Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema

I drove down Mission Street last month when I went to the 49ers-Eagles game. I didn’t realize that all the theaters on this street were so close together. Must have been spectacular in its time.

An earlier Mission Theatre was operating in San Francisco in 1907. Did the New Mission replace it? The earlier Mission was listed in an ad for the architectural firm O'Brien & Werner in the 1907-1908 edition of Henry’s Official Western Theatrical Guide. The Mission was one of five O'Brien & Werner designed houses listed in the ad. The others were the Orpheum, Princess, Valencia Street, and 16th Street theaters.

There has been very little news about the New Mission for nearly four years; there has not been an update in the SF Neighborhood Theaters Foundation site (http://www.sfneighborhoodtheater.org/) for quite some time and there isn’t much more on the www.friendsof1800.org site either, both of which were actively watching for news and reporting developments up until, oh, about 2005 or so. Apparently City College dropped plans to recycle the site for its uses. There was a proposal to convert the theater into a restaurant/nightclub/performance space that would preserve some of the theater’s architectural features, and there was a report that the condos that were to be built adjacent to the theater were going to be taller than originally proposed. I did find this item from March 10 of this year: View link

Hi…

Im a collector of various movie paper…old one sheets, lobby cards and other incidental items. I am in my mid-30’s but feel like i was born QUITE out of time. I am fascinated with the old movie palaces and have quite a collection of items from these…thought you all would be interested in the following: i have several of the original, bound volumes of daily box reports from the New Mission, Castro, Alhambra, and Royal Theaters…all San Francisco movie palaces. The years I have are all 1929-1939…I have MANY volumes. EVERY single day is represented, with deposit slips and every single report…including film titles, opening marks, ticket sales and deposits, refund slips (if any…including reasons for refunds), and also a listing of the features that competitors were playing for each day. Its very interesting, for instance, to see the bad day that one theater had…then you notice that the competitor was playing ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ or ‘THE VAGABOND’. All marked by hand, signed by the managers…including deposit slips pasted onto the back of each days receipts. I got these from a collector in trade for some other paper…and it’s fascinating. A personal treat was seeing ‘Charlie Chans Chance’ listed in one of the daily reports: it played for 3 days and did pretty well. It’s now a lost film. It gives me chills.

-jermaine

If you go to ken mc’s post from Dec. 26, 2005 click the last photo #8977 to see what it looked like in 1943.

I remember this theatre as being really big. You would buy you’re ticket & walk throught the doors up the hallway. The refreshment counter was on the right hand side before the doord into the auditorium. I remember watching all sorts of movies here such as Scanners & Visitng Hours, Friday the 13th The final chapter & Cujo, Alpahbet City, Several La India Maria movies. The list goes on & on. :)

Tom, the Crown is listed under Cine Latino, which would also be your listing for the New Latino.

Thanks for the info. Both the Tower and the Grand on Mission are listed.

Here is another view of the Mission and the Rialto, from 1944:

View link

From the SF Public Library website:

View link

The New Mission was a beautiful theatre. It had a long lobby entrance with a staircase to the left that led you to the loge and balcony sections. Before entering the main floor auditorium, there was a little candy counter to the left. When you entered the auditorium, you entered it from the left side. The New Mission, was one of the few theaters (like the T&D in Oakland) that the projection booth was on the main floor. Behind the projection booth were the restrooms, and staircases that led you to the loge and balcony sections. The stage and arch are kinda similiar to the Castro, but the whole layout is entirely different. It mostly played 80’s gore flicks but it was a fun place to go see a movie. Once and awhile they would open the balcony, but otherwise you were not allowed up there.

The New Mission Theater was designated SF Landmark #245 on 18 May 2004. For updates on the current situation with the theater and possible restoration, go to www.friendsof1800.org

Here’s a news article about saving the theater and some pictures, including the marquee:
News Article