Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
1 Taylor Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 67 of 67 comments
Warren thats a great old picture with all the sailors and their girls :)
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For Joeseph Breen. La Cage…opened at the Golden Gate in 1986, I believe. I remember attending the Premiere where my good friend, Sylvester, arrived in drag, alighting from a limousine to great applause. It was mentioned in Herb Caen’s column the next morning.
I recently saw “Mama Mia” at the Golden Gate and little work has been done on the theatre since the last time I was in it back in the 1980’s. I noticed on my ticket stub that at $3.00 restoration fee was charged. I would like to know where this money is going. Are we paying for the renovation of the Orpheum from a few years ago. None of the drinking fountains worked properly. I hope this money is going to upgrade this theatre which badly needs it. I hope a little restoration work is done in the Auditorium and the proper colors are used to accent the architecture that is there. I will think twice before forking out the money to see another show at this theatre. Please Shorentein/Nederlander relight the marquee. Its only under your watch that the marquee has not been lit. The Golden Gate has not one but two Verticals that spell out Golden Gate. Its the only large Vertical left in the Market Street Area Downtown.brucec
The cable car turnaround is actually 2 blocks east of the Golden Gate theater at the intersection of Powell & Market. At the turnaround, the following theaters were once located there: Powell(now a perfume store), Esquire(demolished), Pix(demolished), St Francis(soon to be demolished as part of a new shopping center on the site of the old Emporium store). The Owl Marque was near that theater however.
There are other theaters that are/were near the Golden Gate west of there(most on Market Street itself): Warfield(now a concert hall), Orpheum(live plays, once operated as a Cinerama theater), Crest(underwent several name changes over the years, now the Crazy Horse strip club), Regal(now the Deja Vu strip club), Guild(now retail, last theater incarnation was as Pussycat), Centre(now retail), Embassy(demolished after 1989 quake), the Strand(closed in April 2003, a long time revival house that went downhill into a porn theater & shuttered by the City as a public nuisance) and the United
Artists(aka Market Street Cinema, now a live sex show emporium). Market Street was once a thriving movie theater street.
Distant images/memories from child hood 48-51, when travelled by bus to SF from Mill Valley area, were seeing huge banners hanging down tower facade adversiting Cinderella, which say there, and Alice in Wonderland, sitting in balcony. Mixed with recollections was seeing Cable car being turned around, a big Owl Marque creature for some store, and billboard with smoke rings being blown for cigarettes—are/were these things in same genral local at the theatre, or am I combining kid collected observations into one related impression while going down streets to go to the real movies in the big city? Haven’t been there over 50 years.
Saw “The Sand Pebbles”, “Myra Breckinridge” and “The Exorcist” in the upstairs theatre which was called The Penthouse, in the late 60’s. An escalator had been installed from the lobby to the mezzanine. The downstairs theatre showed Cinerama films – “2001” played there for a couple of years. The last time I remember going into the downstairs theatre for a film was a double bill – “Zacharia” a rock western, was being shown on a conventional wide screen, and a sneak preview of “The Andromeda Strain” (with Hollywood bigwigs in the audience), was shown on the Cinerama screen.
Before the renovation the former RKO Golden Gate Theatre seated 2844 people. It’s sister theatre the RKO Hillstreet Theatre in Los Angeles seated 2890 people. Both facades of the theatres looked the same, but during the mid-50’s modification of the Hillstreet Theatre’s entry area was changed to a Art-Deco/Moderne.
Cinerama did operate this theater from 1965 to about 1970. In the 1970’s, it went from showing first-run “reserved seat engagement” films to showing blaxploitation and kung-fu films. It also showed some X-rated(non-hardcore) films in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s as well. DeSade(AIP’s only X-rated film) premiered here as well as Myra Breckinridge(on both screens playing “every hour on the hour”).
The RKO Golden Gate Theatre was luckier than it’s sister theatre the RKO Hillstreet Theatre which only lasted till around 1963. When the Golden Gate opened in 1922, they installed a Moller Theatre organ (opus#3131) 3/13.
When they twinned the theatre in 1966, they called the second theatre the Penthouse.
I have always been very dissapointed in the renovation of the Golden Gate. The Curran and the Orpheum are lovely but the Golden Gate needs some work. It would be nice if the current owners would even bother to put the neon back on the two vertical signs. More RESTORATION WAS DONE IN THE lobby than the auditorium. It would be nice if at least an attempt was made to make the auditorium more pleasing.Its been this way for many years. Bruce
Not much of the original interior of the Golden Gate survives. Much of what is seen today is a recreation. The cieling of the lobby was found to be intact when the newer lobby was gutted. In place of much of the fine details of the original design are sound boards.
I’m hoping you can answer a question for. I was in the First National Tour of, La Cage aux Folles which opened at the Golden Gate Theatre. I’m trying to define some dates here for a piece I’m writing. When did La Cage open at the Golden Gate. When was the first preview? Can you give me any help? Thank you… Joseph Breen
The architect for the Golden Gate Theater and the RKO Hillstreet was G. Albert Lansburgh.
The Golden Gate had been almost destroyed by the time of the renovation. The interior of the auditorium had to be rebuilt but the original design had to be partly guessed at. The only remaining section of the interior is the ceiling of the lobby, which was found when the modern lobby was removed. The interior of the auditorium is cheap looking with acoustic tiles taking the place of where murals and the chandelier would have been originally. It is a sad place to go for people that want to see true beauty. It would be wonderful if the interior could be redone to live up to the standards that the exterior of this building sets. The Golden Gate is currently used to house the touring companies of Broadway Shows.
The Golden Gate opened 03/26/1922 with seats for 2844 people. The sister theatre to the Golden Gate is The RKO Hillstreet theatre in Downtown Los Angeles (razed in the 60’s). The Hill Street was located at 8th. & Hill Street (A sporting goods store & a bank now stands in it’s place. The Golden Gate was slightly more elaborate than the Hill Street theatre was. Both theatres had a Gothic look to it. The Hill Street was remodeled in the mid 50’s to modernize it’s look.
Single strip Cinerama installed 1 July 1965 until 11 No 1969.Twinned from Dec 1966