The Opal / Cameo Theatre

3040 16th St.  | map |

Opening: It opened in 1910 or a bit earlier as the Opal Theatre. The theatre is seen on the left in this September 9, 1910 Admission Day Parade postcard. We're looking at the north side of 16th St. pointed east toward Mission St. That's Weise St. just to the right of the theatre. The site is a block east of the Roxie Theatre, which is on the other side of the street. Thanks to Glenn Koch for sharing the card from his collection. And thanks to John Freeman for dating the photo. 

Seating: 248 originally, with a later count of 300. 

 

In January 1910 the San Francisco Bulletin gave C.L. Jacoby, the owner of the Opal, a bit of space to write about his theatre. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this story as well as the two items below for a post about the theatre on the Ken's Movie page Facebook group.  

 

In this list published in April 1912 the Opal was one of many theatres listed that were offering special performances and film screenings to benefit the Titanic Fund.   

 

The Opal was listed in this September 1913 ad. Thanks, Ken!  

The theatre got a mention in an article in the July 15, 1916 Moving Picture World:

"A block from the Victoria is the Opal theatre conducted by W. Stierley and John Hetzinger, who have had the house for two years. Here a four-reel program, which is changed daily, is shown for five cents, Universal service being used. The house has a capacity of 248." 

The article is on Google Books.

By 1928 the venue had become the Shamrock Theatre. In 1932 it was still running silent films but got renamed the Cameo Theatre. Presumably they soon got wired for sound. Tom Mayer recalls that in later years they ran lots of westerns. Jack Tillmany comments: 

"Footnote: as late as 1952 the Cameo, which was operated by the same people who ran the Roxie, did not have a telephone number you could call. They printed a calendar, with the Roxie on one side and the Cameo on the other, so didn't even need to advertise in the paper.

"Nobody cared about seeing the films from the beginning in those days, especially at such sites, so they didn't need to be able to tell people the starting times of the films. They were posted at the box office, if anybody cared to look." 

Closing: The Cameo closed in 1952. 

Status: The building is long gone. There's now a four story apartment building on the site.

 

 

Two more 1910 photos:  

A view of the Opal taken during the September 9, 1910 Admission Day parade. The photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection.

 

 

Another September 9, 1910 parade view, here with the Native Sons of the Golden West marching by. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this photo by an unknown photographer that appears on the website of the Open SF History Project website.

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page about the Cameo Theatre. Ignore the photos they have. They're of a different Cameo, the theatre that later became the Esquire.  

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. 

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