Comments about Hub Theater in San Francisco, CA

GaryMeyer on January 4, 2023 at 1:40 pm

In going through old papers and repertory cinema flers I found an old press release for the Hub’s last gasp programming.Posted in photos.

Joe Vogel on December 5, 2013 at 12:20 pm

An article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this paragraph about the Silver Palace Theatre:

“The first moving picture house to be opened on Market street following the fire of 1906 was the Silver Palace, just above Third, with a seating capacity of about 400. This house, which was conducted by the late Benjamin Michaels and Harry M. Lichtenstein, was fitted up at a heavy expense and at the time was considered quite a wonderful place. It is still being operated and is now under the management of N. K. Herzog, who also has charge of the Pastime theater in the same block. Both of these houses make a daily change of program and charge an admission of five cents.”

Joe Vogel on November 21, 2013 at 8:12 pm

The Hub was San Francisco’s oldest operating movie theater when Boxoffice of March 25, 1968, noted that the venerable house had recently celebrated its 59th anniversary week (bottom of center column.)

almanac1951 on September 14, 2010 at 9:34 am

Allen Ginsberg took this photo of fellow Beat Generation icon Neal Cassady and his girlfriend of the moment, under the marquee of the Hub, in or around March of 1955.

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seymourcox on October 27, 2007 at 8:58 pm

A dear friend of mine, Jeff Chapman, lived in San Francisco from 1977 through 1983. He made it his 1981 New Years resolution to go into every standing theatre structure in SF before the year was out. He almost accomplished his goal but was never able to get inside the El Ray, Harding, or Balboa. Jeff even walked around parking lots where theatres had once stood, such as the Paramount and El Capitan. At that time there were a couple of former theatres he didn’t know about because they had been converted to other uses, the Gap was one of them.
Jeff now resides in Champaign, IL.

GSenda on May 12, 2006 at 6:18 am

Sadly, the Hub and several other theatres on the block were put out of business by the forthcoming Yerba Buena Center project. Which took years to resolve in the courts while these theatres were boarded up.

At the end all the theatres in this block were showing porn theatres and the city took them over under eminent domain and for awhile the city owned fully operating porn theatres!

I recall Herb Caen making a note of it in one of his columns.

I seem to recall reading that at their height there were 40 or 50 movie theatres operating at the same time on Market Street. A friend of mine says he managed to see at least one movie in each of the theatres on Market Street in his youth.

George Senda
Concord Ca

kencmcintyre on January 9, 2006 at 4:27 pm

Night view, 1967:
http://206.103.49.193/sf/htm/sf285.htm

kencmcintyre on December 20, 2005 at 2:44 pm

A theater with a sense of humor:

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gsmurph on May 7, 2005 at 9:55 am

Currently, the space formerly occupied by the Hub is part of a discount bookstore.

scottfavareille on June 18, 2004 at 8:34 am

The Hub mostly showed grindhouse fare before switching to “adults only” films in the mid-1960’s. It closed in the early 1970’s.

Hub Theater

727 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

727 Market Street,
San Francisco, CA 94103