El Capitan Theatre
2353 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
2353 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94110
2 people
favorited this theater
The interior of the El Capitan Theatre was a beautiful example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture while the outside was built with a splendid Mexican Baroque facade.
Although the auditorium is long gone, the facade and attached hotel still stand, with the moderne marquee standing guard over the entrance to the theater’s new use as a barren parking lot.
The demolition of all but the decorative facade and the gutted foyer of the El Capitan Theatre in 1964, remains one of San Francisco’s major losses.
Contributed by
Juan-Miguel Gallegos
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Recent comments (view all 45 comments)
This photo gives you a view of the parking lot behind the facade.
The 1930s marquee which replaced the original, and which is still on the facade as seen in the photo in the previous post, is exactly the same design as that of the Grand Lake in Oakland, just done in a typical trapezoid shape, as aopposed to the wide sweeping curve which the Grand Lake marquee has partly due to its corner location. I would guess the El Capitan marquee had tubes and color like those of the Grand Lake, and probably animated in a similar or identical fashion.
I have long had the dream that someday the Mission neighborhood will pick itself up to a point where the site of the El Capitan’s auditorium could be built upon with both an underground parking garage and a multistory multiplex. The facade would be restored, the marquee relit and outfitted with digital readerboards, and patrons would walk through the still extant foyer with its plasterwork restored, to the new structure behind. Then, down the street, the New Mission Theatre would be the performing arts center for the area.
I’ve posted some recent photos here.
Vintage photo:
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Ken mc… FYI, regarding you notes of Feb 29, 2008;
Apart from the cluster of theaters around that part of Mission Street, there are others several miles out of downtown as this endless road winds its way through the Mission district.
I’m guessing this was in a bad location, or there was oversaturation in the neighborhood. It seems like that was usually the case with the houses that closed in the mid – late 50’s.
To comment on the previous post: It was not a bad location at all. El Capitan was, to quote the late SF theatre historian Steve Levin, “A phenomenal moneymaker before television.” From that point, the huge capacity of the house made it a white elephant very quickly, and indeed, competition from smaller, more efficient-to-run theatres in the area would have had an effect. Any need for a big house in the Mission neighborhood was filled by the smaller, but still capaceous, New Mission Theatre, across the street and to the South. The New Mission managed to keep its doors open into the 1990s, but not without having taken a turn as a boxing match venue before reverting back to a regular movie policy in its last years. Add to this the smaller Tower, Grand, and Crown, and a downtown-sized palace like El Capitan was a dinosaur, once people started staying home more to watch the Small Screen.
This photograph of the El Capitan Theatre was taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
We called it “The Cap” and it was a beautiful theater. The marquee flashed in beautiful colors and the sign would spell out the letters of the theater one by one. A tall big guy named Dan Mcclean ran the place. He was always dressed in a tuxedo and top hat, greeting you as you came in. I remember his huge black handlebar moustache, my mom thought he was a cutie pie and he would flirt with her. There was a powderroom upstairs and my mom had to powder her nose one more time before we left, and she flirted with him on the way out. What I remember about the Cap, were those beautiful curtains on the stage, there were two of them. When the curtains opened there was another one right behind it that started to open and went straight up. The previews would start and on the screen it would say, “Coming Soon…..To YOUR El Capitan” it made you feel like you owned it.
I had my choice on Saturday mornings of the 5 theatres:El Capitan, Grand. Crown, New Mission and Tower. They showed serial adventures. Admission was 5 cents but quite often you got in free for bottle caps. I would spend Friday afternoons down by the library going through drink machines for discarded caps so I had a supply. Unfortunately we left SF around 1953, and I didn’t return until the late 60’s and didn’t have the interest in serials anymore.