Market Street Cinema
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
6 people
favorited this theater
Opened as Grauman’s Imperial Theatre on December 22, 1912, this theater remained under the operation of Grauman’s until it was sold in 1919.
The theater was first renamed in August of 1929, as the Premiere Theatre, and then, in 1931, it was renamed again, this time as the United Artists Theatre after undergoing a remodel to the plans of architectural firm Walker & Eisen, with architect Clifford A. Balch. In 1967, the theater was purchased by Loews, which operated it until 1972, when it became the Market Street Cinema.
Regular movies gave way to XXX Adult films and in recent years, these have gradually been dropped in favour of adult ‘live’ entertainment performances.
The Market Street Cinema was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Contributed by
William Gabel
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 48 comments)
I skipped that one on purpose.
Too bad. It’s a nice shot of the three conjoining theaters.
Too blurry.
Here is a photo of the Market Street Cinema I took Feb. 29th:
View link
Any photos of when it was a LOEWS?
Well, here’s a site that has a sketch of what the the front of the theater was supposed to look like after Loew’s took it over, but I don’t think it actually ever got this facelift: View link
Thanks Cwalczak!
Now that I look at the recent pictures of the theater’s facade and the sketch, it looks to me that the theater did get at least a version of the proposed new marquee (though it seems flatter than that in the sketch), but not the panels above, especially the arched ones with the lanterns. They probably would look dated now, but would still be an improvement over all that blue blahness and that section now painted red from the theater’s original entryway.
A 1931 remodeling of the Imperial for the United Artists chain was the work of the Los Angeles architectural firm of Walker & Eisen, with Clifford Balch, associated. The project was reported in the April 17 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor that year.
Sad to see what this theater has become. Didnt My Fair Lady play here? You’d never know it now!