Centre Theatre
1071 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
1071 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened as the Round-Up Theatre on February 12, 1944, showing nothing but Western films, the double feature program changing daily.
On August 15, 1947 it reopened as the Centre Theatre with a mixed bag of re-releases and action films, finally zeroing in on all comedy programming beginning in 1949. A single comedy feature was showcased, backed up by a variety of short subjects, cartoons, etc., each program running an entire week.
The Centre Theatre was a classic example of the type of theater known as a "shooting gallery," not so much from the nature of the films it showed, but from the fact that the interior consisted of one aisle down the middle with five seats on each side.
Unable to adapt to wide screen films in the 1950’s because the theater was so narrow, the Centre landed on its feet by converting to "adult" films, first softcore, and eventually hardcore, and survived until December 1987 as an outlet for such fare.
At that time it permanently closed and was converted back to retail space.
Contributed by
tillmany
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
One more comment, the marquee was V-shaped, not a flat marquee. I am guessing the marquee was changed between 1964 & 1968 (when the Centre played Love Camp 7).
From the SF Public Library website:
View link
Where is the UA Theater listed? I checked the UAs and didn’t see one in San Francisco:
View link
I found the UA. Here is an undated photo of the Centre:
http://206.103.49.193/sf/htm/sf026.htm
I took care of all the projection equipment in this theatre from the time that Walnut Properties/Pussycat Theatres took it over in, as well as I can remember, about 1985 up until the time it closed. I also took care of the Guild next door for the same company. The main fuse box for this theatre, way down in the deep, dark basement was still marked “Roundup”.
In another thread (the Hitching Post in Hollywood), it was mentioned that during the Centre’s days as the Round-Up that Robert Lippman was involved in the theater. (Lippman did operate a film distribution office nearby & is best known for a lot of interesting B-films, both as a producer & as a distributor/importer.)
I think I noted on the page for the Guild (which was immediately next door to this house) that Lippert had offices, perhaps their main headquarters, in the office building above the Guild on the 4th or 5th floor. You could easily see that they had been very nice offices.
1940s newsprint add for the all western Round-Up Theater in San Francisco.
1986 Photo
I went inside the Centre one foggy evening in the late 1970s. It had a nice lobby with gold carpet and gold drapes covering one wall, and a compact concession stand. A tall, tanned, blond, handsome doorman wore a crisp gold uniform with gold fringe epulets. He was very friendly. When entering the one isle auditorium patrons encountered a steep ramp with stadium type walls rising on either side that blocked the view of back rows. At the top of the ramp a gentle slope ran down the isle to double exit doors located below high the screen. Staight couples filled up back rows, performing all kinds of sexual activity.