Opened: This Richmond district theatre opened Friday November 22, 1918. It's on the SE corner of Clement and 9th Ave., a block north of Geary Blvd. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this opening night view from his collection. Eric Reimann figured out the marquee is advertising the Mary Pickford film "Johanna Enlists." A smaller version of the photo is on the San Francisco Public Library website.
Architects: Reid Brothers did the original design. S. Charles Lee did a 1931 remodel. Philip Krikau comments: "I worked the booth at this theatre in the early 80's. It was a huge theatre with a small proscenium that made the picture look small from way upstairs."
The theatre was originally going to be called Levin's. This drawing is from the collection of Jack Tillmany.
An article in the November 9, 1918 issue of Motion Picture World discusses the delayed opening. Thanks to Jim Cassedy for finding the piece and to Gary Meyer for sending it along. Jim comments:
An article about the opening from the December 21, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for tracking it down.
The first page of an article by S. Charles Lee in the August 29, 1931 Better Theatres section of Motion Picture Herald has Lee talking about how he needed to freshen up a dated theatre in more of a modern style. It's on Internet Archive, where you can enlarge it. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the article and posting it on the BAHT Facebook page.
An ad for Alexander Smith carpet in the March 12, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald that featured the Coliseum. It's a find of Bob Ristelhueber for the BAHT Facebook page.
"I checked with Phil Krikau to see if he could confirm or deny, but all
he recalled was that during its final years, the balcony at the
Coliseum was permanently closed off. The story I heard at the time,
which, at this late date would best be described as hearsay, was that
the fire escapes had rotted out, and were now considered a safety
hazard, and so UATC chose to take the easy (and cheaper) way out, and
simply discontinue using the upstairs area, not a problem, since there
were more than enough seats on the main floor for whatever business
arose."
A December 1995 article in the Richmond Review that detailed the gloomy prospects for the theatre.
Status: Around 2001 it was converted into a Walgreens with condos on top. Jack Tillmany has the 2021 update:
"The Walgreens Drug Store which took over the site has closed. The New York Post tells the story in their October 2021 article 'Walgreens closes five more San Francisco locations, citing organized retail crime.' Another chapter of California's New Normal. Smash-and-grab has become a way of life in SF - law enforcement is a JOKE."
The lobby in 1931 before the S. Charles Lee renovation. The photo appears with an article by Mr. Lee in the August 29, 1931 Better Theatres section of Motion Picture Herald that has Lee talking about how he needed to freshen up a dated theatre in a more modern style.
A lobby view from 1931, right after the deco remodel. Photo: Motion Picture Herald - August 29, 1931
This version of the photo from the Jack Tillmany collection gives us a bit more of the ceiling. It's on the San Francisco Public Library website.
The simplified main lobby look in 1942. The auditorium is off to the left. It's a Ted Newman photo from the Jack Tillmany collection appearing on the San Francisco Public Library website.
The balcony level lounge and lobby before S. Charles Lee got to it. Photo: Motion Picture Herald - August 29, 1931
A smaller, but less cropped version of the post-renovation balcony lobby photo. It's on the San Francisco Public Library website from Jack Tillmany.
The simplified look of that upstairs area in 1942. It's a photo by Ted Newman from the Jack Tillmany collection on the San Francisco Public Library website.
The main lobby in 1995. It's a Gary Parks photo. He notes: "This view of the lobby shows the 1960s 'freshening up' of the earlier Moderne style. The little sign visible over the stair bannister is a handpainted job on chipboard, framed behind glass. I took it that day, with UA Maintenance permission. It read 'REST ROOMS ON MEZZANINE FLOOR Upstairs.' It next hung in bathrooms in three successive places I lived. However, a plumbing emergency at home in 2008 soaked the cardboard, and the sign was, sadly, history."
Salvaging in 1995. It's a Gary Parks photo. The story: "Martin Schmidt of Carmel holds an original firehose rack which he had just removed. The idea was to use the ones we salvaged from the Coliseum to replace ones missing from the UA State (Golden State) Theatre in Monterey. A few years later, three racks from San Francisco’s Amazon Theatre became available, which were identical to those missing from the State. These were restored and installed, and those from the Coliseum are—to the best of my knowledge—still in storage at the Golden State in a space above one of the organ chambers. Martin Schmidt was the initiator of the effort to restore the UA State/Golden State. Note the gray concrete of the wall above the bannister. This is one of the places where United Artists had inspectors expose the structural concrete, to check the safety of the building following its closing by the Loma Prieta Quake."
