Paris Theatre

The Portola Theatre opened around September 1909, one of the first larger and more important theatres to be built on Market Street after the devastating fire and earthquake of April 1906. As films quickly grew in popularity it soon became a popular first run venue. But the larger and grander movie palaces that were soon to be built, particularly the 2,000-seat California/State Theatre just a few doors away (qv), soon ended the Portola Theatre’s days as a popular venue and it closed in 1928.

The building was then converted into a bus station for Gray Line Tours and so it lasted until the early-1940’s.

In 1944 it re-opened once again as a film theatre, catering to the wartime crowds that filled every Market Street theatre night and day. Its policy seemed to be to run just about anything that moved that people were willing to pay fifty cents to watch.

A six week sub-run of “The Outlaw” in early 1947 established its identity as a outlet for anything that was just not quite appropriate for mainstream houses, foreign and domestic. Titles like “Whirlpool of Desire”, “The Widow Misbehaves”, “The Foolish Virgin” and “Wages of Sin” started popping up on its marquee, and the rest, as they say, was history. Exploitation was the name of the game.

In 1957, its owner, Harry Farros, changed the name to Farros Theatre, and in 1961 it was renamed the Paris Theatre. It closed in August 1971, not for lack of business, but as part of the Market Street Redevelopment plan; it was immediately torn down.

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