Apollo Theatre

Jordan — I think the article is referring to the Cinema 21 (originally the Marina Theatre) which was converted into a Walgreens and also houses a new Marina Theatre.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1624

I toured the Amazon/Apollo about 1984. Previous operators had shown Indian films, but video tape ran them out of business. Amazon was surprisingly intact with an original painted stage drape and hanging chandeliers. I don’t believe it had ever been remodeled. It was a sister house to the Avenue, a few miles away. Where Avenue suffered a 1938 modernization, the Amazon was largely original. It is now (2012) a Walgreen’s Pharmacy.

Here is an April 1999 story from the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://tinyurl.com/q6gfds

the Apollo did not close in 1978 as stated by a previous writer. It reopened briefly in 1982, showing hindi films, then became the banai faith church. after the church, it reopened again for only a month, showing movies from Samoa. The interior was almost exactly the same as the York Theatre on 24th street, (now called the Brava center). The theatre never did well in attendance, as the neighborhood was considered “rough” in the evenings. Funny though, in its last days, they installed a movie screen that was directly in front of the original screen. it was a horribly made looking thing, to accomodate 70mm films from India. The screen stretched out from wall to wall, covering the grill work on the sides of the stage. I remember attending the Apollo when they showed all six planet of the apes movies. Hardly anyone showed up. It was sad

My photograph of the APOLLO sign View link

This photo is from 1944:

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I am going to answer my own question. This photo from 1937 shows the Amazon at Mission and Geneva streets:

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My mid 1980s photo of the APOLLO here:
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The plans to move ahead and turn the Amazon/Apollo building into a Walgreens and housing are moving ahead.

A friend of mine in the architectural salvage business recently got a contract to remove all light fixtures, display cases, and many other items from the theatre. Otherwise, these would have been destroyed. The building owners had no plans to keep these features. Removal was completed last week. Particularly challenging was an art deco fixture which had been added to the ceiling of the entrance foyer, which had to be cut loose. This was done successfully, and the resulting hole revealed an earlier, higher ceiling with stenciled detailing. This was photodocumented, since it looks like only the shell of the theatre is going to remain, with facade and vertical sign.

Another discovery was that the original curtain was still hanging in the auditorium. Vintage photos confirmed that it was identical to the long-vanished curtain of the State (Golden State) Theatre in Monterey, for which much renovation work is currently being done. An effort was made by this writer and others to get people interested in removing this curtain from the Amazon and rehanging it in the State. Complexities arose with liability, cost, and safety issues, and so the curtain has been photographed, and the photos will be kept by those involved with the State Theatre project, so that hopefully one day a new accurate replica curtain can be made for that theatre.

Though the Amazon will no longer be a theatre, at least much has been salvaged from it to be enjoyed and reused in other buildings, and the exterior will give ample evidence of its former use, much like what was done with San Francisco’s Coliseum Theatre, only a bit more so.

According to a recent SF Chronicle article, it looks as if this theater may be turned into a Walgreens.