Up in the balcony level lobby in 1995. It's a Gary Parks photo. He explains: "This area had been 'redecorated' in the Sixties, when the balcony was closed forever to all but the projectionist and maintenance personnel. Compare this to earlier, similarly-angled views taken when the theatre had its original decor, and especially compare this to its 1930 Art Deco makeover. Note that the windows which once lined the wall on the left had been blocked off. The slit of light on that wall is the open hatch through which one could climb out onto the marquee. The doors on the right open to the single vomitory which led to the balcony."
The auditorium:
A balcony view appearing in the January 1921 issue of Architect and Engineer as part of an article "Theatre Equipments on the Pacific Coast." It's on Internet Archive.
A proscenium view from 1931, before the deco remodel. Photo: Motion Picture Herald - August 29, 1931 A version of the photo from Jack Tillmany is on the San Francisco Public Library website.
The rear of the auditorium before the 1931 remodel. Photo: Motion Picture Herald - August 29, 1931. A smaller, but less cropped, version of the photo from the Jack Tillmany collection appears on the San Francisco Public Library website.
In this 1931 photo we see the effects of the S. Charles Lee deco remodel it got that year. The photo from Jack Tillmany is in the San Francisco Public Library collection. The photo also appears on the Western Neighborhoods Project page on the Coliseum. A slightly cropped version of the photo also appears with S. Charles Lee's August 29, 1931 Motion Picture Herald article.
The simplified look in October 1942. It's a Ted Newman photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. It appears on the San Francisco Public Library website.
The rear of the house in 1942. It's a Ted Newman photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. It's on the San Francisco Public Library website.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this photoshopped image of what the CinemaScope picture looked like. He comments: "As Phil Krikau points out, their narrow proscenium prevented them from offering a wide screen image comparable to the Alexandria or Coronet, or befitting the size of the house. When the site was remodeled in 1931, a wide screen had been installed because of the flurry of wide films emerging from Hollywood in 1929-1930, but which never gained much success or popularity, so the Coliseum may never have used it at that time. And so this may have been the same screen used for CinemaScope 25 years later, and which raised so many complaints about its inadequate size during their record shattering run of Jaws in 1976-1977."
Gary Meyer comments: "I booked the Coliseum in the early 1970s and somehow scored the exclusive SF city booking for "Jaws"... maybe because it was the first wide release (over 600 runs nationwide). Sadly when they made the screen bigger and for scope the balcony seats could only view the top half of the screen so it was closed. I went up there to see if there were seats we could sell with most of the screen visible but no such luck. We were turning people away in droves."
The mural on the sounding board above the proscenium. It's a 1995 Gary Parks photo. He comments: "1919 and 1920s photos show a sculpted lyre within a wreath in this area. This Deco female driving a rather odd chariot, and the specific pose of the horses indicate this scene was adapted from a pattern book, as an almost identical ensemble by Gladding, McBean Terra Cotta, formed the centerpiece of a mural design over the doors in the Motor Entrance of the Bullock’s Wilshire department store (1928), Los Angeles."
A 1995 Gary Parks photo looking to the rear of the house. He comments: "You can see where the lower part of the auditorium had been painted uniformly green when they balcony was locked-up and no longer used. Above, you can see the terra cotta and gold (nicotine stained) walls above the closed balcony. The seats in the rear of the balcony appeared to date from the Twenties—thin, leather-padded seats, with only the aisle standards updated, and the Loge seats were from the 1920s minor remodeling. I wish I had taken one of those Loge seats. They had their original paint on the very ornate aisle standards, and well preserved cranberry mohair on the backs and cushions."
Looking up to the ceiling. Photo: Gary Parks - 1995. He comments: "The ceiling was still wearing its late Thirties or very early Forties colors. Those chandeliers all were destroyed in the gutting, save for one, which was saved from the scrap heap intact by Mark Santa Maria."
