Apollo Theatre

The Apollo's original name, Amazon, comes from its location in the Crocker-Amazon District. The theatre has been unused for many years, although the adjacent storefronts in a wing of the same building have kept the property from abandonment. A friend who was inside several years ago said the ornamental plaster of the proscenium and organ grills is all intact.

According to a recent SF Chronicle article, it looks as if this theater may be turned into a Walgreens.

The Apollo opened as the Amazon on 14 September 1928 with Ralph Graves in "The Swell Head." It was built at a cost of $350,000 by Ackerman, Harris, & Oppen. It was renamed the Apollo and reopened on 23 October 1969. After a lengthy period of showing Filipino Films, it closed in 1978.

The plans to move ahead and turn the Amazon/Apollo building into a Walgreens and housing are moving ahead.

A friend of mine in the architectural salvage business recently got a contract to remove all light fixtures, display cases, and many other items from the theatre. Otherwise, these would have been destroyed. The building owners had no plans to keep these features. Removal was completed last week. Particularly challenging was an art deco fixture which had been added to the ceiling of the entrance foyer, which had to be cut loose. This was done successfully, and the resulting hole revealed an earlier, higher ceiling with stenciled detailing. This was photodocumented, since it looks like only the shell of the theatre is going to remain, with facade and vertical sign.

Another discovery was that the original curtain was still hanging in the auditorium. Vintage photos confirmed that it was identical to the long-vanished curtain of the State (Golden State) Theatre in Monterey, for which much renovation work is currently being done. An effort was made by this writer and others to get people interested in removing this curtain from the Amazon and rehanging it in the State. Complexities arose with liability, cost, and safety issues, and so the curtain has been photographed, and the photos will be kept by those involved with the State Theatre project, so that hopefully one day a new accurate replica curtain can be made for that theatre.

Though the Amazon will no longer be a theatre, at least much has been salvaged from it to be enjoyed and reused in other buildings, and the exterior will give ample evidence of its former use, much like what was done with San Francisco's Coliseum Theatre, only a bit more so.

The Amazon Theatre was located at 965 Geneva Ave. and it seated 963 people.

There is a photo of the Amazon Theater here:
http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8531.jpg

My mid 1980s photo of the APOLLO here:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/donlewis/APOLLO.jpg

Another photo, from the SF Public Library website:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8528.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8525.jpg

My San Francisco geography is a little shaky. The Amazon was on Geneva Avenue, but this picture of what appears to be the Amazon was located on Mission Street at Ocean Avenue, according to the SFPL:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAB-4646.jpg

I am going to answer my own question. This photo from 1937 shows the Amazon at Mission and Geneva streets:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAB-3785.jpg

Two more from 1937:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAB-3788.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAB-3787.jpg

This photo is from 1944:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAB-3783.jpg

Mr. Fabela brings his 15 children to the Amazon in 1953 for family night:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8524.jpg

A photo from 1942:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8526.jpg

Some interior photos:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8527.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8530.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8608.jpg

My photograph of the APOLLO sign http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/196326315/

Curiously, around the corner from the Apollo, on Mission Street (towards Daly City), there is a building (I believe it's currently used as an arcade) that looks suspiciously like it was originaly a small movie theater; its inner rear wall has what appears to have been its proscenium. Anybody have any info on that one?????

the Apollo did not close in 1978 as stated by a previous writer. It reopened briefly in 1982, showing hindi films, then became the banai faith church. after the church, it reopened again for only a month, showing movies from Samoa. The interior was almost exactly the same as the York Theatre on 24th street, (now called the Brava center). The theatre never did well in attendance, as the neighborhood was considered "rough" in the evenings. Funny though, in its last days, they installed a movie screen that was directly in front of the original screen. it was a horribly made looking thing, to accomodate 70mm films from India. The screen stretched out from wall to wall, covering the grill work on the sides of the stage. I remember attending the Apollo when they showed all six planet of the apes movies. Hardly anyone showed up. It was sad

To respond to gsmurph's query about the theatre on Mission, around the corner from the Amazon: That is the Rialto. While it looks like the work of the Reid Bros., its architect was Mark T. Jorgensen. It operated for only a very brief time once the Amazon opened nearby. Ironic that its interior and exterior have now survived moreso intact than its competition, the Amazon, which once bested it.

1980 Photo

1986 Photo

1986 Photo

Here is the Amazon in 1963.

Here is an April 1999 story from the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://tinyurl.com/q6gfds

Another 1986 photo is here.