Grand Theater

Some new photos October 2010:

here and hereand [http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous_a/5145001186/in/photostream/]here.[/url]

I’ve posted some recent photos here.

Photo of interior of Grand Theatre, taken a few weeks ago. Still some interesting architectural details in that dollar store.

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

Is this building for sale?

The above link stopped working so try this photo instead.

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

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

From the SF Public Library website:

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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

The Grand theatre seated 850 people.