A ceiling detail from Gary Parks. He comments: "If one enlarges this ceiling view and studies it closely, faint outlines of the 1930 S. Charles Lee High Art Deco decorative scheme can be seen, where metallic paint had begun to oxidize through the later decorative paint. The plume-like floral painted border was added even after the full redecoration which included the light fixtures and Greco-Deco maiden figures. This is an example where theatre redecorations can’t always be immediately pegged as coming from a specific year or era. Sometimes very minor decorative accents were added in-between the major redecorations. The causes could be many—ceiling repair due to water damage, a minor fire, the whims of a District Manager, or even the premiere of a single prestigious movie. The color of the ceiling in this photo most-accurately captures the colors—and the nicotine patina—which greeted the eyes at the time of our 1995 visit."
Wonders on the wall. It's a 1995 Gary Parks photo. He comments: "One of the painted maidens applied directly to the plaster upon the structural concrete wall. My recollection is that they were a bit larger than life size. These would date from the toned-down Moderne redecoration of the interior, which did away with S. Charles Lee’s eye-popping scheme of 1930, as far as paint was concerned, but retained much of the sculpted patterns and moldings from that time, while adding others."
Another wall figure. It's a 1995 Gary Parks Photo. He notes: "These figures, painted on the plaster layer that clung to the actual structural concrete, still exist today, but they will never be seen again. New concrete shear wall, installed as part of the conversion of the building to retail and condos, flowed right up against these murals, burying them forever. I caught a last glimpse of them, peeking through a lattice of rebar, prior to the concrete pour."
Yet another maiden. It's a 1995 Gary Parks photo. He notes: "One of two squatting nudes which escaped the fate of becoming ladies in cement. This figure, and its twin, were painted on canvas and glued to the panels of acoustical material which filled the last two bays of the auditorium sidewall in the balcony, directly over the balcony fire escape doors. I had hoped to remove these figures—perfectly willing to repair the fissures in the canvas where the acoustical panels had cracked them apart, but by the time I was able to enter the theatre in 2000, all the risers of the balcony had been scraped away, leaving only the steeply sloped concrete structure. There was no way to put up a ladder on this surface, and so the figures were lost when the acoustical paneling was scraped off."
Seats above the crossaisle. It's a Gary Parks photo from 1995. He comments: "I suspect these seats are from 1919, though the aisle standards are retrofits from the 1930s redecorating, using one of the finest—albeit very common—American Seating castings."
Backstage:
Looking across behind the screen from stage left. It's a 1995 image by Gary Parks in his patented Vert-A-Vision process. He notes that beyond the black speaker cabinets, the beige pipe seen up a few feet was the theatre's pinrail. Above, note the horizontal beams for underhung linesets. There was no grid.
More exterior views:
A view from the January 1921 issue of Architect and Engineer as part of an article "Theatre Equipments on the Pacific Coast." It's on Internet Archive.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this view down Clement taken during the last week in December 1927 when "The Cat and the Canary" was playing.
"Once the Coronet closed at the end of January 1956 in order to install Todd-AO for the reserved seat presentation of 'Oklahoma!,' which opened 17 February 1956, the Coliseum immediately re-opened on 1 February 1956, and continued with the Coronet's former second run policy beginning with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 'Artists and Models.'"
A 1968 "Wild in the Streets" photo from the Jack Tillmany collection appearing on a Western Neighborhoods Project page. It was taken by Tom Gray.
A c.1980 look west toward the theatre. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing this from his collection.
Thanks to Gary Parks for this 1984 upper facade detail. It's on Cinema Treasures with 9 other views of the building.
A 1986 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Thanks to Gary Parks for posting it on the Facebook page Vintage Neon Heaven.
Summer 1995. It's a Gary Parks photo. He comments: "I got to turn on the vertical and marquee of the Coliseum for what was likely its last time."
A 1995 photo of the closed theatre by Gary Parks appearing on the Cinema Treasures page about the Coliseum. He comments:
"In 1995, my friend Martin Schmidt and I, though a contact in UA Maintenance, got to go help remove restroom sinks from the Coliseum for use elsewhere. I brought some lighting and my camera, and took time exposures of the interior. We were also allowed to take a few artifacts. I still have a cast iron seat aisle standard, and the oil can for the sound head on the projectors. I had the metal cabinet for storing trailers, but I donated that to the Golden State Theatre in Monterey, where it still is--mounted in the booth.
"On that 1995 day, I may have been the last person to turn on the 'COL' vertical, and what little remained of operational neon on the marquee. This marquee survived until the end--though stripped down, of course. The whole sunburst structure was removed, and I was surprised to find that the tiny sheet metal points atop the marquee on either side of the sunburst were still there, just carefully hammered flat against the top edge of the sign cabinet. These diamond shaped patterns were still there, and the corners were removed and replaced with simple neon rectangles, two of which still lit up pink when we turned the thing on. The COLISEUM letters (still from 1931)--some with tubes visibly broken, did not light up at all. The 'COL' vertical lit completely.
