Club Hangover / The Nob Hill Theatre

729 Bush St. | map |

Opened: November 21, 1969 with "House of Passion" according to research by Mike Rivest. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this c.1970 photo by Tom Gray that's in his collection.

The operator, Shan Sayles, had purchased the rights to the name from the Fairmont Hotel after they closed their theatre. This second Nob Hill Theatre was on the south side of the street between Powell and Mason.

The building dates back to 1910 when it opened as a grocery store and butcher shop. It  had been a night club called Melody Lane in the 40s, which turned into Club Hangover, a Dixieland style jazz club around 1949. There was a poster in the lobby of Louis Armstrong when he played there. There's more about the Hangover at the bottom of the page.

The theatre's operators thought it had opened in 1968. Ken Roe commented on Cinema Treasures in 2005: 

"A sign in the poster frames outside the cinema states that it has been open since 1968."

The San Francisco Chronicle used the 1968 date for its opening as a film house in Noah Berger's 2018 article "SF's Nob Hill Theatre closed after 50 years of stripped-down fun." Their origin story:

"It wasn’t until 1968 when a man named Shan Sayles reopened the space as Nob Hill Theatre, a name he'd bought from the Fairmont Hotel when its theater closed. For at least a couple years, Sayles played European art films at the theatre. But business was slow, so he changed course. 'They stopped showing the B movies and started showing gay porn,' Hoover [Larry Hoover, a co-owner] said. 'According to Shan, the line was around the corner overnight.'"

Jack Tillmany comments on the story: 

"This 'information' from a typically poorly researched Chronicle article is entirely undocumented and merely hearsay. They NEVER ran 'European art films' unless you include imported porn in that category."

 

 

A November 21, 1969 ad for "House of Passion." Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. Visit his site: Movie-Theatre.org 

A May 20, 1970 ad that appeared in the Chronicle for "Song of the Loon." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it. 

 

A c.1971 ad located by Gerald A. DeLuca for a post on Cinema Treasures. 

Seats: It was originally about 160 seats reports Christopher Enzi, who worked the house as a projectionist from 1980 to 1983. Later it was reconfigured with a capacity of 74 in the main room, plus there were other areas.

 

 

A late-in-life shot of part of the downsized auditorium. Thanks to Terry Wade for sharing his 2018 photo. 

 

David Kaye comments: 

 

"As the Nob Hill in the film days (before going to video showings) it featured the best projection of any gay male porn theater. Gay porn auteur, Wakefield Poole (who had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art a few years ago) showed many of his famous films at the Nob Hill, including 'Boys in the Sand' and 'Bijou.'  Poole’s 1977 film 'Take One' is actually set in the Nob Hill."

Christopher Enzi notes that when he worked the theatre as a projectionist from 1980 to 1983 it had a single 16mm projector. Jack Tillmany comments: 

"Originally strictly a film emporium, it eventually converted to projected video and then to live nude male entertainment."

Closed: August 2018. It was turned into a foot surgery center. The owners, Gary Luce and Harry Hoover, retired to Palm Springs. Their apartment in the building was once featured in Architectural Digest.

An October 1973 photo by Tom Gray that's from the Jack Tillmany collection.

 

 

A November 1975 photo by Tom Gray. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this. 

 

As part of a July 2018 announcement of the theatre's closing Karin Lee Jaffie posted this photo on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for spotting it for a share on the BAHT Facebook page.

 

A marquee shot by John Waters. Thanks to Gary Meyer for sending it along. It came with this note: "It had a week-long nightly goodbye celebration. Marquee read 'Touch Our Junk One Last Time' and a porn film was shot at countdown. SF gay paper covered it all well. Ha! JW"

 

A photo appearing with the December 2019 SocketSite article "Plans for Iconic Nob Hill Theater Site Have Been Drawn."


 From 1949 until 1967 as Club Hangover:

A postcard that made an appearance on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it. 

Nick Rossi comments: 

"The Club Hangover opened in the spring of 1949, I believe, and ran until the early summer of 1967. As important as it the Nob Hill Theater subsequently was for SF's gay community, the Club Hangover was extremely important the City's traditional jazz world as a premiere downtown venue for a lot of African-American performers who could not find work in other SF-Bay Area jazz clubs. 

 

"[Earl 'Fatha'] Hines, for example, was one of the most important pianists in the history of jazz and yet the Hangover was the only spot which would regularly employ him during his long stay in the City. Thanks for providing the full tale of the space here."

Another view with the Kid Ory Creole Jazz Band on the marquee. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the photo.

 Bassist Pops Foster at the Cub Hangover. The photo is another find by Jack Tillmany. 

 

 

An ad for the Hangover that appeared in a Geary Theatre program for Marlene Dietrich's 1960 appearances. Thanks to Lee Brenkman for sharing pages from the program on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page. 

 

Jack Tillmany researched a few later engagements and data points appearing in the Chronicle:

April 1964: "Strictly Dixie and Jazz" by Chris Ibañez Trio

April 1965: Initial topless dancers raids and usual arrests.

May 1967: Ed Fury and Jeannie Dell perform as "The Cosmic Bodies"

June 1967: "Topless Dancing" - i.e. female entertainers

 

Closing as Club Hangover: Jack notes that the June 1967 listings were the final ones in Datebook as the Hangover. On July 7, 1967 it was advertised as the Dodge City Steakery.

More information: See the page about the theatre on Cinema Treasures. A memorabilia auction and "Estate Sale" over the 2018 Labor Day weekend was detailed on the theatre's Facebook page.

The Chronicle covered the 2018 closing with "SF's Nob Hill Theatre closed after 50 years of stripped-down fun," an article by Ryan Kost. "Nob Hill Theatre is the Latest Famed Gay Space to Close" was an August 2018 article in the gay oriented site The Advocate. A fine story on the KTVU website included some of the building's history and other interesting details.

Thanks to Gary Meyer for sending along several of the news items about the theatre.   

See Gene Stuart's August 2021 San Francisco Remembered post about the venue for many, many stories from former workers and customers.

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 Nob Hill gets covered on page 64.

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