New Fillmore Theatre

1329 Fillmore Street,
San Francisco, CA 94115

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 17, 2012 at 5:43 pm

The Moving Picture World article Tinseltoes linked to says that this house was the second New Fillmore Theatre. The first was an 800-seat that had been built on the lot next door and opened in early 1915. The lobby of the original theater had been incorporated into the lobby of the new house, and the old auditorium had been converted into a room with a dance floor for private parties, though it was still equipped for showing movies as well.

As the 1915 house had also been called the New Fillmore, it suggests that there was an even earlier Fillmore Theatre for it to be Newer than, but so far I’ve been unable to track down anything about it.

The July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had an article about San Francisco’s movie theaters which included a paragraph about the 1915 New Fillmore and a nearby house called the Progress Theatre:

“Kahn & Greenfield have a splendid foothold in the Fillmore district with the New Fillmore and Progress theaters located within a block of each other. The former is one of the finest houses in the city and was opened a little more than a year ago. It has a seating capacity of 1,000 and features the Paramount program at ten cents. Joseph E. Levin is manager. The Progress theater nearby was recently remodeled and the price of admission raised to ten cents, Triangle and Metro services being used. It seats 800. For a time Kahn & Greenfield also had two other houses in this district, but disposed of these in order to give more attention to the two largest ones.”
I don’t think the Progress is listed at Cinema Treasures yet. Several other Fillmore area houses mentioned in the article (scan at Google Books) aren’t listed yet either.

LeslieMidkiffDeBauche
LeslieMidkiffDeBauche on August 15, 2012 at 2:40 pm

Thanks so much! Leslie

LeslieMidkiffDeBauche
LeslieMidkiffDeBauche on May 5, 2010 at 3:06 pm

Does anyone know if the New Fillmore was also known as the Fillmore in 1922? I find ads in newspapers for the New Fillmore, but I also found a reference in a scrapbook of that period to going to a show at the Fillmore. Thanks,Leslie

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 28, 2005 at 9:12 pm

From the SF Public Library website:

View link

gsmurph
gsmurph on June 20, 2005 at 2:31 pm

Not sure about the theater, Robert Gippy, but Divisadero and Fillmore run several blocks parallel to each other and never connect with each other at any time along their lengths.

robertgippy
robertgippy on June 10, 2005 at 12:50 pm

I thought that the New Fillmore was still there I guess i was mistaken, when you turned off Divisadero onto Fillmore there was a church on the right side a few blocks up that was a theatre. I went inside once during the late 70’s and it was beautiful inside. Unfortunately I don’t remember the interior (usually i’m good at that). If it wasn’t the New Fillmore then what was it?

Laloba
Laloba on October 16, 2004 at 12:38 am

You may see pictures of the New Fillmore Theatre that were taken in 1943 here: View link

These pictures are part of the San Francisco Library on-line archives. This was a stunning theatre. My father Don Leon and his Petite Orchestra played there between the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. You may view his Showbill here: http://lotsofsites.com/gen/showbill.shtml