"When the theatre was gutted, I put an architectural salvage guy who is a friend of mine onto the site, and he got all the etched glass deco mezzanine windows, from the 1930 remodel--which had been painted and drywalled-over, out of the building, as well as some of the marble in the lobby. He also was able to save one of the big auditorium chandeliers, and one of the small ones under the balcony. The demo guys had already destroyed the rest. The big one ended up in Los Angeles in an antique store on Melrose, where it was bought for someone's (likely very large) home."
Two views of the marquee soffit. It's a 1995 Gary Parks photo. He comments: "This is the 1930s marquee soffit, after the 1960s plastic soffit was removed, revealing how the old soffit had been outfitted with florescent fixtures, and the whole thing painted white. The lightbulb sunburst can be seen with its empty sockets, and the original readerboards still hold their last message, 'GIVE SCRIP BOOKS ALWAYS' the 'IDEAL GIFT BUY SCRIP BOOKS.' These are old metal and milk glass changeable letters, slathered over in white."
A 1995 photo of the closed theatre by Philip Liborio Gangi appears with Woody LaBounty's 2000 Western Neighborhoods project article about Richmond district movie theatres "Streetwise: Palaces of the Past."
The exterior during renovations. It's a Gary Parks photo. He comments: "Here is the exterior, after layers of paint had been stripped off. At this time, I was hoping that the vertical and marquee would be repurposed, as care had apparently been taken to cover them during stripping of the exterior, and then the coverings were removed. But, it was not to be, the vertical disappearing altogether, and the marquee replaced by an inoffensive but unspectacular new one, bearing the Walgreens name. Note that the mezzanine windows have been removed. This was done by Mark Santa Maria. The sashes and frames were taken out, as they still contained the 1930 Deco etched glass panels from the S. Charles Lee redecoration. One panel was cracked, and so Mark brought it to my glass shop."
A Gary Parks photo of a replacement glass panel. He comments about the process: "I made a rubbing of the etched design on the broken panel, and created a new one to replace it. What you see here is the glass panel, covered in vinyl resist, cut and peeled, and ready for sandblasting. Each window consisted of a pair of mirror-imaged designs like this one, mounted in sashes which swung outwards. These windows had later been buried behind drywall on the interior, and spray-painted thickly on the exterior. Some of the window panels were shortly thereafter sold at the Art Deco-to-Fifties Antique Show and Sale at the Concourse Exhibition Center."
The Coliseum, now with a Walgreens below and condos above. It's a December 2014 Google Maps view as we look east on Clement St.
Thanks to Gary Parks for the photo. He discusses the items in his collection: "Here are a few artifacts I removed in 1995 and 2000. The aisle standard was in the basement, under the stage. I’m assuming it was from the main floor seating of the Twenties, but it may not have been from the Coliseum. In any event, it was covered with rust and grime, but I was able to clean it up well, so the original paint which remains can be appreciated. It, and the little oil can shown next to it, were among artifacts exhibited at the Western Neighborhoods Project Museum for several months in 2019, in honor of the Coliseum building’s Centenary—following a special presentation event Jack Tillmany, Woody La Bounty, and I did about the theatre.
"Note also, a square metal cap from one of the Loge aisle standards, and a chunk of plaster cornice, taken while the theatre was being gutted. It should be noted that when I found the aisle standard, it had no armrest. For the WNP display, I popped a spare armrest from the Harding onto it, which I pulled from a bag of armrests I have."
A Gary Parks photo of a main ceiling chandelier. He comments: "For the record: Etched glass panels, and two chandeliers were salvaged from the Coliseum during its gutting. I was part of the crew. We had intended to save all the chandeliers, but a language barrier-related miscommunication prevented our getting to the site in time. Here is the sole survivor of eight main ceiling chandeliers, a bit over polished but secure, hanging in an antiques store in Los Angeles. We also saved one of the small under-balcony chandeliers. All the rest were destroyed."
More Information: See a Western Neighborhood Projects page page on the Coliseum. Cinema Treasures has a page on the theatre as well. The Theatres Around Town album on the BAHT Facebook page has photos of other theatres in the neighborhood..
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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