Tea Room Theatre
145 Eddy Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
145 Eddy Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 39 comments
Reopened as “Tea Room” on December 4th, 1976 with male adult programming. Ad in the photo section.
This opened on March 28th, 1970 as the Aquarius theatre. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
It has not been kept up to cleaning standards…one of the employees is rude would not go back
I live a few blocks away from this movie house. Kind of surprised that it is listed on this site. However NO CENSORSHIP- please. If you don’t like it go to another theater listing-OK.
Interesting reading on this site.
Just small cedy & sleazy is all I havta say D. Slack. Establishments like the Tea Room you do have to visit them because all u will find is outside exterior pics.
Any pics of the ‘auditorium’?
If the question is whether the Tea Room is a theater or a sex club, everyone wins: it is both. What makes the Tea Room unique is, I believe, that it IS unique. I think it’s the last of the old-style porn theaters in the City. You don’t even see representations of this type of theater much anymore. The last I saw was a scene in “Burnt Money”, of a theater in Uruguay in the 1960’s. In the day, when police raids were common and even gay sex in one’s own home was illegal, theaters like this were tremendously popular. The intention wasn’t to be (merely) seedy, but to be safe. Along with the old-style bath-houses (some of which were palatial), this is something—a type of theater, and enough like a “theater” to turn “legit” as soon as police poked a head in the door—that may not come again, but certainly has a place in San Francisco history. And in the hearts of those of us who remember. Some of the posters on this site may like to take a field trip.
Wow! This place sounds awesome. Has anyone seen a ‘live performance’? What does this entail and how can I find out the schedule of movies and performances?
Well boys(& girls), here’s what all the fuss was about!
Photographs I took in January 2005. Looking very smart and inviting in its new ‘Rainbow’ livery:
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The Tearoom Theatre was previously known as the Aquarius Theatre from 1970 to 1977 when it ran small independent films. I think its history as a movie theatre qualifies it to be listed here.
Here is a rather old photo of the sign, courtesy of the San Francisco Archives.
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The Tea Room theatre, was a store at sometime. It is a dingy place inside, you pay your money and walk thru the curtain to the small auditorium, which has the screen and a disco ball in the ceiling, where they used to do live nude gay shows inbetween movies. A aisle went down the center kind of and to the left of the screen was a curtain where you walked through, and the restrooms were there, with two rooms that are very dark which sexual activity went on. The place was filthy, with it’s patrons being mostly homeless. Been there for years, and it does well.
lets keep this going
The open-mindedness by most folks who are intrigued by Cinema Treasures is a key factor in making this site interesting. Oddly enough, our hobby has a slight relationship with something (porn) that gets almost everyone’s blood boiling one way or the. Keep in mind that it was porno that saved hundreds of theaters from the wrecking ball for years. Many of them were rehabilitated at least partly as a result of their X-rated survival. Additionally, who are any of us to be critical about another’s sexuality or choice of films? As if I don’t already have enough to think about … . lololol.
but it is funny to watch this……
Ken – absolutely. I might add that, for all the progressiveness and banality sex sports these days, seeing a pornographic film in a theatre is a jarring experience to say the very least. I think it has something to do with the proximity of others to a private, personal act. Maybe that’s just this reporter’s sensibility…then again, I wholeheartedly support a mass influx of guys with cravats, monocles, pince-nezes, top hats and tuxedoes into so-called “gentlemen’s clubs”.
HOW FUNNY STOP THE madness
MagicLantern:
When you go and take ‘tea’ there next weekend, can you count the seating capacity for us please, projection facilities, and other features not covered in the above postings(ok>>>well check them out too, just make sure we have all our facts right)!
On my recent visit to the city I only had time to photo the exterior (too many theatres, too little time).
moviemanforever;
A correction to your first posting on here(17th Feb).
The name ‘tea room’ is a gay slang term used in the USA since the 1960’s(that I know of) for public restrooms where gay men have annonimous sex (ie tea room trade)
In the UK, gay slang for a public convenience is a ‘cottage’(in use since the 1950’s). So named after the many public loos built in parks etc in the Edwardian era and 1920’s that were designed to look like mini cottages, so that they didn’t look so offensive and hid their real purpose. Some of them are now Listed Grade II buildings!
As for the rest of Europe, I don’t know what words would be used in French, Spanish, German, Italian etc.
Manwithnoname;
I have a twin set up here, the living room screen 1 has a 32inch widescreen LCD flat panel monitor screen (all aspect ratio’s are available), THX and Dolby Pro-Logic surround, and a 3 seater black leather sofa (kinky). The bedroom screen 2 has a small tv and bog standard mono sound and at least room for 3 but who cares once the lights go out.
The End!
that was some vivid look into the tea room thanks to TOM SCOTT
Kudos Ken.
Well, so just don’t invite Moviemanforever when you run porn. Those semen rivers can be so annoying…
I’m going to go there next weekend and have some tea just to snub all the nay-sayers. Neener.
KenRoe
Bravo I agree 100%, a theatre is a theatre.
Being the person who added this theatre to the site, I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in the context of the aims and goals of this site, which is to document and discuss buildings that are used for showing movies, commonly known as theatres/theaters or cinemas. I simply report and add a theatre because it is a theatre, not shying away because the morals of the patrons of a particular building offend me.
The Aquarius/Tea Room Theatre has been in operation as a movie theatre for over 30 years, which is longer than some ‘regular’ theatres on the site.
Are we to have a form of censorship that bans certain types of theatres from qualifying for the site because they don’t ‘fit’ into the general idea of what a theatre is? or the types of people who attend them offend certain members of society?
To be banned???;
Storefront theatres; most early nickelodeons were these.
Non purpose built theatres; because they are not proper theatres, just conversions.
Negro theatres: because they were exclusive to a certain race of people.
3rd run flea-pit dumps; because they deserved to close down and were an embaressment to the nearby movie palaces.
Theatres that had been used for porn; this would mean most of 42nd St and 8th Ave NYC theatres would be taken off not to mention theatres such as the Vista, E. Hollywood, CA which actually showed hard core gay movies for a while, but has now been lovingly restored back to its 1926 Egyptian style and sceens general release movies again.
To be banned?? I don’t think so!
I personally have spent over 35 years in cinema and ‘legit’ theatre management here in the UK and have worked in buildings contrasting from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to West End Theatres, to circuit general release movie theatres, to straight porn XXX cinemas (not all in that order) LOL So I can speak from much experience in working in all types of ‘theatre’ buildings.
Also being a founder member of the Cinema Theatre Association (founded 1967) and being their Visit Co-ordinator for eight years (organising over 80 visits for members, 5 of them International) and made a Life Member a couple of years ago for my services to the Association, I can vouch my sincerity in my detailed research of theatre and cinema buildings which I have been sharing with this site in the over 600 postings I have made about the buildings, data and history.
Now let us all get off our moralistic ‘high horse’ and get back to giving the Cinema Treasures site an input into the theatre buildings whatever their condition, operational woes/needs, style, size etc.
They ALL deserve our attention,and research so others can share them with us for generations to come.