Grand Theater

The Grand theatre seated 850 people.

The Grand opened on 23 March 1940, at 2665 Mission Street in San Francisco CA. It was built by People's Theatre Company, and served as a unpretentious third run neighborhood house. It closed in early 1988 and was converted into a retail outlet.

i remember going to see empire strikes back and return of the jedi at this theater back in the 80s those were the good old days when ever i go to the mission district and i see the sign i remember with nostalgia it,s some sort of asian store now

I grew up in the forties going to the Grand for three pepsi bottlecaps or ten cents. The usual show was a three stooges short two cartoons and two westerns. I lived around the corner on bartlett st. and went to st. james boys school. Anyone one out there know me?

From the SF Public Library website:

http://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-8850.jpg

The last time I went here was when I watched The Hitcher & Trick or Treat starring the guy who played Skippy in Family Ties with Spanish subtitles & that must have been around the end of 1987.

I must heartily thank the darkened cinema I spent the better part of my childhood in: Long live the remarkable Grand Theater! Fortunately, I grew up to be a pretty well adjusted guy, and even dated girls, despite my love for Horror Films and Monster Movies (it didn't do bad for Kirk Hammet of Metallica, either). During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Grand Theater (on Mission St. @ 23rd St. in San Francisco) specialized in Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy films and nothing else! As a grammar school-aged monster maven, I was there for every new Triple Feature, which changed every Wednesday. I recall that admission was a mere 50¢ for Children -- hell, I'd pay $15 to see some of those triple features in the darkened Grand again.

The Grand booked first, second and third run films, and I sat through a great majority of them, and the place was like church to me. Even as a little boy, I often wondered why the other kids ran around and talked during the screenings ("Hey, the movies are running, people!"), so I generally avoided weekend or holiday matinees -- sometimes getting my Mother or Aunt to take me on school nights ("No kids!"). GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE, DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS, THE SKULL, HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN, THE WONDERS OF ALADDIN, GHIDRAH: THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER, and more, all haunted me there.

The Grand acted as a larger than life supplement to Bob Wilkins' "Creature Features" on KTVU Channel 2 http://www.bobwilkins.tv , and was part of my regular monster movie diet. When the mid-'70s Kung Fu movie boom knocked the Horror Boom out of its throne, The Grand was the showcase for Chop Sockey triple features and the admission went up to 75¢ for Children (Oh, the humanity!). Guess what? I went with the tide. Somewhere in the late 1970s, the Grand changed again -- this time it becoming a showcase for Filipino films. After that, I lost track of the Old Girl, and was shocked when I returned to my old neighborhood (I still live in San Francisco) only to find that it was gutted to house a Chinese junk shop. To paraphrase Vincent Price from THE COMEDY OF TERRORS: "Is there no morality left in this world?"

Today, I am trying to emulate the feel of the old Grand Theater triple features with a series of Halloween Horror Movie programs at the historic Castro Theatre http://www.castrotheatre.com called SHOCK IT TO ME! http://www.shockit2me.com/frames/c_movies.htm Long live the memories of The Grand Theater!

August Ragone
kaijupro@yahoo.com

This is a recent photo of the former Grand Theater.

Here is a more recent photo of the former Grand Theater.

Another photo of the Grand Theater building can be seen here.

The above link stopped working so try this photo instead.

Here is a photo from a current loopnet ad:
http://tinyurl.com/2ee5am

Is this building for sale?

1974 Photo

1981 Photo

1986 Photo

1986 photo

Here is a recent photo. It's now a dollar store.

Photo of the Grand Theatre courtesy Nicj's Calssic American Theatres.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s254/Pavy1/GrandTheatreSanFranciscoCA.jpg