The Cineograph

747 Market St.  | map |

Opened: Sometime around 1898. The 1899 Crocker-Langley Directory lists A. Walter Furst as the manager. It was on the south side of the street between 3rd and 4th. It's the three story light-colored building just this side of Sanborn, Vail & Co. The photo, from a scrapbook of Hamilton Henry Dobbin, is dated 1898 by the California State Library, and is by George A. McDonald. 

We're looking southeast across Market. Down the street the Call Building and the Hearst Examiner Building are still under construction. The Midway Theatre at 771 Market (here called the Midway Plaisance) is the building on the extreme right. Dobbin drew an arrow toward the Midway and noted "Midway Plaisance, formerly The Cremorne Variety Theatre." 

 

 

A closeup from the CSL's Dobbin scrapbook photo above, added by Art Siegel, showing the Cineograph before the addition of a later dome structure on top and a new facade.  

Art Siegel spotted this 1916 reminiscence by pioneer movie showman Peter Bacigalupi in the July 15, 1916 edition of The Moving Picture World: 

"Walter Furst was the first man to have a five-cent show here, his house being located on Market street about where the Odeon theater now is, this being known as the Cinegraph [Sic]. At first vaudeville was given upstairs and when the performance here was over the audience would go to a room below where moving pictures were shown, everyone standing to see them, there being no seats. At first ten cents was charged, but later the vaudeville was eliminated and straight pictures were shown at five cents." 

 

 

"Life Size Moving Pictures Reproduced on a Screen 16 feet square." This flyer for the Cineograph comes from the Jack Tillmany collection. 

 

An ad from the April 2, 1898 edition of the San Francisco Weekly Amusement Bulletin. Thanks to Jodie Davis for including the page this was on (as well as other items) in a post on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page. And thanks also to Omar Rodriguez for sharing it on the BAHT page. The items pictured in Jodie's post were found inside a wall of a house during some demo work her son was doing.

 

 

The Cineograph on the 1899 Sanborn Map from the Library of Congress Archive, spotted by Art Siegel. Market Street is on the right side of the map.

We're looking southeast across Market between 3rd & 4th in a c.1901 image from a stereoview card by the Keystone View Co, spotted by Art Siegel on the OpenSFHistory site. The Cineograph building, with its added fancy dome, is just this side of the Sanborn Vail & Co. building.

 

Art Siegel isolated this closeup of the Cineograph from the Keystone stereoview card image on the OpenSFHistory site.

 

The full slide the image above came from. It was a post by Scott MacLeod on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page that also included a dozen other early slides of San Francisco. Also see his post of enlargements from those slides. 

A 1904 image by an unknown photographer appearing on the Open SF History Project website. They note that we have view of the Examiner Building and the Palace Hotel in the distance and that the cable car has a sign saying "Chutes." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the photo in the collection and doing some work on it.

 

 

A detail from the OpenSFHistory photo supplied by Art Siegel. The dome on top looks like it has been redone.

A March 23, 1905 image from collector T.E. Hecht from the San Francisco Public Library collection. We're looking southwest across Market with the domed building of the Cineograph halfway down the block, after the Sanborn, Vail & Co. building). The Midway is the lighter building way down the block. At the far right  In April, 1906 all the buildings in this view were destroyed.

 

 

Thanks to Art for this detail from the 1905 photo, which gives a clear view of the extensive facelift the building had received since its earlier days.

 

Another 1905 view by T.E. Hecht, this one giving us a view a bit farther to the east. It's been hand tinted by Bennett Hall, who has kindly shared it on Flickr.  

 

The Cineograph on the 1905 Sanborn Map from the David Rumsey archive, spotted by Art Siegel.

 

 

A c.1906 image from a stereo card by International View Co. appearing on the Open SF History Project site. The Cineograph is a bit lost down the block. The Midway Theatre is the second building in from the right.

 

 

Closing:  

This ad, spotted by Art Siegel, ran in the January 4, 1905 Chronicle. The Cineograph probably went out of business in late 1904, after troubles with the authorities. The February 14, 1904 SF Examiner published an article about the report of the Department of Electricity on theatre wiring, which found the Cineograph had "bad defects ... such as overloaded circuits and absence of exit lights."  

 

It was still listed in the 1905 city directory. Starting in May of 1905 an arcade opened at 747 Market Street called the Penny Palace. Their daily classified ads in the Wanted section sought "Museum freaks and goods of all kinds; Illusions, etc." Photos in the final year of existence for 747 Market show a large vertical sign for the Penny Palace.

The Penny Palace was raided by the police on April 7, 1906, as reported by the SF Examiner the following day: 

 

"On the complaint of G. A. Bollin, who alleged that he lost $180 in a gambling game, the Penny arcade at 747 Market street, was raided early yesterday morning by Policeman Bolen, Reagan and O'Connell, and the proprietor, Charles W. Vosmer, was placed under arrest and charged with grand larceny and exhibiting indecent pictures, Bollin alleges that he lost the money playing with Vosmer, who, it is said, showed his visitor pictures of a kind condemned by law."

The April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire finished it. After the block was rebuilt, the Odeon Theatre would be on the Cineograph's lot.

 

 

 

The Cineograph is seen in this fine April 1906 view taken by noted San Francisco photographer James D. Givens as the fire was approaching the block. Note the Penny Palace vertical sign. Thanks to Russell Merritt for locating it. A copy is on Calisphere from the California Historical Society collection.

A closeup detail from the California Historical Society photo, contributed by Art Siegel.

 

A view east toward the Call Building taken by Stewart and Rogers on April 18, 1906. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the image in the Open SF History Project collection.

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.

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