The Aquarius / Tea Room Theatre

 145 Eddy St. | map |

Opening: March 27, 1970 as the Aquarius Theatre, showing straight porno. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this photo by Tom Gray that's in his collection. 

 

 

Another Tom Gray photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. "The Medallion" was a 1972 film. The copy on the signage near the entrance doors reads "The Aquarius sure shows it like it is...and I thought I knew it all. This flic you gotta see."

As late as March 1976 it was advertising in the Chronicle as running hardcore features and charging $3.00 admission. It reopened as the Tea Room Theatre on December 4, 1976 and adopted a gay porno policy.

 

A Tea Room photo from Ron Naples that he shared on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the post. 

Stu Adamson notes: "Only the barred box office was on street level. The auditorium was below the street in the basement (and grim...)."

Closing: May 15, 2016. Deadline ran a story about the venue's closing.

Status: The building survives, with the hotel now call called the West Hotel instead of the Minerva. As of 2021 the theatre's signage was still up.

A view east toward Market St. Photo: Google Maps - 2021

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page about the Tea Room.

 

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.  

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