Opened: 1914 as a film and vaudeville house called the Larkin Theatre. It's on the east side of the street between O'Farrell and Geary. The c.1923 photo by an unknown photographer appears on the Open SF History Project website. One of the gentlemen is holding a copy of Billboard. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the photo in the collection.
Seating: 398 was the number on the plans, later down to 365.
Architect: William Knowles
An elevation taken from the plans for the theatre that are in the Gary Parks collection. See eleven images from them down at the bottom of the page.
It's the oldest theatre in the Tenderloin and survives as an entertainment destination. An item in the "Building Contracts in the City" column in the January 10, 1914 issue of the paper Organized Labor:
"E Larkin 43-9 N O’Farrell One-story Class 'C' theater. Owner, The Hind Estate, 310 California; contractor, Wm. Knowles, 1301 Hearst Bldg; $11,000."
Thanks to Peter M. Field for locating the item. He's the author of the 2018 Sutton Publishing book "The Tenderloin District of San Francisco Through Time." He notes that the theatre is listed in the June 1 and October 1, 1914 telephone directories.
The theatre had a rocky beginning. Jack Tillmany reports:
"It was opened by an entrepreneur named Joy B. Rothschild, whose enthusiasm was apparently not matched by his business expertise or bankroll, or both, because it shut down just a few weeks later, fell into new hands, reopened and then closed again."
Regarding Rothschild, Peter notes:
"I found mentions of him here and there in the SF Chronicle, and he's listed in the 1913 and 1914 city directories as a salesman at Mooser and St. Germain (real estate and insurance), and at the Hind real estate company in 1915. I don't know if this latter datum does or doesn't tie into the architectural elevations' mention of the Hind Estate Company."
"Why not spend your evenings at the Larkin?" This August 1916 program appears with with "Tenderloin's Oldest Theatre," Jack Tillmany's Found S.F. article published on the occasion of the Larkin's 100th Birthday in 2014. He notes:
The theatre started running foreign films in the late 30s. Jack Tillmany reports:
A 40s Larkin adventure recounted by Jack Tillmany:
"In June 1946 the Larkin was running Rossellini's highly acclaimed 'Open City,' dealing with the Nazi Occupation of Rome in 1944 and it was getting a lot of press, including the fact that it was about an Italian priest who was struggling to survive, and at the same time aid the resistance. I guess my mother thought it was another 'Going My Way' so, even though I knew better, I didn't want to throw a monkey wrench into our excursion to a theatre I had never been into before.
"The fact that there were 2 priests sitting a couple rows behind us apparently gave it the Seal of Approval, but once things got going, shock set in. The priests seemed to be able to handle it OK and so did I, but let's just say mother dearest got a rude awakening. 'Going My Way,' it was not. But a genuine masterpiece, it was, and is.
"By the end of World War II, things just got better. The movie-going public, bored with the Production Code controlled domestic output, sought films closer in touch with real life, involving people and situations that Hollywood was forbidden to portray, foreign films were the new rage, and the Larkin was the place to see them."
Later, New York exhibitor Walter Reade bought in and under Reade-Rosener management the Larkin continued its great career as one of the premiere showcases for
foreign films in San Francisco. In Jack's book "Theatres of San Francisco" the Larkin is featured on pages 65 and 66 where he mentions several long runs of the era: "Diabolique" (34 weeks, 1954), "Room at the Top" (also running at the Clay, 21 weeks in 1959), "Never on Sunday" (34 Weeks, 1960) and "La Dolce Vita" (18 weeks, 1961).
Jack notes that part of the treat for people going to the Larkin was "being able to stop in at the candy store next door and treat themselves to the best homemade Belgian chocolates ever imagined... the candy store is long gone."
The success of the Larkin prompted the chain's opening of the Music Hall up the street. That one is now a Chinese church. The Larkin closed with the Walter Reade bankruptcy in 1978 and the building was purchased by the Mitchell Brothers.
It was renamed the Century Theatre in 1979 and initially ran a policy of gay films and live entertainment. That never clicked and soon the house went to a straight policy. The theatre has also been advertised as the New Century.
