A super-heroic effort revives Marina Theater
G. Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008
Much like the comic-book superhero who will grace the screen within, the Marina Theater is back in business, with a serious makeover.
Closed since 2001, when it was called the Cinema 21, the former Chestnut Street staple reopens as a two-screen theater today under its original name with “Iron Man” in its main 264-seat auditorium.
“We’re trying to make it a homey, neighborhood-style theater,” said Lee Neighborhood Theatres owner Frank Lee, who, with his wife, Lida Lee, also operates the 4 Star and the Marina’s Chestnut Street neighbor, the Presidio.
“The neighborhood wanted this theater, so it’s been a long time coming.”
The Marina, 2149 Chestnut St., originally opened in 1928 – to see what it looked like in April 1956, check out the big black-and-white photo of it at Bechelli’s ‘50s-style diner next door to the Presidio – and eventually became the Cinema 21 in the 1960s and was bought by Century Cinemas. The theater seemed doomed when Century joined United Artists, Regal Cinemas and other corporations in dumping their single-screen neighborhood movie houses to focus on multiplexes.
Walgreens wanted the space, but met opposition from a Marina neighborhood association, Chestnut Street merchants and the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation headed by San Francisco Giants executives Alfonso Felder and Jack Bair. By 2004, a compromise was worked out between Walgreens, the community groups and property owner Ray Kaliski. The drugstore chain agreed to give up half of the building, and the rest would become the theater.
The result, unfortunately for classic-theater lovers, was that the original Marina building had to be razed. However, the San Francisco architecture firm MK Think was commissioned to evoke a retro feeling in its exterior design for the new building. The Lees had to wait for it to be built, and then for Walgreens to occupy the property, which it did last summer.
Theater construction began last fall, and today’s opening ends the four-year process. The new facility includes an 86-seat screen; both auditoriums are upstairs, with the concession stand on the ground floor.
So the theater that, in the Bechelli’s photograph, was showing a double bill of the Bing Crosby musical “Anything Goes” with the James M. Cain potboiler “Slightly Scarlet” starring John Payne, is now a two-screen theater outfitted for “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” and its ilk (for tickets, showtimes and other information, go to lntsf.com).
It has Dolby Digital Surround Sound, high-backed seats, movable armrests and, among other concession offerings, fresh caramel popcorn.
“I picked everything – the colors, the lights,” said Lida Lee, referring to the chandeliers hanging above the refreshment-stand area. She was the driving force behind interior restoration of the Presidio, which the Lees reopened in 2004, augmenting its original Art Deco design, and now the Marina.
“Took me a long time to find those lights. … We built this one from scratch, so it was more fun,” she said.
With their eight screens – two at the Marina, four at the Presidio and two at the 4 Star – the Lees now own the most independent screens in San Francisco.
It’s part of a tradition that dates back to 1964, when Frank Lee Sr. opened the Bella Union in Chinatown. The tradition might continue into the next generation – the Lees' sons, 17-year-old Will and 12-year-old Alexander, already are proficient in many aspects of theater operations.
With the neighborhood theater foundation purchasing the Vogue in 2007 and fighting to keep the shuttered Metro Theater on Union Street from developers, can the Lees be persuaded to perform another neighborhood theater resuscitation?
“This is the last one,” laughed Lida Lee. “Three is enough!”
David Hegarty keeps the art of the pipe organ alive at the Castro Theater
By Teresa Bergen
Musical trends change all the time. But decisions to dispense with a ukulele or add another guitar are nothing beside the tumultuous history of the theater organ. These huge instruments require space, installation and upkeep, as well as musical skills few people possess.
The Bay Area is lucky to have more than its share of pipe organs installed in theaters, as well as several gifted individuals who can play them, with the Castro Theater boasting one of the best organs in the country, and one of the few that is played every night.
David Hegarty, the Castro’s full-time organist, is remarkably modest and distinguished for a San Francisco celebrity. When asked about his local fame, he smiles discreetly and admits to often being recognized on the street. “It’s a unique position for an organist,” he says. “Even on the concert circuit you don’t play to this big an audience, usually.”
The Castro’s organ is played during intermission before the last two shows of the night. The theater organ, an adaptation of the classical organ, was created to replace pit orchestras and accompany silent movies. When talkies came, organs were relegated to intermissions. Their heyday was in the ‘20s, and by the '50s their popularity was on the wane, with most organs removed from theaters by the '60s.
Then a strange thing happened. In the ‘70s, certain pizza parlor owners decided theater organs were the perfect accompaniment to family dining, and pipe organs began their comeback.
