The Edison / Powell Theatre

27 Powell St., 39 Powell St. | map |

Opened: 1909 as the Edison Theatre at 27 Powell St. in the Hotel Turpin building. This was the first of two locations on the block for the theatre. It's listed at 27 Powell in the 1911 and 1912 city directories and at 25-27 in 1916. This initial location was very close the site of the pre-1906 Columbia Theatre.  

The guess on the 1909 date comes from the March 1916 Moving Picture World article that's reproduced below. It noted that at the time of the article the house had been open seven years. 

The photo above comes from an August 1914 trade magazine article about entrances "blockaded" by poster boards. It was seen as an issue in case the exits were needed in an emergency. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the photo. He and Gary Parks have determined that the the lettering on the tile floor of the entrance does say "Edison."  The entrance was to be opened up substantially in a 1915 remodel.

Architects: William Curlett is the best suspect. Plans for the original theatre are in the Gary Parks collection. He notes that while no architect's name is on the plans there's a penciled notation placed on the outside of the roll by the previous owner, Gary Goss, indicating that Curlett was the architect of record. Gary also has plans for the 1915 remodel which was designed by Milton Lichtenstein.  Four images from the original plans and sixteen images from plans for the 1914-15 remodel can be seen at the bottom of the page.  

Seating: 400

An article from the March 11, 1916 Moving Picture World. They note that the house was run by the Edison Moving Picture Co. with a Mr. H. J. Gosliner as manager.  

A larger version of the photo in the March 11, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. The article mentions that they had done a facade and lobby remodel about a year earlier so the photo presumably reflects that new look. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the article and the blowup of the photo.

Gary Parks comments: "Whoa! So the Edison DID have this facade! I have the blueprints for this design, but I thought they were just plans--that they'd never gotten executed! Thanks!" 

 

The Turpin Hotel building, home of the Edison Theatre from 1909 until 1920, is seen in the center of this view north on Powell. It was taken by an unknown photographer and appears on the Open SF History Project website where they only date it as 1910s. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it in the collection.   

In the 1915 city directory the Techau Tavern was listed as being at 7 Powell, the Turpin at 17 Powell, the Edison Moving Picture Co. at 27 and the California Cafe at 45. The buildings this side of the Turpin came down in 1921 for a new Bank of Italy building on the corner. See a c.1923 view in the Open SF History Project collection. The Turpin survives, now a hotel called Axiom. The squat building beyond the Turpin became the second home of the theatre.


A move up the block: The Edison made the move to 39 Powell St. in 1920. This second version of the theatre was a similar size and similar layout. The original Edison location at 27 Powell became a Pig 'N Whistle restaurant. Later it was a Moar's Cafeteria.

Architect: The designer of this second location for the theatre is unknown. Plans are not available. 

Seating: 350 at the end of its career, presumably more earlier.

 

 

A booth fire in 1927. Thanks to Jim Cassedy for spotting this item in the December 23 issue of Motion Picture News. 

Thanks to Kevin Walsh for this 1928 program for the Edison Theatre. Kevin shared the program in a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

It was renamed the Powell Theatre in 1933. For decades the Powell was a genteel revival and 2nd run house for the locals. Jack Tillmany comments about the auditorium and presentation: 

"There was an emergency fire exit on the right side of the front wall, which, of course, could not be blocked, which led out to Anna Lane Street, which was the name of the little alley that was widened to become Fifth Street North. Burger King may still have that same exit! So the proscenium only extended about 3/4 across the front, and that was it.

"At its maximum width, they just barely managed 1.75:1, but they had moveable masking on all 4 sides, because, in addition to Scope, they still played a lot of standard ratio stuff & needed to bring in the sides. It was all done by hand. Just before the end of the feature, a little old lady staff member would walk down the aisle and sit in the front row and wait for the end title.

"Then, by hand, she would make all the necessary adjustments, down from the top, up from the bottom for Scope, and widen the sides for Scope, or bring them in for flat. I always sat near the front & watched her. One time I applauded her when she finished. She looked at me and smiled. I never knew her name. It was still only about 2:1 but I considered that an acceptable ratio under the circumstances.

"I also remember that they had 'Smoking' and 'No Smoking' signs when I used to go there. Smoking on the left side, No Smoking on the right."

 

A March 1966 calendar for the theatre. 

The inside. Thanks to Glenn Koch for spotting this on eBay. 

 

Longtime manager Min Gordon finally retired in the early 1970s. Then other operators tried straight porn and then gay porn. Then it was a revival house again. 

 

 "Where Dreams Are Played!" Robert Campbell found his 1976 membership card. 

Jack Tillmany comments about the presentation in the 70s:

"With... a less than imaginative attempt at revival programming (with all features, regardless of original ratio now shown at 1.75:1 in order to avoid the need for moveable masking), the Powell's days were numbered." 

