The Premium Theatre

1063 Market St. | map |

Opening: The opening date is unknown but the Premium Theatre was running by early 1910. It was on the south side of the street between 6th and 7th, across the street from the later location of the Granada / Paramount. It's on the far right in this 1910 photo from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection that's on the Open SF History Project website. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it in the collection. 

 

Gary Parks comments: "Via an intermediary, I've found out that the above photo is dated April 21, 1910. According to the source, the parade shown is the Knights Templar." Art located photos and a story about the event in the San Francisco Call issue of April 22, 1910. The article, headlined "Three Thousand Knights Templar Visit City for Fifty-second Grand Conclave," can be seen on the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.  

 

The Open SF History Project site's updated caption: 

 

"Elevated view southeast across Market to Knights Templar 52nd Grand Conclave parade, marching band uniformed men on horseback followed by cars and more marchers. In distance left, Call, Humboldt Bank, and David Hewes and Delger Buildings, Emporium, Hale Bros. and Eastern Outfitting Co. stores. Sterling Building, 1049 Market Street. 1907, Reid Brothers, architects. At far right, Premium Theatre, a nickelodeon in business from around 1911 to 1914 in the Globe Investment Company Building, 1063 Market Street (1909, Faff & Bauer, architects). Ede Building. 1059-1061 Market Street (1910, William Knowles, architect) under construction. Hotel America, Abrams Co. (later Redlick, Abrams Co.) credit retailer, Pacific Check Cash Co." 

 

A detail from the 1910 photo. Thanks, Art! 

Architects: Faff and Bauer designed the building, which dates from 1909. It's unknown if they also designed the theatre itself. Art Siegel located this data from a PDF of a 2015 report titled "1028-1056 Market St. Historic Resource Evaluation Parts 1 and 2" by GPA Consulting:

"Globe Investment Company Building, 1063 Market Street. 1909, Faff & Bauer, arch. Description: This is a small two-story store building with intact second story and Renaissance-Baroque cornice. Significance: Reasonably intact above the ground-floor clutter, this building contributes to the high-low-high-low rhythm among the loft structures on the south side of Market. In 1912 it held a nickelodeon (early moving picture theatre); in 1923 it was the Splendid Grill Restaurant. Sources: Heritage files. Sanborn map, 1912, II: 140."

Jack Tillmany notes that its first telephone directory listing was in the April 1911 issue. In the 1911 Crocker-Langley city directory the Premium Theatres Co. was listed as having three theatres: the Premium at 1525 Fillmore St. (later known as the Progress Theatre), this Premium Theatre at 1063 Market St. and the one at 2550 Mission that was later turned into the lobby for the New Mission. In the Fillmore there had also been an earlier Premium Theatre at 1305 Fillmore, a venue that became the Quality Theatre. 

 

The Premium theatres on Market, in the Mission and in the Fillmore were among those listed in "Nickels To Pour Into Fund From Film Shows," an article that Art Siegel located that was part of a full page in the April 24, 1912 issue of the Examiner that was devoted to promoting various Titanic benefit shows. H.C. Quick was listed as manager of the three theatres.

 

A detail from the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing the Premium in the center as "Moving Pictures" and with a 1065 address. It was just a few doors down from Grauman's Imperial. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it in the Library of Congress collection. 

At some point the company operating the Premium houses was bought out by Leon Kahn and Louis Greenfield.  In 1922 Greenfield, the surviving partner of the firm Kahn & Greenfield, looked back on the the history of the circuit. He was profiled in "Good Luck Fairy's Magic Wand Nothing But Hard Work..." a story that was located by Art Siegel in the December 10, 1922 issue of the Chronicle. An excerpt:

"...Greenfield and his late partner, Leon L. Kahn, began their operations at the Quality Theater, at Eddy and Fillmore streets, a house seating 199 persons, with one 'hand grind' machine in the operating room. That was in 1908... After the Quality had succeeded, Kahn & Greenfield bought out the Premium Theater Company, a corporation that operated seven small houses in the Mission and on Market-street. They soon gave up on the Market-street theaters and devoted themselves to the neighborhood houses..."

Closing: It was last listed in June 1914 city directory but still in operation as of April  1, 1915. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research.

Status: The building still is there on Market but has been remodeled.

The building the Premium was once in is seen here on the left with the Brass Rail as a tenant. Beyond, we get fine views of the signage for the Guild, Centre and the UA theatres. The December 1962 photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection.

Gary Parks comments: "All that neon lit up in the foggy pre-dusk. Magic. Love how Don’s Beauty School of Hair Styling is juxtaposed over the stuff on the Guild’s readerboards. I like that little Brass Rail front, too…a touch of manufactured Rustic Americana next to all that lit Modernity."

Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this 1963 photo of the Premium Theatre building hiding to the left of the signage for the Guild Theatre (1069 Market St.). Also note the Centre Theatre (1071 Market St.) and the Imperial/United Artists (1077 Market St.)

The premises once occupied by the Premium Theatre currently house the Oriental Restaurant. The building on the right once held the Egyptian/Guild/Pussycat (1067 Market) and the Round Up/Centre Theatre (1071 Market).  It's a 2017 view from Google Maps.

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