Coronet Theatre

jwmovies, I think you might be mixing up the Coronet with the Regency I. “Star Trek The Motion Picture” 1979 played at the Regency I in 1979, not the Coronet. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” 1981 and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” 1984 played at the Regency I on their initial release, not the Coronet. In addition, “The Empire Strikes Back” 1980 originally played at the Northpoint, and never at the Coronet. “The CAVE?” Never heard that before pertaining to the Coronet. “The Cave” might pertain to the Regency 1 or Regency 2.

AKA the cave AKA the crown AKA the informal home of all Lucasfilm and Paramount movies. All Star Wars and Indy Jonss films played here from A New Hope and Raiders to Attack of Clones. The Screen was massive slightly curved (think Northpoint & Cinema 150 not the Centurys) and the curtains were very impressive. Saw the original Top Gun'86 and Star Trek ‘79 here…Great times to be had by all! Excellent job The Cave! RIP mighty one! 😇😘

November 2nd, 1949 grand opening ad posted.

The Coronet was among just eleven theaters in the United States that installed the then-new Dolby Digital sound system for their engagement of “Batman Returns” which opened twenty-five years ago today. And here’s the link to a retrospective article that commemorates the occasion.

I grew up on Parker Avenue, just around the corner from the Coronet – so, of course, it was our favorite theater in town. If my sister and I were good, my mom would pay for loge seating, and we felt like royalty! (Sometimes, my mom would just buy herself a loge seat, and leave us to our own noisy devices in the cheap seats)

I remember our dog escaping from the house one day, and we were crazed, running around the neighborhood looking for him. About two hours later, we got a call from the manager of the Coronet, asking us if we had a little schnauzer named Spockie (named after Mr. Spock – it was the 60s). We went to collect him, but he really wanted to stay, since they were feeding him hot dogs. The smell probably brought him there in the first place.

And, yes, I saw Star Wars there about a week after it opened, waiting in a huge line, even though I had already seen it twice down in the Palo Alto area (one of those geodesic dome theaters – forget the name). Because I had to see it in my childhood movie theater, or it wouldn’t have been the same.

A few years ago, I took my husband on a tour of ‘my’ San Francisco, and got confused, thinking I had somehow misplaced the Coronet. We stopped at Pier 1, and the employee there pointed to the hulking retirement facility a few doors down, saying ‘That’s where it was’. Gutted.

For the Star Wars reissue in 1996 – this was the one time I slept overnight in line for a movie. My girlfriend, later wife Terri, got in line in the early afternoon and I came over to take over after eating dinner at Mel’s Drive In (the tie in to George Lucas was great!). After midnight it quieted down nicely except for some nut case dressed as Chewbacca who was running around half of the night. By morning the line was past the 76 station and curling around the block. We were in the line for tickets for the first night show. The day show line went the other direction – and I think eventually the two lines met on Anza street to the south. It was all worth it. Now with advance ticketing this sort of craziness is history.

Yes Eric was a godsend for the Coronet. As dedicated as they get.

I booked the Coronet and the other UATC Theaters in Northern California from !972-1977. Good ole Albert Levin—-a fixture and a character. We had a lot of sneak previews there as filmmakers loved the place——except maybe the night Stanley Donen, Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds sneaked LUCKY LADY and there were constant projection problems. They came up front and told stories, just as Coppola did at the GODFATHER 2 sneak with a break down. Those were the days of changeover and for sneaks, double system which is where the problem usually was. The studio would bring in their own sound and projection team to screw it up in a booth they did not know.

Booking STAR WARS was my job. UATC and Fox had a strong relationship. 20th wanted THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT in the best venues and luckily they also liked the Alexandria so I put that drama there, saving the Coronet for STAR WARS. Nobody at Fox nor practically anybody in the movie business believed in the Lucas space western, just as they had no faith in AMERICAN GRAFFITI before it.

So a lot of theaters got a new life by proving they could gross when they fell into STAR WARS as a last choice.

I had friends at Lucas and knew about their own unique grass roots marketing efforts that even Fox wasn’t aware of dedicated to generating massive turnout of science fiction fans to camp overnight and be the first to see it. (The head of distribution told me in Feb.that the Board has slept through it and were going to shelve it—-until I told him that the comic book and paperback novel were huge hits and about the science fiction convention slide shows Charles Lippincott was doing).

All went according to plan and in San Francisco and around the country the Lucas folks posing as regular folks called broadcast news directors and print editors to say, “Hey…what is going on at the Coronet? I just drove by and there are hundreds of people with their sleeping bags wrapped around the corner.”

Those camera crews arrived in plenty of time for the 11:00 o'clock newscast. The morning papers had front page photos. And the rest of the world was suddenly curious about this social phenomenon they hadn’t previously heard about and didn’t want their friends to find out they weren’t hip enough to have seen STAR WARS. They had to go asap. And thus the inverted word-of-mouth pyramid scheme was launched.

And science fiction suddenly came out of the geek closet.

When I finally made to you I knew I was the fortunate one. Inheriting Guido Girolo’s booth was an honor…and when he made a visit to his former theatre it was his way of saying in an unspoken manner he approved of my operation. So many sensed my passion and made that booth run like a Swiss watch: Mike C, Richie B, Sam Chavez, Rolfe and Ben, and the Great Man Albert Levin for trusting my judgement. I cried an ocean of tears when the end came. I will always miss you my fine lady.

Jimwhiterice, How is your book on SF Theatres coming. I have been involved with SF theaters for many years starting with the Times in the late 1960s. I wrote a chapter in LEFT IN THE DARK. http://julielindow.com/?p=1

Gary Meyer

Thanks Tis.

1986 nice marquee,someone actually cared about the getting the marquee right,thanks for the picture.

Interior Coronet photos here:

http://www.silverscreens.com/main.html

Click on the San Fran section and scroll down.

From 1993 a night time view of the Coronet Theater in San Francisco showing “Demolition Man”.

Don…