Closing: The Powell closed August 9, 1977.

Status:  It's now a Burger King with no trace of its past inside or out.

  
A 1925 shot of the Edison's new location at 39 Powell. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the photo. He notes: "The photo was provided to me by Min Gordon, who, with her husband, owned and operated the Powell at the time. Some of the film exchanges kept prints of vintage films on hand which would have otherwise been destroyed, just so Min could show them at the Powell."

To the left, the Pig 'N Whistle restaurant is in the space at 27 Powell that was the first location of the Edison. There's also a version of this photo from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library on Calisphere. John Freeman notes: "The photo dates from 1923 or within a few years after. I gave up the chase, but Fink’s Tailor arrived at #35 Powell in 1921 and Wm. P. Halliday, Stationary arrived in 1923. These addresses correspond to the Sanborn addresses of 35, 37, (39), 41 & 45 -  a lower building as seen in your more contemporary photos."

Jack Tillmany adds: "As for the dating, Alice Day, whose name is over the door, first became known when she worked in 2-reel comedies in 1924, first as the leading lady for Hal Roach, then as the star of her own series that ran from 1924-1926, during which time she also starred in features, so that narrows it down."

A detail from the 1925 photo above.

Looking up Powell c.1930. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the photo on the Open SF History Project website. Here we get to see more of the vertical for the Pig 'N Whistle, located in the Edison's original spot. 

A detail from the previous photo. As for the theatre? Well, we don't get much of the Edison's second location in this shot but you can see a few poster frames and a sign flat against the building over the entrance if you look to the left of that second streetlight. The theatre would get renamed the Powell in 1933.

 

A lovely postcard c.1935, with a nice look at the theatre's new marquee, and new name. It's from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "Both 'Whirlpool' and 'Three on a Honeymoon' are 1934 features which would no doubt have had some mileage on them by the time they got to the Powell."

 

A 1940 photo located by Jack Tillmany. 

 

A detail Jack extracted from the 1940 photo. He notes: "'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is on the marquee along with 'Meet Doctor Christian' with Jean Hersholt and Dorothy Lovett." Thanks, Jack!

A March 1945 photo looking up the street from the San Francisco Public Library collection. They don't note which paper it was taken for but give us the copy: "Here's one good ol' San Francisco corner that always seems to look the same. Sure, you all recognize it right away - looking up Powell St. from Market St., and the cable cars still are turned around by hand on the old turntable. Yup, it was raining when this picture was taken. Seems like it always rains more at Powell and Market than anywhere else in town, remember?" It also appears on the Market St. section of the blog San Francisco Pictures.

A 1949 photo located by Jack Tillmany. He comments: "Not ANOTHER one of the Powell with a cable car! But this 1949 one shows the theatre a little better, still with its 1930s readerboard that formerly announced the names of the films, now just saying 'Selected Features & News' rather than bother about the film titles which would have meant more work with probably minimal purpose."

Gary Parks adds: "And...what's that I see? Hotel Pasadena? Never heard of that one. But I see an old vertical for the still-operating Manx Hotel. All my life, I have smiled inwardly at that name, as I picture a cat getting its tail caught in the front door. Shhhh--don't tell my cats I think such evil thoughts!"

Well, we get a sliver of the theatre on the right in this c.1950 Fred Lyon photo. Note that the marquee no longer has a readerboard. They're running "Not Wanted," a 1949 release with Ida Lupino. The shot appears with the History Daily article "32 Incredible Photos of San Francisco..." It's also been seen on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. And a repost on SFR as well.

 

A Fred Lyon photo looking up Powell with the Powell Theatre down there to the left of that cable car stopped mid-block. Just beyond was the pre-1906 location of the Columbia Theatre, opened as Stockwell's. On the right, down at the far end of the Flood Building (site of the Baldwin Hotel until 1898) is where the Baldwin Theatre's entrance was. The photo appears with a March 2016 article by Bob Bragman on SF Gate: "A 100 year look at San Francisco marquees and theaters." 

 

A detail from a September 1953 photo by Carlton Koski from the David Gallagher collection appearing on the site SF Memory. Also see another take by Koski. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting these in the collection. 

 

 

Looking up Powell from Market in a Charles Cushman photo from 1954. The Powell Theatre is on the left. The image appeared on the Facebook page Lost San Francisco in 2013, where it elicited many comments. The photo also appears on the San Francisco Pictures blog along with other interesting views of Market St. from a variety of sources.

Thanks to Kevin Walsh for this shot, a post on the BAHT Facebook page. Also see a post on the Facebook page from Kevin showing a mid-50s shot from an album cover.  

A January 1957 photo with Moar's Cafeteria in the original Edison Theatre space at 27 Powell. It's a photo taken from the Emporium by an unknown photographer appearing on the Open SF History Project website. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it.  