The Castro Theater’s original organ was installed in 1922. But like most theaters, it joined the organ removal trend when old-time music went out of style. The Castro remained organless until the early ‘70s, when then-owner Mel Novakoff decided his traditional-style movie house needed a special touch. He rented an electronic organ and placed its speakers in the pipe chambers. This was the organ on which Hegarty began his 18-year (so far) gig at the Castro.
A few years later, around 1980, the Taylor family approached the Castro, seeking a home for their pipe organ. The Castro agreed to take it on, thus beginning a three-year remodeling adventure. The new organ was bigger than the original, so the pipe chambers had to be overhauled and a new room built to house the larger blowers. “The organ was restored to absolute pristine condition,” Hegarty said.
The console of the new organ was built in 1925, and was installed at the State (now Palms) Theatre in Detroit. The pipework was gathered from various Wurlitzers around the country. Like the Castro’s organ, Hegarty, too, is from Michigan. He began playing accordion at age 7, then organ at age 14. By the time he was 15 he was playing in churches. Hegarty has managed to turn his early interest into an astounding career. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, and did doctoral studies in classical organ. Now he teaches workshops around the country on his Intro to Organ Playing method book, composes and publishes church music, and plays at the Castro almost every night, as well as performing in local churches and concert halls nationwide.
According to Hegarty, Jesse Crawford is the man who invented the theater organ style. “We all emulate him,” he said. “He played at the New York Paramount in the ‘20s.” Hegarty’s personal role model is radio and TV organist John Gart. “I emulate his style more than anyone else’s,” Hegarty said.
He got to know Gart in his old age, and inherited Gart’s whole library of original organ music. When Hegarty plays at the Castro, he tries to match his intermission selections with the movie. “In the case of musicals, it’s handed to you,” he said.
Hegarty tries to find some musical connection—theme music, songs in the mood of the movie, music from the era when the movie is set. “After you’ve played these for years, you begin to remember songs that showed up even incidentally in movies,” he said.
Hegarty has seen a lot of films, his favorite being Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, both for the picture and the soundtrack. Every performance ends with the Castro Theater’s theme song, “San Francisco.” “I don’t know how many thousands of times I’ve played that song in the last 18 years,” Hegarty says, smiling good-naturedly.
Overnight Fire Burns Old Strand Theater Building
Building Was Vacant; No Injuries
By Amy Hollyfield
Jun. 8 – KGO – An overnight fire damaged a building that used to house a landmark San Francisco theater.
It was a massive fire at the old Strand Theater on Market Street where San Franciscans used to come to the movies.
The roof caught fire around midnight last night. The building is empty, but the fire was so huge, that firefighters evacuated the residential hotel two doors down until they could extinguish the fire.
Firefighters say homeless people often gather on the roof of the Strand and sometimes start little fires to keep themselves warm. So the arson team will be looking into how the enormous fire started.
The good news is that firefighters were able to save the building.
Asst. Chief James Barden, San Francisco Fire Dept.: “It was a pretty good size fire up there &15, 20 feet in the air. It could be seen from quite a distance but it was all contained to the roof so it didn’t get into the building itself.”
No one was hurt in the fire.
The building is located on Market Street, just down from 7th Street in a rundown part of the city, right across from U.N. Plaza.
The Strand Theater is now empty as is the building next door.
Video: View link
Bob Egelko
Friday, June 8, 2007
A Concord church’s long-standing application to convert a vacant movie theater into a house of worship has won approval from a state appeals court.
The Harvest Church bought the former Capri Theater in the Park and Shop Mall in 1998 and sought to build a church and conference center on the second floor. Concord officials rejected the idea, saying it would interfere with plans to revitalize the area with retail development. The appeals court agreed with the city.
The church then revised its proposal by dropping the conference center. The new plan was approved by the City Council 3-2 in 2004, despite opposition from some mall tenants.
On Wednesday, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the council was entitled to take a different view of the scaled-down proposal. With the site still vacant and the shopping center deteriorating, the city reached the reasonable conclusion that the church would promote retail development, the court said.
The Harvest Church now holds Sunday services in a leased auditorium at a nearby theater. An attorney for the church, Wayne Smith, said it plans to apply for a building permit soon.
A lawyer for opponents was unavailable for comment.
THIS STORY RAN IN THE PENINSULA & EAST BAY EDITIONS
A super-heroic effort revives Marina Theater
G. Allen Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008
Much like the comic-book superhero who will grace the screen within, the Marina Theater is back in business, with a serious makeover.
