Comments from scottfavareille

Showing 26 - 50 of 387 comments

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Studs at the Pussycat Theatre on May 30, 2008 at 10:37 am

Thanks for the photo of The Left Bank—Looks like the Monica went to “adults only” films prior to its conversion into a Pussycat. (I am guessing that Vince Miranda did not own the theater at that point in time.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Ritz Theatre on May 7, 2008 at 2:17 pm

I recall driving through Huron & seeing this theater in the 1980s when it was still open. It was showing Spanish language films then.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Century Plaza 10 on Apr 30, 2008 at 11:44 am

I recall seeing a news story on Channel 7 about 3 years ago about a rat infestation at this theater & it caused patrons to flee during movie showings.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Flamingo Theatre on Apr 30, 2008 at 11:37 am

When this was operated by Brandt—was it Bingo Brandt, who ran a number of adult theaters in New York City’s Times Square area?

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about GCC Fashion Island Cinema on Apr 23, 2008 at 10:31 am

I do recall this particular place. The theaters themselves weren’t particularly distinguishable, however, they did do decent business, even after Fashion Island went into decline. (The center went into decline when Liberty House, who took over the Bullock’s site, went out of business. At the end, the mall only had 2 anchors, Whole Earth Access & Wards. In its final weeks, about 90% of the stores were vacant & the place was a ghost town.) The Tilt arcade next door was one of the more profitable arcades for that arcade chain. (A friend of mine was a manager at that arcade there in the mid-1980s).

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about A brief history of "Movie Pests" on Apr 17, 2008 at 1:58 pm

“Movie Pests” is a great short—I know TCM has ran it before. I do not recall if it has made DVD yet (It was on laserdisc in a collection of MGM shorts that came out years ago.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Bal Theatre on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:57 am

The neighborhood surrounding the theater is called the Bal neighborhood.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Central Cinema on Apr 2, 2008 at 11:10 am

Excellent article appeared in this past Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle. The place is still open, was showing “Horton Hears A Who”. Basically run by one man, who acts as ticket seller, concession stand worker, & projectionist! Admission is $8 for adults.

The article did state that he did work things out with the city of Alameda & that the theater is making a profit.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Decoto Theater on Apr 1, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I found a small amount of information from a 1995 meeting minutes of the Union City Historical Society. Theater was on 2nd Street between E & F Streets & was “owned by Bautista”.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about 40 Years of 2001: A Space Odyssey! on Mar 22, 2008 at 11:17 am

The Golden Gate Penthouse in San Francisco was when the Golden Gate Theater was “twinned”—The Penthouse was originally the balcony area of that theater. (When 2001 first played the Golden Gate, it had already been twinned—thus it was just “moved upstairs”).

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Warfield Theatre on Mar 17, 2008 at 10:51 am

AEG Live (owned by Philip Anschultz, pardon my spelling) is taking over the venue after BGP departs.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Warfield Theatre on Mar 17, 2008 at 10:47 am

Bill Graham Presents lost there lease to this theater & will have their final shows there in May with a 4 night set of Phil Lesh & Friends (Lesh was a member of The Grateful Dead). Saw ad in yesterday’s SF Chronicle Datebook section.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Regal to possibly end newspaper listings on Mar 17, 2008 at 10:38 am

I think this could backfire on them—I usually rely upon the newspaper to find out what is playing at the theater. There’s a saying “Out of sight, out of mind.”

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Plan for Regal, AMC, Cinemark to go all digital on Mar 12, 2008 at 11:43 am

This sounds oligopolical to me. (The fact that DCIP is “wholly owned” by the 3 largest US theater chains.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Regency Theater on Mar 5, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Looks like status should be changed to closed.

I believe this was the last (former Pussycat) adult theater in Northern CA. The Sunset in Hollywood was the last (former Pussycat) adult theater to close there. (It has been demolished since.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Sand Box Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Thanks for the clarification.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Sand Box Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 9:43 am

The adress looks familiar for some reason. Did Pussycat Theaters once operate here in the 1970s??

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Showcase Theater on Feb 14, 2008 at 1:14 pm

Interesting to find that the Mitchell Brothers were operating this theater at the end of its days as a porn house. Any idea as to when they took over from Pussycat Theaters? (I know that in the mid-1980s, Pussycat Theaters was in serious financial problems due to the decline of XXX theaters, the death of Vince Miranda, and legal squabbles as to who would own what was left of the operations.) The ads for Pussycat Theaters in the San Francisco Chronicle had this listed as one of their theaters & I do not recall this theater listed as a Mitchell Brothers theater. (The Mitchells did advertise in the Chronicle, as of 1985, their only Bay Area theaters advertised were the O'Farrell, which mostly did live shows then; the Ritz in Hayward which closed at the end of 1985, and the Bijou on Market Street in San Francisco. Their Berkeley operation was already changed over by another operator into a mainstream house.)