A detail from the 1957 photo above. 

 

 

A 1958 Moulin Studios shot. Al Schwoerer located it for a post for the San Francisco Bay Area Vintage Photos And Stories Facebook group. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting the post. 

The theatre, upper left, is here seen in a 1958 San Francisco Public Library photo competing with the arrival of Santa Claus. The photo made an appearance on the Facebook page Lost San Francisco. The caption: 

"Sunny but warmer in those North Pole flannels, here comes Santa Claus to the Emporium, atop a cable car of course, to the delight of thousands of youngsters and grownups too. Arrival of the cheerful soul, despite the heavy red overwear and high noon temperatures at the Powell St. (at Market) cable car turntable made it official, no matter what the weather. Christmas season is here." 

 

A December 1958 shot by an unknown photographer. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it in the Open SF History Project collection. He calls our attention to the "CinemaScope" banner under the marquee.  

 

A detail that Art extracted from the December 1958 photo. Jack Tillmany comments: "CinemaScope at the Powell left a lot to be desired, but was the best they could do under the circumstances. I was on military service in 1959 so never witnessed the banner. Personally, my opinion is that is was a pretty poor idea, probably the brainchild of somebody who didn't realize it only drew attention to the inadequacies of the presentation."

A 1959 photo that appeared on the Facebook page Vintage San Francisco. 

Thanks to Phil Davies for this 1963 look north from Market with the venerable revival house over on the left. Phil posted it on San Francisco Remembered.

Thanks to John Harris for this 60s photo that he posted on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered.

A 1965 look north from Market toward Ellis St. Thanks to the Facebook page Lost San Francisco for the photo by Jeremy Cotton. It's also made an appearance on San Francisco Remembered.
And Lily Castello, our source for both the date and the name of the photographer, did a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

Looking up the block toward the Powell in a shot by street photographer Joseph Selle. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sending it along. For more about the strange career of this photographer and his business Fox Movie Flash, see the page on the website of Andrew Eskind about the collection. There's also a Chronicle article on Selle.

It's really hard to find a photo of this theatre without a cable car included. And nobody has come up with interior views. This shot from the Jack Tillmany collection appears on page 40 of his Arcadia Publishing epic "Theatres of San Francisco." Thanks, Jack! There's a preview on Google Books.

A photo taken by Jack Tillmany. He comments: "In this 1967 photo, Min Gordon is showing a couple of MGMs from the 1930s, Greta Garbo in 'Anna Karenina' and Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery in 'Min and Bill,' which were a couple of her favorites. That's where I got the idea to do the same thing at the Gateway, on a full time scale, in the 1970s, by which time Min had sold the Powell, which had acquired an ugly new front, as part of the SF 'beautification' process, and eventually ended up in an unsuccessful attempt as a gay porn site."   

 

Another 1967 photo taken by Jack Tillmany with the theatre running "Min and Bill" and "Anna Kerenina." Thanks, Jack. 

 

A c.1968 shot that Jeremy Jason spotted on eBay. Thanks to Art Siegel for noticing Jeremy's post when he shared it on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group. 

A September 1968 entrance view from the now-vanished American Classic Images website. 

 

 

A detail from a c.1968 photo by Tom Gray that's in the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack notes that Tom got the view of the theatre just before a cable car passed in front.

 

 

An October 1974 photo from the collection of Chris Treadway. He shared it as a post on the BAHT Facebook page. Note the new flat marquee.

A c.1974 photo from Jack Tillmany.

A look at the Powell late in its life as a revival house. Thanks to Robert Campbell for his photo, appearing as a post on Cinema Treasures. Matt Spero did the color correction for the version seen here.

 

 

A December 1975 photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack comments: "With its hideous flat front marquee, and a less than imaginative attempt at revival programming (with all features, regardless of original ratio now shown at 1.75 to 1 in order to avoid the need for moveable masking), the Powell's days were numbered. Even the Hole in the Wall Hot Dog Stand next door seems to have closed its door to indoor dining. Take-Out only!"

The theatre closed in August 1977.

The building in December 2014 as a Burger King. As a closed Burger King, that is -- getting a remodel after a fire. The Powell closed in 1977. The dual photographers are shooting a nearby cable car. Photo: Bill Counter

Another 2014 street view. Photo: Bill Counter

The rear of the building on Cyril Magnin St. This area where the rear exits from the auditorium were got a rebuild as a new concrete block structure when the Burger King went in. In beyond we can see the rear of the three story portion of the building that fronts on Powell. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014


Images from plans in the Gary Parks collection for the c.1909 Edison Theatre, 27 Powell:

The decisions about which images to show come from Jade, executive assistant to Mr. Parks. 

