Warfield Theatre

982 Market Street,
San Francisco, CA 94102

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Showing 26 - 50 of 55 comments

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on August 15, 2007 at 7:26 pm

Here is a photo from the USC archive, circa 1930:
http://tinyurl.com/27fgfv

terrywade
terrywade on August 8, 2007 at 5:24 am

I remember seeing Thank God It’s Friday at the Fox Warfield in 4 track mag stero. The place turned into a huge disco when it played. Gary needed to add a mirror ball when Donna Summer sang.

William
William on March 17, 2007 at 8:42 am

Warren the the address of that theatre was 934 Market Street.

/theaters/3130/

seymourcox
seymourcox on March 17, 2007 at 6:12 am

As a teen during the late 70s an oilman would sometimes take me along with him on business trips to San Francisco. One of the many things we did while there was to go see double features at the Warfield Theatre.
A lavish building, but since the Warfield lot is pie shaped the floor lay out is a bit disorienting. Standees curve around the auditorium and are actually located in bulding rear, with stage housing abutting the office bulding.
On one trip to SF we saw as one half of a double bill at the Warfield an old Marion Davies film entitled “Paging Miss Glory”. This was a goofy type movie centered around an absurb plot that claimed if the beauty and personalities of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Jeanette MacDonald, Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, and Ann Sothern could be combined the end result would result in Marion Davies.
In the 12/20/05 posting, that 1948 unidentified photo is later labelled the Esquire Theatre. Could this movie house have originally been named Marion Davies? The Esqure would have sat cattycornered from the Hearst Bldg, and I’ve heard W.R. Hearst built a theatre in her honor across from his office suite so he could see from his desk the name Marion Davies' spelled out in pink neon.

Ian
Ian on March 16, 2007 at 11:58 pm

Exterior pic from 2000 here :–

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August
August on May 6, 2006 at 10:51 pm

Ah, the Warfield Theater… It brings back memories of seeing monster movies as a kid back in the 1970s. When the Warfield originally started to host live music in the 1980s, the theater seats were all still there, and the security tried to keep us little punk rockers in our seats — “I’m not staying seated for Siouxsie & The Banshees, no way!” (I also saw DEVO there on New Year’s ‘83 or '84). I lived in Tokyo during the mid-to-late 1980s, and when I returned, the seats were taken out of the auditorium and it was turned into a short-lived nightclub called “Downtown”.

When they folded — they must have lost their shirts on the work they did to the venue — it was leased by Bill Graham Presents, who had just closed down Wolfgang’s (formerly “Dance Your Ass Off, Inc.”) in North Beach, due to a “suspicious” fire. Bill must have invested in the Warfield around this time, and was a silent partner in another live music venue, Slim’s in the South of Market district. Legally, Boz Skaggs was the owner on paper, since BGP was under investigation by the SFPD concerning the Wolfgang’s fire. You can fill in the blanks from there.

Anyhow, I did Security for BGP at the Warfield from ‘92 to '93, and was working the night of the Rodney King Riots on Market St. — why were we even open? It was sheer madness. We saw several people being jumped, booted and otherwise assaulted right in front of the Warfield! Even my roommate at the time, Nanda, was jumped — she went down there to apply First Aid to the injured, and that’s the thanks she got. Guess who was playing that night? Jerry Garcia.

In the words of William Shatner from AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL, “Irony can be pretty ironic, sometimes.”

snapesflower
snapesflower on May 6, 2006 at 7:18 pm

Does anyone out there have a photo of the interior of the Warfield from 1939 during the Gone with the Wind run? I own a portrait of Rhett Butler that hung in the lobby and was just curious.
thanks!

William
William on February 2, 2006 at 6:11 am

In ken mc’s post from Dec 20th 2005 8:06pm.