In 1989 Herb Caen tried to give us some history of the theatre in an item Peter Field found in the March 13 issue of the Chronicle:
"More evidence that people are living longer and better: Mike Stamatopoulus, who built the Larkin Theater and was one of the first to present 'talking pictures,' is now 104, lives on Pacific, takes long walks, drinks Manhattans and uses 'a ton' of salt on his food. He came here in 1915 to cover the Expo for an Athens newspaper and never left. Good career move."
Peter comments:
Chris Lion-Transler commented:
This boxoffice view from the Jack Tillmany collection appears on the Found SF page about the theatre. Jack comments: "'40,000 Horsemen' was an Australian import deemed important enough to premiere simultaneously at both the Larkin and Clay in January 1942."
A 1969 photo by Clay Geerdes. "Alice's Restaurant" was an August release. Thanks to David Miller for posting the shot on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. And thanks to Kevin Walsh for spotting the post.
The theatre in 1974 during the run of "Chinatown." Thanks to the Facebook page Lost San Francisco for the photo.
Jack Tillmany comments: "'Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...' as the song goes, but by the late 1970s, Hollywood had abandoned the Production Code, 'Anything Goes' was the new order of the day, and the glory days of foreign films eventually faded into history."
The film days were long over by the time of this 2011 Don Lewis photo. We're looking north on Polk toward Geary. Thanks, Don! The photo is part of his Last Picture Show collection on Flickr.
A May 2018 photo of a remodeling project gives us a look at the original facade. Thanks to Chris Ellinger for posting a friend's photo on the BAHT Facebook page.
Gary notes: "This photo shows the neon tubing still in place on the sign. Unfortunately, the neon was removed and replaced with faux neon plastic tubes containing LEDs. When Jack Tillmany and I stopped by there so I could take photos we noticed there are still Working Girls there. A couple of them showed up for work while we were out front."
Images from plans in the Gary Parks collection:
A detail from the floorplan giving us the seating capacity as well as the plaster molding around the screen.
A section through the building on a line just behind the facade. Gary comments: "That railing promenade on the second floor was certainly a great place for management to observe the patrons coming and going. So many theatres of this vintage—including large ones—had this feature. The Imperial on Market Street had leaded glass windows for the management to look down through—our salvage team found where they had been, and all sorts of glass and lead fragments had been stuffed into the opening, when the theatre was remodeled for its 1930 United Artists incarnation. The Pantages in Oakland had such windows, looking down on the outer lobby. As the outer lobby survived both the Tribune printing press building conversion AND the conversion to condos, that window is still there…looking down into retail space beneath the ornamented original ceiling."
A detail from the section. Behind the booth note the viewing gallery in the two-story high ticket lobby.
An elevation of the area around the screen. The architect wants to call this the rear, we'd call it the front. Gary comments:
"Look at that simple, but unusual decorative frame for the screen! Nothing unusual about the bottom and sides of it, but the way the moldings turn away from each other at the top and form wing-like returns is very unusual. The ceiling cove above it flared out over them, as well. Look at how the drawings actually specify for No Smoking signs! These, and the way there are stenciled borders on those walls, remind me exactly of what I saw in the 1980s when the Moulin Rouge Theatre (of similar size and vintage) in Oakland was gutted. The uncovered, original wall surfaces looked much like that—painted No Smoking signs, and stenciled panels around them."
Jack Tillmany recounts that the Powell Theatre also had signs on the front wall when he used to go there, except theirs said "Smoking" and "No Smoking." Smoking on the left side, No Smoking on the right."
A section through the back of the auditorium. In the center note the standee rail and the projection ports of the booth above. Thanks, Gary!
More information: See Jack Tillmany's 100th birthday article about the theatre on the Found SF site. The article also appears on the site Beyond Chron.
Jack's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco" can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller.
For a fine history of the neighborhood see Peter M. Field's 2018 America Through Time/Sutton Publishing book "The Tenderloin District of San Francisco Through Time." It's available through your local bookseller or Amazon.
Cinema Treasures and Cinema Tour both have pages on the Larkin.
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