Avenue Theatre

The Avenue theatre seated about 1000 people.

The architects were Reid Bros. The theatre is now a church. The original facade is intact, as well as the circa 1940 vertical sign and marquee. Many interior features, including chandeliers, mythological figures added to walls in a later remodel, and a number of the fine mahogany doors with etched glass panels, were salvaged, restored, and sold prior to the church conversion.

The Avenue was a stadium type house, built by Ackerman & Harris; Reid Brothers were the architects; it opened in July 1927""

In the mid-1960's the Avenue was taken over by Edward Millington
Stout III, who installed a Mighty WurliTzer Organ, and began
offering silent films with organ accompaniment with Bob Vaughn
as house organist. This policy proved quite popular among local
film enthusiasts, and the enterprise was later taken over by
Geoff Hansen, who not only continued the silent film offerings
but added early sound films to round out the Friday night
double features, which were attended with almost religious devotion,
as well as occasional three dimensional films, of the 1954-1954
period, presented in dual projector polaroid 3D, another unique
offering much appreciated by Avenue devotees.
Unfortunately, the Avenue succumbed in December 1984, when it
permanently closed, not because of lack of patronage, but because
the neighborhood had deteriorated so badly that such innocent
recreations as going out to a movie on Friday night became a
dangerous, and sometimes even life-threatening excursion, due to
the local so-called "human" elements on whose "turf" it had the misfortune to be situated.

I also enjoyed the silent films at the Avenue theater for many years.

While the neigborhood (the Portola District of SF), like many others experienced some hard times during the crack epidemic of the 80's, it was never a life-threatening experience to attend a film there, although it might have felt like that to uptight suburbanites horrified by any local "color".

The Portola is a solid, multicultural working and middle class neighborhood with a vital business district along San Bruno Avenue. The Shekinh church that now occupies the Avenue Theater has done a very attractive renovation and they make the theater available to local community groups such as the Community Alliance of the Portola and Silver Terrace (CAPS). There are photos and a brief history of the original theater in the display cases outside the entrance.

I grew up in the neighborhood and have many fond memories of the Avenue. As I child at the Saturday matinees in the 1950's I vividly remember the art deco chandeliers and paintings on the walls and ceiling and the etched glass doors. It was a work of art. My friends and I were once thrown out for throwing popcorn (by the uniformed usherette with flashlight). Hey, I was only 10 years old! Great memories.

The Avenue's number of screens should state "Single Screen."

Pictures available here:

http://sflib1.sfpl.org:82/search/dTheaters/dtheaters/1%2C172%2C711%2CE/2exact&FF=dtheaters+avenue&1%2C6%2C

My family used to go there regularly in the '70s, to watch films from Greece of all things!

In a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle I have for Wed, Nov 24th 1976, the Avenue Theatre is listed under the 'International' section screening Bela Lugosi "The Midnight Girl" + "The Monster Walks" (1940) for one day only!

The Avenue Theatre was a beautiful theatre. The vertical blade of the marquee, closely resembled the Metro on Union Street. When i attended it, it was showing Greek films during the week and silent classics with the Organ on weekends. Warren Lubich was a great organist there. "On the Avenue" a 33 lp recorded at the Avenue with the organ is great. Very spacious auditorium with a nice sized stadium style balcony area. The projection booth was accessible by a metal staircase right out side in the balcony, the build very similar to the York on 24th Street. The ceiling had a beautiful dome lighting fixture, with signs of the zodiac circling around it. In the movie "Nightmare In Blood" filmed mostly in the Fox Oakland, has a great exterior shot of the Avenue at night lit up, and great views of the long gone island marquee.

In addition to my previous comment

http://groups.msn.com/josephgrecophotography/digitalmagic.msnw

I must append a comment to that made above by Mr. Greco (fun Photoshop work, by the way!). Below his photos linked above, there is the comment that the facade is removed and whitewashed. Indeed, the facade and signage have been repainted in a bland two-tone scheme, but all ornament is still intact, as well as the vertical sign and marquee. This theatre still merits at least a driveby look for theatre buffs who are in the area.

I used to go to the Avenue back in the 70's and early 80's for the Friday night silent-movie programs. Didn't go often... Hated the drive to SF, neighborhood was lousy, parking was non-existent, etc. Still, I should have gone more often! What a great little Cinema Treasure!

It had a 3-manual 14-rank Wurlitzer, with pipe-chambers installed on the stage, directly behind the screen, rather than the usual two chambers up on either side of the stage. I never knew why it was done this way, but it worked well.

My most vivid memory from there was a "Railroad Night" special they had one Friday. This drew a HUGE crowd, filling the Avenue to the rafters with died-in-the-wool train buffs.

There was a silent serial-type movie and a couple of early talkies, which the train buffs ate up, despite the fact the films were pretty poor.

THEN came the feature, "Danger Lights", a corny-but-effective 1930 melodrama about a talented but careless young engineer, the "Old-Guard" railroad boss, and the young guy's romance with the boss's daughter.

Of course, the old boss didn't approve of this romance, and did everything he could to stop it, mostly because the kid didn't respect The Railroad. Slowly, the kid came around, but the boss didn't buy into it until the kid came to the rescue, pulling the boss out of the way of a runaway engine. The boss was injured, but the kid had saved his life.

Later, the kid and the girl were visiting the old guy in the hospital, and he asked the crusty boss for permission to marry his girl. The boss let out a BIG sigh, and mustered the energy to rasp out: "Kid, you can have my girl... I'LL take The RAILROAD!!"

The theater ERUPTED with wildly cheering railfans! You'd think they'd won the World Series, the Super Bowl, the Lottery, and their very own locomotive, all at the same time!

That was quite an experience! Gotta love railbuffs...

From the SF Public Library website:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8568.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8545.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8565.jpg

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8566.jpg

The Avenue Theatre had as an original installation
a Wurlitzer Organ, Style D, 2 manuals 6 ranks. It was
Opus 1626 and installed 4/27/1927.
Barry

Just caught this video on YouTube; it's a news piece from 1983 about theater organs, and it features some video of the Avenue's Friday night silent movies. Also shows the neon sign outside at night. Worth watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFZZ2Mny3Ic

There is another photo of the Avenue on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/2gnxur

I wonder whatever happened to that big guy who used to run the place. Big movie buff. I think his name was Ron or Rick Marshall (like the amps). He really new his old movies. I wonder where he is.

Thought this might be interesting to some of the Avenue Theatre Silent Film Fans - I now own the Wurlitzer Opus 1773 that was installed in this theatre in the 1960's. After the Avenue Theatre's owner died the arrangement with the organ's owners and the theatre's new owners deteriorated and the organ was moved to the Towne Theatre in San Jose for a period. After its time there the instrument was removed and stored.

In 2005 the organ was packed and trucked to FL where it is being professionally installed in my studio after restoration takes place. This 3 year process is about over and I’m expecting a truck on Oct 27 to arrive here and installation to begin.

I’m proud to be the new curator of this piece of history that is nearly 81 years old.

In regards to whatever happened to the "big guy" (Rick Marshall),I believe he went to the great projection room in the sky last year. His greatest claim to fame, perhaps, was to be a suspect in the Zodiac murders in San Francisco. Rick and Avenue are mentioned in the film, "Zodiac"---an unusual epitaph for both.

1972 Photo

1985 Photo

Shouldn't the architect Merritt Reid have two "tt"s in Merritt?