Opening: The building dated from 1865, originally the First Congregational Church. It was rebuilt in 1906 but didn't become a theatrical venue until July 9, 1924 when Signora Antoinietta Pisanelli Alessandro opened it as Nuevo Teatro Italiano de Varieta, a venue for polite operatic recitals. It was also known as the Teatro Alessandro Eden. It was renamed the Green Street Theatre in 1927.
In this 1920s photo looking west on Green from the Jack Tillmany collection the theatre is just in beyond the Bank of America building at Green and Columbus. We get a view of the side of the building, its original tower and the Green Street marquee protruding out over the street. The building was known as the San Francisco Theatre Union in the 1930s. Among the productions was the world premiere of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." The building was across the street from Club Fugazi.
Bank of America officials ready to turn the site into a parking lot inspect the "worn-out old show house." While the theatre was upstairs at the end of the building's life, the Chronicle notes that it was originally downstairs until that was turned into retail space.
The photo appeared with "Good-by Green St. Theatre and Your Bathtub-Gin Past," an article on page ten of the August 21, 1955 Chronicle. It's on Newsbank. They noted: "...for one thing, it is beautifully non-functional, and makes practically no sense as a theatre. The entrance leads into two narrow, steep flights of stairs, and the auditorium, which is just a square flat-floored hall, with a stage on one side and a balcony -- or more accurately, a choir-loft -- on the other."
Jack Tillmany reports: "The reopening as the Green Street Little Theatre took place 14 October 1927, as 'San Francisco's Most Daring Playhouse in the Heart of Bohemia,' offering as its initial attraction Maryon Aye in 'The Married Virgin.' On 6 September 1928, it began its second season with 'Easy for Zee Zee,' advertised as 'a French farce with a kick!' Despite repeated announcements of its closing, 'Zee Zee' kept the wickets turning at the Green Street for over a year, 53 weeks to be exact, but not without incident.
"In August 1929, the star of the opus, Naana Wortova, aka Elaine Worth, had been involved as the supposed cause of the murder of her sweetheart, rum runner and racketeer, Jerry Ferri, and later collapsed while visiting her current boyfriend in prison, possibly as a result of a little too much pill popping, which her mother described as 'reducing pellets,' and went into a coma at Harbor Emergency Hospital. After a couple weeks, Nanna returned to the cast 'after a brief illness,' and business just got better.
"But then, leading actor Robert Chapman fell to his death in a light well at the apartment where he resided. Murder? Suicide? Accident? voiced the Chronicle. Things are not so 'Easy for Zee Zee' now. Chronicle editorialized it as 'filth' 'a disgrace to the city' but a female reader responded 'The Chronicle has such a grand sense of humor!' on the readers page; 'slime' or 'farce?' The writers and readers raged on, and the wickets kept turning. But all good things must come to an end, 'Zee Zee' departed in September 1929, and entrepreneur Sidney Goldtree replaced it at his redecorated venue with another successful French farce, 'The Flat Tire,' and so its saga continues.
"The Green Street kept a relatively low profile until the until the mid-1940s, when the influx of military personnel and visitors during WWII, which had made the nearby Liberty Theatre a successful burlesque venue, no doubt gave Green Street entrepreneurs the idea to grab the ball and run with it, and brought back "The Married Virgin' for a couple weeks in January 1944.
"Then it was a return of 'Easy with Zee Zee' on 15 June 1944. For the record, 'Zee Zee' had already enjoyed her resurrection in a '1940 Streamlined Version' when it was chosen to open John's Rendezvous at 50 Osgood Place (off Broadway) Tuesday, 9 July 1940. This girl had LEGS, as they used to say in Show Business!
"The show that established its latter day identity, and for which Green Street Music Hall [sic] is best remembered today (if at all), was the revival of 'The Drunkard,' by entrepreneur Harry Farros (see the Portolá Theatre), which opened Thursday 1 March 1945 and ran for the next six or seven years, until it finally petered out in the early 1950s.
"A promise of new life to the Green Street came about with its opening as the San Francisco Cinema Guild Friday 2 April 1954 by Edward Landberg and Michael Grieg who had recently made a success of their similar venture on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. But the concept never sparked, and it only lasted a few months. The site was purchased by Bank of America who tore it down and converted the site into a much needed parking lot. Sic transit gloria mundi."
Closing: An article bidding farewell to the theatre was on page ten of the August 21, 1955 Chronicle. It's on Newsbank.
An early view of the church that later became the theatre. In 1908 they were a bad neighbor to the Flag Theatre, around the corner at 1475 Stockton. They didn't think a nickelodeon should be allowed to operate adjacent to their holy building. The Flag prevailed and opened in November 1908. One stipulation was that the door nearest the church could only be used as a fire exit. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the photo.
Gary Parks comments: "Right away I recognized the features of the Congregational Church that were preserved when it became the Green Street. The main change of course, was the removal of the steeple. I think that was a mistake. What a missed opportunity to have made it into a four-sided VERTICAL for the theatre!"
An August 24, 1955 photo of the Green Street Theatre from the Jack Tillmany collection. It makes an appearance with "The big screen, no not your TV: over 100 years of San Francisco Theaters," a March 2016 SF Gate photo portfolio.
Another 1955 view. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the photo. Note his ticket stub from the theatre's short life as the Cinema Guild in 1954.
More information: 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. The Green Street is discussed on page 75.
The 1927 opening ad is on page fifteen of the October 14, 1927 Chronicle. It's on Newsbank. A review of the show "The Married Virgin" appeared on page nine of the October 20, 1927 Chronicle. An ad for the opening of the second season with "Easy For Zee Zee" appeared on page nine of the September 6, 1928 Chronicle. An ad for the return of "Easy for Zee Zee" appeared on page six of the June 15, 1944 Chronicle. A story about the death of "Zee Zee" player Robert Chapman appeared on page six of the August 22, 1929 Chronicle.
An article about the opening of the Cinema Guild in the building by Edward Landberg and Michael Grieg appears on page seventy seven of the March 28, 1954 Chronicle. A decade and a half later, Landberg would try it again at the Gateway, but that one didn't spark either, until Jack Tillmany came along.
The Green Street is discussed as "a depressing hall" on page 201 of Samuel Dickson's "Tales of San Francisco" (1947). It's on Google Books.
| back to top | San Francisco Theatres: by address and neighborhood | alphabetical list | list by architect | pre-1906 theatre list | home |
No comments:
Post a Comment