The Beau Geste Cinema

 3968 17th St.  | map | 

Opened: The Beau Geste Cinema debuted on May 22, 1976. The location is on the north side of the street between Noe and Market. The theatre opened as a venue running 16mm prints of Hollywood films.

 

The opening day ad in the S.F. Examiner. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it. He comments:

"For the record: This Is the Army (1943) had been buried in the Warner Bros. vaults since the time of its first release, with the usual legal complications preventing its release to TV. But then somebody did some research and discovered the copyright had apparently not been renewed and, like 'It's a Wonderful Life,' it suddenly became public domain. My guess is that both 'This Is the Army' and 'Boys in the Band' (1970) were 16mm prints from a private collection. I could probably even tell you the name of the collector, but I'm not going to."

Paul Engel notes that he saw "Call Me Madam" at the Beau Geste in 1976. Jack comments: 

"The screening was not listed in the Examiner. I believe 'Call Me Madam' was still under legal wraps at the time, so it was probably a bootleg 16mm print, safer left unadvertised, because that was also the era of the FBI roundup of prints held by collectors."

By October 1976 the theatre had become a porno operation.

 

This 1976 photo taken by Tom Gray is from the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack notes that "Song of the Loon" (1970) was playing the theatre in mid-October.

Jack notes that it became the E.O.C.C. (End of Castro Club) in March 1978 and by then the operation was less theatre-like with gay porno was projected high on the walls above private stalls. 

Closing: The best guess is sometime in the early 1980s. 

Status: The building survives but in 2009 it was expanded south to the property line on 17th St.  Jack notes that it's "facing Orphan Andy's, at the end of the Market Street historic trolley F Line." 

 

A c.1978 photo by Tom Gray taken after it had become the E.O.C.C. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the photo from his collection. He comments: "These are probably the ONLY two photos ever taken of it, thanks to indefatigable Tom Gray." 

 

The building in 2008, before it was expanded. Photo: Google Maps 

 

The remodeled building in 2020. That's a bit of Market St. seen to the left of the gas station. 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.

There's a page about the Beau Geste on the site Cinema Treasures.

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