I could see the Mitchells attempting then to try to break into the market, although Pussycat & the Mitchells historically didn’t get along with one another. (As when the Mitchells bought the leases to several San Francisco theaters that had been operated by Walter Reade prior to that company’s bankrupcy—That was mostly done to keep Pussycat from expanding into a theater which was near their O'Farrell flagship.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Retro Dome on Feb 13, 2008 at 11:56 am

Can somebody confirm this—I have not seen advertising for this particular theater in the last several weeks. Has Cinemark shut it down. (For the last few months, it had been playing moveover fare from the Century 21-24 complex off Winchester.)

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Hard times for many repertory cinemas on Feb 13, 2008 at 11:49 am

I read the SF Chronicle article—It was quite well written. My two cents as to why the revival house business has dried up in the San Francisco Bay Area:

DVDs &/or showings of films on TCM do have a lot to do with it. Why pay $8.50 (what the revival house charges) per person when you can see it for less? The showings that have done well (from my observation) are of the films that are not on video or DVD. Gary Meyer’s Paramount Pre-Code series did quite well as many of those films have not been released on video nor do they air on TCM. (I have traveled from the suburbs to see many of these films.)

One solution mentioned in the article is to use “digital projection” of movies (DVD??) & to maybe sell videos in the lobby. Quite frankly, I think that would kill whatever little life there is left. This is what the “porn houses” did in the early-mid 1980s and it signaled the end of the theatrical sex film business. As it has been argued many times before, showmanship is what makes the difference. The Castro has done this with various programs. I have been to various “cult film nights” at theaters like the Parkway in Oakland & the Cerrito Theater (El Cerrito), where they present a film along with some entertainment (usually a musical act) plus some “prize giveaways”. Some of their shows sell out.

Of course, there is always the PFA (Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley), which has some adventurous film programming (much of it is not on video).

Maybe it takes some “creative programming”, & perhaps “showmanship”.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Help needed reviving San Francisco theater on Jan 5, 2008 at 10:46 am

If it was the North Beach Movie, that indeed was a storefront XXX house in the day.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Help needed reviving San Francisco theater on Jan 2, 2008 at 9:38 am

One thing that you might want to think about is doing an earthquake retrofit of the building.

As far as possible uses, it sounds too small for a movie house. (Could this have been one of those “storefront” theaters that showed XXX fare back in the 1970s??) Small music venue or playhouse perhaps??

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Coliseum Family Cinemas on Dec 27, 2007 at 2:30 pm

This theater opened originally in April 1970.

From www.reeldistraction.com, this was the programming for that theater on Dec 25, 1974 (they had a copy of the Oakland Tribune theater guide listing):

  1. Abby 3:30, 7:00, 10:30
    Black Caesar 1:45, 5:15, 8:45
  2. Black Belt Jones 3:25, 6:45, 10:05
    Cleopatra Jones 1:45, 5:05, 8:25
  3. Boss Nigger 3:35, 6:55, 10:15 (Legend of Boss Nigger)
    Green Hornet 1:55, 5:15, 8:35 (Kato & the Green Hornet—This was a theatrical compilation of 3 Green Hornet TV episodes from the 1960s that were edited together to make a feature. It was done to cash in on the death of Bruce Lee, who played Kato on the show.)
  4. Lady Sings the Blues 4:00, 9:00
    Education of Sonny Carson 2:00, 7:00

Ad also stated “Under 16 not admitted unless accompanied by an adult-Evening performances only”

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Update: One of the few Dimension 150 Theaters left..... on Dec 23, 2007 at 10:42 pm

Reportably, the shopping center which surrounds the theater is being redone & there are plans to replace this theater with a new CineArts. They would be better off keeping the dome (C21), demolishing the shoebox smaller theaters, & rebuild around that.

scottfavareille
scottfavareille commented about Bellevue Drive-In on Dec 19, 2007 at 11:02 am

The DVD of Blood Feast has both Dave Friedman & Herschell Gordon Lewis (producer & director of Blood Feast) talking about their “partnership” with Kohlberg on this film & two others. After that partnership dissolved, Friedman would partner with the late Dan Sonney & co-found the Pussycat Theaters chain of “adult movie houses”