Universal films that Mayfield had booked at the time. The article, one Art located in the Sunday July 22, 1973 issue of the Examiner and Chronicle, also discussed how Mayfield got hooked on exhibition: 

 

"... Dick Mayfield, operator of the 732 Chenery Street Film Fair, who exhibits retrospects on Fridays - Saturdays - Sundays, was amazed to have numerous long-hidden features of the 'Thirties and early 'Forties suddenly made available to him by MCA. Mayfield had been unreeling revivals in the city since 1959. His first was a 16-mm print of 'Black Gold' (1947), an Anthony Quinn feature, when it was left in error at his waterfront office and meant for the cruise ship Leilani tied-up alongside. He rented a projector and showed it at his Jackson street guest house. When another print was left, Mayfield decided to continue his unofficial showings. 

 

"He started his Film Fair April, 1961, on Jackson Street; he later established at a Marina Steiner street store in 1965, continuing there for five years until January, 1970, when he moved to his present 732 Chenery establishment. Today at 7 p.m. there's a 'Thirties Universal film that has rarely been shown since its original run -- 'The Good Fairy' (1935) with Margaret Sullavan. (An omnibus 'Flesh and Fantasy' (1943) is the co-feature)..."  

 

Thanks to Art Siegel for all the research. He notes: 

 

"My wife and I both remembered going there around 1976. I saw the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' there." 

 

 

 

732 Chenery in 2019. Photo: Google Maps

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