1596 Church St. | map |
Opening: This one opened as the Searchlight Theatre on August 5, 1916. It was on the northwest corner of Church and 28th St. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this c.1956 image of the theatre when it was called the Rita. It comes from the Western Railway Museum.
A detail from the c.1956 image.
Architects: Welsh & Carey. Head to the bottom of the page to see four images from the set of plans in the Gary Parks collection.
Seating: 399. Gary Parks notes that on the floorpan "Accommodation for 399 seats" is written in white contractor’s pencil.
A flyer for the 1916 opening of the Searchlight from the Jack Tillmany collection.
Perhaps it didn't stay open long. This item indicating a reopening appeared in a December 1917 issue of the Examiner:
Thanks to Thomas Gladysz for locating this snippet.
From 1918 until 1927 it was called the Empress Theatre. It was the Lux from 1927 until 1931, the Deluxe in 1933 the Isis in
1936 and 1937, the Princess from 1938 until 1943. It was called the Church Theatre in 1944 and became the Rita in 1948.
A problem with a film fire in 1949. Thanks to Thomas Gladysz for locating this article in the December 19 issue of the Examiner.
A
1950 Sanborn real estate map showin the theatre as "moving pictures" on
the lower right. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating the map for a
post on the
BAHT Facebook page.
A 1957 flyer located by Jack Tillmany for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. He comments:
"The
Rita continues to be an elusive rascal
when it comes to vintage photographs - but here's their calendar for
August 1957 - during their period of Russian film programming in an
attempt to build a Sunday audience."
The theatre stayed with the Rita name until 1960. Ward Stoopes took it over in 1961 and renamed it the Del Mar Theatre. Jack Tillmany comments:
"Never successful as a neighborhood theatre, its only means of survival seemed to be as an outlet for 'ethnic' films, i.e. foreign films WITHOUT English sub-titles, usually German or Russian."
Closing: May 1965 was the end as a theatre. It then became a church. When a second church tenant moved in they gave it a blue paint job, and was referred to as the Blue Church.
Status: The building was demolished in October 2009. A condo building with retail on the first floor is now on the site.
More exterior views:
This c.1970 Tom Gray photo of the theatre as a church is from the Jack Tillmany collection and appears on the
Open SF History Project website. Gary Parks comments: "Note how the support for the old vertical was pressed into service to hold a cross."
Another Tom Gray photo of the theatre as the Holiness Temple. It's from the Jack Tillmany collection.
An April 1993 facade view by Gary Parks.
A look along the 28th St. side of the building. It's another April 1993 photo by Gary Parks.
A Fred Beall Photo of the building as the Church at San Francisco. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the photo from his collection.
Thanks to Maureen Price for locating this photo of the building as the "Blue Church." She posted it on the
BAHT Facebook page.
The condo building now on the site. Photo: Google Maps - 2014
From the 1916 blueprints by Welsh & Carey in the Gary Parks collection:
An elevation of the front of the building.
Gary comments: "I wonder if the humble ornament the theatre did have was removed solely in the name of modernization, or because of dry rot and termites? The blueprints state that the facade ornaments are of wood. I can see why the metal canopy would have eventually disappeared—it would have looked dated by the late 1930s."
An entrance detail.
A view toward the screen end of the auditorium.
On top, an elevation of the south side of the building. Below it's a section through the auditorium. Note the projection booth over on the right. Thanks for these, Gary!
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 theatre, listed as the Rita, has a page on
Cinema Treasures.
No comments:
Post a Comment