The unidentified theatre in the foreground is the Esquire Theatre at 934 Market Street.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 21, 2005 at 4:15 pm

Here are photos of the exterior and the box office from 1922:

View link

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kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 20, 2005 at 5:12 pm

Here is a photo of the Loew’s Warfield from 1948:

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kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 20, 2005 at 5:06 pm

This 1948 photo from the SFPL shows the Warfield in the distance and an unidentified theater in the foreground:

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kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 11, 2005 at 7:30 am

That would be the San Francisco Public Library, of course. I am going for some coffee to wake up.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 11, 2005 at 7:29 am

Here is an interior photo of the Warfield, from the LA Library:

View link

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 29, 2005 at 9:23 am

Must have been a good flick…

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scottfavareille
scottfavareille on October 17, 2005 at 12:31 pm

There is a lawsuit now between the building owner & Clear Channel (tenant, who uses the theater under the Bill Graham Presents moniker). Clear Channel sold the naming rights (without the landlord’s permission) to SF Weekly & it is now advertised as the SF Weekly Warfield.

gsmurph
gsmurph on January 9, 2005 at 1:10 pm

Uh, brucec—– The Golden Gate is on Golden Gate (Avenue) and Taylor; Jones and Taylor are one block parallel to each other.

bruceanthony
bruceanthony on December 12, 2004 at 1:35 pm

San Francisco is a great city despite itself. The city made the mearchants along Market Street take down all there vertical marquee’s in an effort to beautify Market Street, and it had the reverse effect on the theatre district. Everyone put up these ugly flat plastic marquee’s like the Warfield. The Golden Gate got lucky because its not right on Market its on Jones and Taylor but you can see it on Market Street. I think if Shorentstein and Nederlander can produce Broadway Shows which cost millions the least they could do was spend a little money and relight the two huge Verticlals which spell out Golden Gate which were always lit when it was a movie palace.brucec

2709
2709 on March 27, 2004 at 12:43 pm

The Warfield has a speakeasy down stairs any photos of the Platinum before bart was put in. .Or anything else you can dig up.Would help
Thanks for responding
B

Lawrence
Lawrence on March 27, 2004 at 4:00 am

I forgot an interesting story. Another friend of mine – won a radio contest in the early 70’s. He got a pair of tickets to see the Joan Collins film TALES FROM THE CRYPT – at midnite – all by himself with
one guest – in THE WARFIELD THEATRE! Yup. He said it was the scariest and yet, most enjoyable experience of his life.

Lawrence
Lawrence on March 27, 2004 at 3:57 am

Yes Indeed – Mike Thomas, a dear friend of mine – operated The Warfield and The Crest (next to the Warfield) during the late 70’s.
Mike had a very tough time getting good grossing pictures for the
place and had to bid against the big circuits. I recall one title
that brought the house back to life, a moveover off the now
closed Plitt NORTHPOINT THEATRE – of “CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD
KIND.” The film did great downtown on Market Street and brought
in alot of folks who hadn’t been there in years. Unfortunately
it still cost Mike so much money in bidding fees that he had told me
a sale was eminent. Thus, Bill Graham took the house and its success
has been non-stop. I am so pleased THE WARFIELD stands protected and appreciated by many folks in the San Francisco Bay Area.

2709
2709 on March 27, 2004 at 1:43 am

I currently maintain the Warfield Theatre as well as do security.I would like to find any and all info
on it.From my understanding it was used as speakeasy in the 20’s any pictures or comments would be really helpful.
I know nothing of its history from when it opened to when Bill Graham took it over.
Hoping to get some insight on materials used in constuction.
And the people who worked there over the years.
Thank you

Ross Melnick
Ross Melnick on March 23, 2004 at 8:33 am

Warren — This site always lists the current name of theaters so that they can be more easily found today, whether they are still operating, converted into retail stores, etc.

You are absolutely correct about the Warfield Theatre. Tt did open as the Loew’s Warfield on May 23, 1922 and was named for People’s Vaudeville Company co-founder David Warfield (born David Wohlfeld), who was born in San Francisco on November 28, 1866.

He died in June 1951, 23 years after Marcus Loew passed away.

edward
edward on March 22, 2004 at 7:07 pm

The Warfield can be seen in the filmed version of Margaret’s Cho’s 2000 one-woman comedy show ‘I’m the One that I Want-Live in Concert".