The Beach Theatre

323 Montgomery Ave. | map |

Opened: Saturday December 19, 1908 as the Beach Theatre. Montgomery was later renamed Columbus Ave. The location was on the west side of the street between Broadway and Vallejo St.



An item appearing in the newspaper L'Italia on opening day, December 19, 1908.  



Their first ad appears in L'Italia the following Monday December 21, 1908.

Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the research. He comments: "As usual, they ran into the usual resistance from the clergy at nearby churches, and apparently shut down in mid-1909. 11 December 1909 they valiantly reopened as the Teatro Verdi with 'The Life of Christ.'"



An ad appearing in L'Italia on December 10, 1909.  Jack comments: "Nice Try. But I guess it didn't work. Score One for Holy Mother the Church."

Closing: 1909 or 1910 appears to be the end for this one.  

Status: The assumption is that the building the theatre was in got demolished and replaced by the restaurant building currently on the site. 




Looking south on Columbus toward Broadway. The Beach Theatre would have been on the right where the Stinking Rose Restaurant is seen here. They were using a 325 address and the word is that they've permanently closed. The next building down, which on the ground floor was their Chianti Room, uses a 311 address. Photo: Google Maps - 2019

More information: Well, there isn't any yet on this particular venue. 

The other theatre using the Verdi name was nearby at 644 Broadway. It opened as the New Theatre in 1914, later was renamed the Verdi and ended up as the World Theatre.

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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