Uptown Theatre
2101 Sutter Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94115
2101 Sutter Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94115
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March 1st, 1930 grand opening ad as Uptown in the photo section.
Opened as the New Alcazar on March 18th, 1907. Ad in the photo section.
June 6, 1972 photo & copy added courtesy of George A. Dibble III.
Crowd for the 2nd Rolling Stones show lining up in front of the Uptown Theater, across from Winterland at Steiner & Sutter. I had just come out of the first show. Stevie Wonder was the warm up.
Here is a photo of the New Alcazar Theatre dated 1907.
The Uptown, in my opinion, was San Francisco’s first luxurious dirty movie theater. The center curved section of the marquee had a painted glass overlay that read “movies for mature swinging adults”. Winterland next door was thriving with great rock bands, with the Uptown getting many customers after the concerts. It was said that a undercover check revealed “leud conduct” in the balcony and they raided the place. The operators lost their appeals on obsenity charges and the City shut the Uptown down. I don’t remember if it reopened after that.
This list of San Francisco theaters and dancehalls has the following timeline for the Uptown Theatre:
The August, 1931 issue of Architect and Engineer had two interior photos of the Uptown Theatre: two interior photos of the Uptown The first shows the staircase to Mezzanine, and the second (scroll down) the Spanish-atmospheric auditorium. The architects of the Uptown were Fabre & Hildebrand.You can see the marquee near the start of the film “The Last Waltz” (1978). The full concert and Thanksgiving dinner was held at Bill Graham’s Winterland arena.