San Francisco Theatres: The Bridge Theatre

3010 Geary Blvd. | map |

Opened: July 21, 1939. The bridge of the name, of course, was the newly constructed Golden Gate. The building is on the north side of the street, four blocks west of Masonic Ave. The c.1953 photo is by Albert Lunardi and comes from the collection of Elisabeth Houseman, formerly of the Bridge Theatre. It appears on a Western Neighborhoods page about the Bridge.

Seating: 350

Architect: F. Frederic Amandes. There are six images from the original blueprints for the theatre from the Gary Parks collection down at the bottom of the page.

It was built by Attilio Zerga and initially operated as a sub-run neighborhood house. In the mid 1950s it went to a policy of showing international films under the management of Maury Schwarz. He also had the Rio Theatre on Union St. In the 40s he had briefly run the Bella Union and was also the initial operator of the Richelieu in 1963.

March and April 1956. It's a page from the scrapbooks that Maury Schwarz kept showing the theatre's ads and press coverage. The 1956 book is in the collection of Gary Mayer, one that Maury gave him when Landmark Theatres took over operation of the Bridge. Gary notes that "Doctors at Sea" was a risque film starring Dirk Bogarde but the Bridge sold more tickets by moving Brigitte Bardot's name above the title. Gary shared the four pages seen here as a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

Coverage of Martine Carol's visit to San Francisco in June 1956.

A June 1956 scrapbook page about "The Ladykillers," so big that it played three theatres.

A September 1956 page with coverage for "Will Any Gentleman" and "Make Me An Offer."

Gary Meyer comments on the many operators of the theatre:

"Maury Schwarz ran it in the 50s and 60s and sometimes partnered on bookings with Walter Reade Theaters who also had the Larkin, Clay, Music Hall, Cannery if I remember correctly. Then John Buckley took it over for several years as part of his expansion. Allen Michaan was next, Pacific Theaters purchased it when they bought Surf Theatres group and finally sold to Landmark."

Closing: December 27, 2012. Landmark Theatres was the last operator.

Status: The building was sold in 2014. The facade is untouched but the interior has been pretty much stripped out. It's now the San Francisco Baseball Academy.

An auditorium view that appeared with eleven other photos of the theatre with a 2012 SF Examiner article about the Bridge's closure.

This look at the interior of the theatre appeared on a 2014 Bisnow page.

Thanks to Michael Blythe for this demolition photo as the theatre was being gutted for use as a baseball training academy. Michael posted this photo and the one below as a comment to an October 2015 BAHT Facebook page post about another vanished theatre, the Imperial / Market St. Cinema.

A mural view house right. Photo: Michael Blythe - 2015

A look toward the screen area. Photo: Michael Blythe - 2016

This is the new view down from the booth. Note we still have the light fixtures but all the proscenium area stuff is gone. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for this photo he found on the baseball academy's website. He added it as a comment to an exterior view he posted on the BAHT Facebook page.

More exterior views:

Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this 1949 photo. He comments: "I believe this one's from the Elisabeth Houseman collection. It's the 1949 re-release of 'The Wizard of Oz.' The obvious answer to the obvious problem is not so obvious to the unenlightened. In fact, I suspect the reason the photo was originally taken was because of the problem, so, file it under it making lemonade out of lemons. Otherwise, there would be no picture.

"Fact of the matter is, the Bridge's supply of marquee letters was extremely limited, and the fact that they had a 3-sided marquee, which required triple repetition of the titles, only made it worse. Add to the stew, mentally challenged managers with no imagination or ability to think outside the envelope. So this was not an uncommon situation.

"It's simply the Bridge only had four Z's. One of many solutions would have been to put the full title of the film on the east and west side boards, and then use the center board for other information, such as "Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger" which would certainly have been appropriate, since Garland was already posted above the title on the sides.

"I remember rolling by the Bridge on the Geary B in 1948 when their booker had chosen to combine 'The Saxon Charm' with the 'Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer,' so they ran up against the same situation with 'X'. So 'The Bachelor and the Bobby Socker' was the feature on the side boards. Too bad."

Thanks to Bob Ristelheuber for spotting this look upwards at the Bridge's signage. Jack Tillmany comments: "'Room at the Top' (1959) and 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' (1961) were revived together on a double bill at the Bridge in May 1963, which establishes the date of this shot." The image was a post on the BAHT Facebook page. It's from some stock footage in the Prelinger Archives. Bob also posted the Prelinger footage on Facebook.

A 1997 photo from Ken Roe on Flickr.

A 1965 Jack Tillmany photo in the San Francisco Public Library collection. Jack notes that "Zorba the Greek" enjoyed a 29 week run at the Bridge, the theatre's record holder. In second place was "Georgy Girl" with 23 weeks in 1966 and 1967.

A 1968 photo by Tom Gray in the Jack Tillmany collection appearing on the website of the Open SF History Project. Note the attached ticket stubs from Jack's collection. Thanks to Lily Castello for spotting it and posting on the BAHT Facebook page.

A version of the photo without the bus makes an appearance on page 73 of Jack's terrific Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco." The page about the the Bridge is included in the book's preview on Google Books.

Thanks to Sean Ault for locating this c.1985 shot when it was for sale online.

A 2005 photo appearing on a Western Neighborhoods page about the Bridge.

Thanks to Scott Broadhurst for this fine 2007 signage view on Photoblog, titled "Bridge To Nowhere."

The Bridge running "Today's Special" in 2010. It's a Skip Moore photo on Flickr.

A photo of the closed theatre that appeared with a February 2014 Curbed S.F. article about the building's sale.

Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for this June 2016 shot. He comments: "The Bridge Theater, still standing although no longer a movie house. I took this photo from the Lone Mountain campus of the University of San Francisco." It was a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

Images from the blueprints in the Gary Parks collection: