UA Galaxy

od_sf – You’re thinking of the Coronet Theatre, which played that 1985 single triple bill performance for the Bay Area. Coronet-San Francisco was a huge and venerable single-screen. The Galaxy, while very nice and having THX, was a multiplex with smaller auditoriums. In Los Angeles, however, the triple bill did show at two locations: UA Egyptian Theatres-Hollywood (in the original Grauman’s portion, which was an enormous palace back then [before Cinematheque butchered it in 1999]) and GCC Avco Center Cinemas-Westwood (a multiplex but one with a decent size main auditorium then [befoe it too was carved up in 1993] and THX).

It is the Regency II; the Regency I was around the corner in the same block but facing Van Ness.

I worked as an assistant manager there in the early 1990s. The district manager, Larry Levin, set my salary at $592 per month, thereby making me the lowest-paid full-time manager in the Bay Area. The manager in charge of training me was Marc Johnson. He said, “You are in the impossible position of having to try to learn something from me.” Marc was an accountant moonlighting at the Galaxy. He got mad at me once and threw my lunch into the garbage while I was eating it; he lived with an anchorwoman and said he was leaving town to study medicine at USC (did he graduate?)

The Galaxy ran many bad movies and its receipts each night were often minuscule, so I wondered how long would survive. Instead of hiring a professional projectionist, they used one of the managers (often me; I nearly wrecked a brand-new print of Terminator 2). I had also worked as a manager at a Blumenfeld theatre and often asked myself, “Can these companies be any stingier?”

UA Galaxy RIP

The Galaxy is not to be missed, but I mean that in a negative way. “A movie palace for the 1980s”? Well, the ‘80s sucked in many ways.

The Galaxy was architecturally weird, with glass for glass’s sake and an interesting look from the outside, but inside it was basically a mall multiplex with an unfriendlier layout. Points for a big screen, a fine sound system, and a staff that kept the projection in focus. But the seats were oddly uncomfortable and the restrooms were upstairs from the auditoriums, an ordeal for anyone who’s not athletic. If it’s a palace it’s a palace designed by someone who didn’t like movies or didn’t like movie palaces (or didn’t like either).

I think for many of us who experienced the Galaxy in SF during the 80’s, it was our first meeting with THX sound. Me and a friend would always go there and nudge each other when that THX intro came on before the film started.

geez, so many memories of that theatre. Serial Mom, Married to the Mob, the 3rd Indiana Jones movie, A View to a Kill so many others. Personally i loved the Regency I across the street for its interior.

To bad the Landmark people don’t close the two tiny theatres they run The Lumiere and Opera Plaza. They can take over the long closed Galaxy. A big improvement over what they call art theatres now. Some people have bigger screens on the home screens. The old UA Galaxy needs some work but will go the way of many San Francisco Theatres. Condos will go up some day.

I must have been under a rock when learning thru another site that the ol Galaxy quietly closed up for good.
An island boy from the 50th state I moved to SF in 1998 and the first movie that I saw at the Galaxy was “Dance With Me” though I already saw this movie back home in Hawaii. The Galaxy was a quaint 4 plex theater and I have watched a slew of flicks here, did a bunch of sneak preview showings which was eventually the last time I graced my presence in this establishment before the 4 plex decided to go arthouse. The movies Hollywood was putting out , the nearby AMC 1000 @ Van Ness, The Metreon & the revolution of DVD’s are a few things that took a toll on the ol Galaxy.

This was in the Balboa Theatre newsletter sent out last night by Gary Meyer, co-founder of the Landmark chain…

BREAKING NEWS- R.I.P. Galaxy Theatre

It wasn’t my favorite theater but the large screens at the Galaxy offered a pretty good show before the megaplexes opened in SF. The Galaxy was built in 1984 on Van Ness at Sutter. The Regency I & II across the street were among the hottest theaters in town (along with the Northpoint and Coronet). UATC wanted to make a statement with an architecturally interesting building and “state-of-the art” cinemas featuring THX sound and be located in this important location. No major new theaters had opened in San Francisco in years. The theater did well but never spectacularly. But when the Regencys closed, unable to compete against the Metreon and AMC 1000, the corner lost its luster and the Galaxy had a tough time getting movies. They attempted to be an “art cinema” but had to be content with the leftovers. With no marketing person on-site to promote the concept, and a rather programming schizophrenic approach, there was no sense of place.

Rent was very high and the landlord wouldn’t let them close or leave. Finally a deal has been worked out and last night the Galaxy quietly closed. Today’s Movie Guides suggest you call for show times but it just rings. Theatre ghosts don’t answer the phone.

It wasn’t my favorite theatre, either. The one time I went there was for a private screening of The Abyss. The sound and picture were fine, but I much preferred the #1 house at the Kabuki to anything there.

According to info I got last night from a former employee of the theatre, the staff was told that the Galaxy will close some time within the next two weeks. I havn’t been able to confirm this but I have no reason to disbeleive the person who told me this.

The UA Galaxy was among the handful of theaters equipped with Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the 1990-1991 precursor to the contemporary digital sound formats.

Does it have draped screens?