Closed since 2001, when it was called the Cinema 21, the former Chestnut Street staple reopens as a two-screen theater today under its original name with “Iron Man” in its main 264-seat auditorium.
“We’re trying to make it a homey, neighborhood-style theater,” said Lee Neighborhood Theatres owner Frank Lee, who, with his wife, Lida Lee, also operates the 4 Star and the Marina’s Chestnut Street neighbor, the Presidio.
“The neighborhood wanted this theater, so it’s been a long time coming.”
The Marina, 2149 Chestnut St., originally opened in 1928 – to see what it looked like in April 1956, check out the big black-and-white photo of it at Bechelli’s ‘50s-style diner next door to the Presidio – and eventually became the Cinema 21 in the 1960s and was bought by Century Cinemas. The theater seemed doomed when Century joined United Artists, Regal Cinemas and other corporations in dumping their single-screen neighborhood movie houses to focus on multiplexes.
Walgreens wanted the space, but met opposition from a Marina neighborhood association, Chestnut Street merchants and the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation headed by San Francisco Giants executives Alfonso Felder and Jack Bair. By 2004, a compromise was worked out between Walgreens, the community groups and property owner Ray Kaliski. The drugstore chain agreed to give up half of the building, and the rest would become the theater.
The result, unfortunately for classic-theater lovers, was that the original Marina building had to be razed. However, the San Francisco architecture firm MK Think was commissioned to evoke a retro feeling in its exterior design for the new building. The Lees had to wait for it to be built, and then for Walgreens to occupy the property, which it did last summer.
Theater construction began last fall, and today’s opening ends the four-year process. The new facility includes an 86-seat screen; both auditoriums are upstairs, with the concession stand on the ground floor.
So the theater that, in the Bechelli’s photograph, was showing a double bill of the Bing Crosby musical “Anything Goes” with the James M. Cain potboiler “Slightly Scarlet” starring John Payne, is now a two-screen theater outfitted for “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” and its ilk (for tickets, showtimes and other information, go to lntsf.com).
It has Dolby Digital Surround Sound, high-backed seats, movable armrests and, among other concession offerings, fresh caramel popcorn.
“I picked everything – the colors, the lights,” said Lida Lee, referring to the chandeliers hanging above the refreshment-stand area. She was the driving force behind interior restoration of the Presidio, which the Lees reopened in 2004, augmenting its original Art Deco design, and now the Marina.
“Took me a long time to find those lights. … We built this one from scratch, so it was more fun,” she said.
With their eight screens – two at the Marina, four at the Presidio and two at the 4 Star – the Lees now own the most independent screens in San Francisco.
It’s part of a tradition that dates back to 1964, when Frank Lee Sr. opened the Bella Union in Chinatown. The tradition might continue into the next generation – the Lees' sons, 17-year-old Will and 12-year-old Alexander, already are proficient in many aspects of theater operations.
With the neighborhood theater foundation purchasing the Vogue in 2007 and fighting to keep the shuttered Metro Theater on Union Street from developers, can the Lees be persuaded to perform another neighborhood theater resuscitation?
“This is the last one,” laughed Lida Lee. “Three is enough!”
E-mail G. Allen Johnson at
Pictures and Original Article:
View link
This article appeared on page E – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
View link
David Hegarty keeps the art of the pipe organ alive at the Castro Theater
By Teresa Bergen
Musical trends change all the time. But decisions to dispense with a ukulele or add another guitar are nothing beside the tumultuous history of the theater organ. These huge instruments require space, installation and upkeep, as well as musical skills few people possess.
The Bay Area is lucky to have more than its share of pipe organs installed in theaters, as well as several gifted individuals who can play them, with the Castro Theater boasting one of the best organs in the country, and one of the few that is played every night.
David Hegarty, the Castro’s full-time organist, is remarkably modest and distinguished for a San Francisco celebrity. When asked about his local fame, he smiles discreetly and admits to often being recognized on the street. “It’s a unique position for an organist,” he says. “Even on the concert circuit you don’t play to this big an audience, usually.”
The Castro’s organ is played during intermission before the last two shows of the night. The theater organ, an adaptation of the classical organ, was created to replace pit orchestras and accompany silent movies. When talkies came, organs were relegated to intermissions. Their heyday was in the ‘20s, and by the '50s their popularity was on the wane, with most organs removed from theaters by the '60s.
Then a strange thing happened. In the ‘70s, certain pizza parlor owners decided theater organs were the perfect accompaniment to family dining, and pipe organs began their comeback.