Gary comments: "No architect given on the drawings, but according to former plans collection owner Gary Goss's penciled note on the outside of the roll, the architect of record was William Curlett. He did a number of theatres in San Francisco. I first discovered his name when researching my 'Theatres of San Jose' book. The archives at History San Jose have the complete blueprints to the Victory Theatre (later Crest), which was designed by Curlett and McKaw in 1898-’99.

A proscenium elevation. Note the house right exit. Both this theatre at 27 Powell and the later one at 39 Powell St. used a similar layout.

A section through the rear of the auditorium. Note the booth in the upper right and the ladder on the house right wall to get there. Gary comments:

"Notice 'present concrete floor' at the bottom of the drawing. This, the floorplan of the whole theatre, and the way the informational legend is written, say to me that this theatre was retrofitted into what would have been a fairly new, post-Quake commercial building. This of course, accounts for the odd floorpan, which had to nudge its way around various piers and other load-bearing features."

 

 A section through the front of the auditorium. We're looking at the house right wall with the screen at the left. 


Images from plans in the Gary Parks collection for the 1914-15 remodel at 27 Powell:

The title block on sheet #1. It was nice of the architect to put his name on the plans. 

A plan of the new ticket lobby and inner lobby layout. 

The new boxoffice. On the left it's a view of the back of the boxoffice, on the right a plan view. 

In the ticket lobby looking at the entrance doors. 

A detail of the ticket lobby ceiling. 

The remodeled projection booth. How modern! adding a set of stairs instead of the original ladder for access. 

A section through the ticket lobby with a look at the side of the boxoffice. 

The first version of the remodeled facade. They would later decide this wasn't fancy enough. There are plans for the revised version down later.

A closer look at the first version of the proposed entrance remodel. 

A column and lintel detail.

The front of the boxoffice. 

Below are images from version two of the facade remodel. Gary notes that these images below reflect what actually got built. They match the photo of the Edison in 1915. Gary comments: "I wonder if the operators of the Edison were inspired to go all-out with this facade due to the Pan Pacific International Exposition?  The ornament is terrific."

The fancier columns and ornament at the entrance. 

A detail of the revised ornament. 

Another look at the ornament.

A light fixture and one of the Edison deities standing guard atop a column. 

A note about the revisions saying use these drawings for the fancier stuff on the facade. For everything else, use the original drawings.

Five years later, this location would close and the Edison would move up the block and the operators would create a similarly sized theatre at 39 Powell. In 1933 that one would be renamed the Powell Theatre. Gary comments:

"Jack Tillmany and I had been discussing the possibility that the floorpans and auditorium elevations of the 1910 Edison might actually be the later Edison/Powell, and that Gary Goss may have been incorrect in his pencil-labeling them '1910' on the outside. Jack had excellent reasons for advocating the possibility mentioned, mainly due to his vivid memories of being at the Powell, and how the interior was arranged, and they made sense to me.

"However -- I got out the Edison '1910' plans, and compared them to the solidly-dated 1915 floorpan of the entrance and facade remodel, which also includes a remodel of access to the booth (actual staircase, not a ladder, and removal of a post, and the widening of the entrance lobby passage, and shifting around a few seats in the rear section. The remodel is 1915 — like I say, and the drawings Gary G. had labeled as 1910 (correctly) depict the same building. Having been drawn to the same scale I can lay them next to/over each other, and things match up—in fact, you can see ghost walls and other lines on the remodel drawings where they took the originals and erased things and drew new things.

"So what I have are drawings of the original Edison in its 1910 and 1915 forms. And, it just means that both Edisons had asymmetrical exit aisles and passages along the right of the auditorium. Both theatres were carved out of portions of existing buildings, and I would venture that when the theatre men saw the opportunity to have a similar layout designed into the new building, with a virtually identical proscenium which would fit into what was the same shape of room, they just went for it."

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page about the Powell.

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. 

John Freeman, examining the 1913 Sanborn insurance map reports: "By 1913 things get a little more difficult on that block. The Hotel Turpin dominated the initial intersection, with shop numbers from 17 to 33. But unfortunately, to let the underwriters know this is a concrete, Class A building, they applied the side of their pencil over the whole section, making reading a photocopy 100 years later next to impossible. It appears that the 'Theatre' was numbered 29 Powell, and was at the ground level of the hotel. The numbering is legible because it is at curbside, as 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, with Hotel Turpin beyond that grouping of numbers. Next door, a partitioned off portion that is even harder to read, but appears might be a restaurant. The numbers there are 35, 37, 41 & 45. Both these spaces connect to Anna Lane, but the first section 17 - 33 appears more accessible like a theater should be, where the 35 - 45 section seems like a weird way for exiting in an emergency."

He adds: "I think this solves the mystery. The Edison was in the Hotel Turpin space, but would downsize sometime in 1920 to the building next door, that might have housed a restaurant in 1913?"

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