Bell Theatre
4734 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94112
4734 Mission Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94112
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Excelsior Theatre
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A silent-era movie theatre that opened in 1911 as the Excelsior Theatre. It was closed in June 1915. It was reopened as the Bell Theatre which closed in 1919.
By 2008 the front of the building is in use as a barber’s shop, while the auditorium has been converted into housing.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Per Joe Vogel’s post on the Vallejo Bell theatre: The Cohn family (Gus Cohn) operated houses called the Bell Theatre in Oakland,San Francisco and Vallejo. There were two Bell Theatres in San Francisco. I came across a reference to the Bell Theatre on Market Street being destroyed in the 1906 fire, but the Bell that Gus Cohn was connected with in later years was on Mission Street.
I documented: Just for reference, counting there were six Bell Theatres around the beginning of the 1900s in Northern California. (In Oakland – 1903, Sacramento – 1907, Livermore – 1909, San Francisco – 1911, Redwood City – 1915, but not all may have been operated by Gus Cohn.
vtowntheaters: I think misinterpreted some of the references I came across, and this Bell Theatre might not have been a Cohn house after all. The Bell Theatre on Market Street that was destroyed in the fire was rebuilt as the American Theatre, and items about the American in The Billboard in 1908 say that it was managed by Abe Cohn, who was Gus Cohn’s brother. It could be that the Bell on Market Street was the only San Francisco house the Cohns operated, and they still ran it after it was rebuilt but didn’t use the name Bell Theatre any more.
The Bell Theatre in Oakland was last listed in the city directory in 1912, and I found a 1912 reference to Abe Cohn which said he was “…formerly of the American Theatre…”, so I think the Cohns might have left the theater business around 1912. The Oakland Bell was converted into a grocery store operated by members of the Cohn family.
Just google searched this theatre address - I sincerely doubt the existence of this building. Looks like new apartments were built over the space. Please feel free to tell me I’m wrong - I welcome it.
The SF public library confirms it as does the SF Theatres BlogSpot
“It debuted as the Excelsior Theatre in 1911 and closed in 1915. It was on the west side of the street, north of Onondaga. That’s two blocks south of Ocean Ave.
The report from Jack Tillmany: “Its earliest telephone directory listing is February 1911, and earliest city directory listing is August 1911. In addition to being the neighborhood nickelodeon, it also served as a local gathering place for speech making and political concerns; popular Mayor Rolph chose to use it as the site of his hands on meetings with his constituents there in September 1911, for example. The last city directory listing of it as the Excelsior was in June 1915, after which it disappears from the records.”
It later reopened as the Bell Theatre and perhaps closed for good in 1919.
Status: The remodeled building is still there on Mission St.
The word there is “remodeled”
Take this link and turn it onto an embedded link
https://sanfranciscotheatres.blogspot.com/2017/06/bell-theatre.html