The Castro Theater’s original organ was installed in 1922. But like most theaters, it joined the organ removal trend when old-time music went out of style. The Castro remained organless until the early ‘70s, when then-owner Mel Novakoff decided his traditional-style movie house needed a special touch. He rented an electronic organ and placed its speakers in the pipe chambers. This was the organ on which Hegarty began his 18-year (so far) gig at the Castro.
A few years later, around 1980, the Taylor family approached the Castro, seeking a home for their pipe organ. The Castro agreed to take it on, thus beginning a three-year remodeling adventure. The new organ was bigger than the original, so the pipe chambers had to be overhauled and a new room built to house the larger blowers. “The organ was restored to absolute pristine condition,” Hegarty said.
The console of the new organ was built in 1925, and was installed at the State (now Palms) Theatre in Detroit. The pipework was gathered from various Wurlitzers around the country. Like the Castro’s organ, Hegarty, too, is from Michigan. He began playing accordion at age 7, then organ at age 14. By the time he was 15 he was playing in churches. Hegarty has managed to turn his early interest into an astounding career. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, and did doctoral studies in classical organ. Now he teaches workshops around the country on his Intro to Organ Playing method book, composes and publishes church music, and plays at the Castro almost every night, as well as performing in local churches and concert halls nationwide.
According to Hegarty, Jesse Crawford is the man who invented the theater organ style. “We all emulate him,” he said. “He played at the New York Paramount in the ‘20s.” Hegarty’s personal role model is radio and TV organist John Gart. “I emulate his style more than anyone else’s,” Hegarty said.
He got to know Gart in his old age, and inherited Gart’s whole library of original organ music. When Hegarty plays at the Castro, he tries to match his intermission selections with the movie. “In the case of musicals, it’s handed to you,” he said.
Hegarty tries to find some musical connection—theme music, songs in the mood of the movie, music from the era when the movie is set. “After you’ve played these for years, you begin to remember songs that showed up even incidentally in movies,” he said.
Hegarty has seen a lot of films, his favorite being Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, both for the picture and the soundtrack. Every performance ends with the Castro Theater’s theme song, “San Francisco.” “I don’t know how many thousands of times I’ve played that song in the last 18 years,” Hegarty says, smiling good-naturedly.
Overnight Fire Burns Old Strand Theater Building
Building Was Vacant; No Injuries
By Amy Hollyfield
Jun. 8 – KGO – An overnight fire damaged a building that used to house a landmark San Francisco theater.
It was a massive fire at the old Strand Theater on Market Street where San Franciscans used to come to the movies.
The roof caught fire around midnight last night. The building is empty, but the fire was so huge, that firefighters evacuated the residential hotel two doors down until they could extinguish the fire.
Firefighters say homeless people often gather on the roof of the Strand and sometimes start little fires to keep themselves warm. So the arson team will be looking into how the enormous fire started.
The good news is that firefighters were able to save the building.
Asst. Chief James Barden, San Francisco Fire Dept.: “It was a pretty good size fire up there &15, 20 feet in the air. It could be seen from quite a distance but it was all contained to the roof so it didn’t get into the building itself.”
No one was hurt in the fire.
The building is located on Market Street, just down from 7th Street in a rundown part of the city, right across from U.N. Plaza.
The Strand Theater is now empty as is the building next door.
Video: View link
Copyright 2007, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.
CONCORD
Church wins fight to use old theater
Bob Egelko
Friday, June 8, 2007
A Concord church’s long-standing application to convert a vacant movie theater into a house of worship has won approval from a state appeals court.
The Harvest Church bought the former Capri Theater in the Park and Shop Mall in 1998 and sought to build a church and conference center on the second floor. Concord officials rejected the idea, saying it would interfere with plans to revitalize the area with retail development. The appeals court agreed with the city.
The church then revised its proposal by dropping the conference center. The new plan was approved by the City Council 3-2 in 2004, despite opposition from some mall tenants.
On Wednesday, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the council was entitled to take a different view of the scaled-down proposal. With the site still vacant and the shopping center deteriorating, the city reached the reasonable conclusion that the church would promote retail development, the court said.
The Harvest Church now holds Sunday services in a leased auditorium at a nearby theater. An attorney for the church, Wayne Smith, said it plans to apply for a building permit soon.
A lawyer for opponents was unavailable for comment.
THIS STORY RAN IN THE PENINSULA & EAST BAY EDITIONS
View link
This article appeared on page B – 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle