Clay Theatre

Last updated
Clay Theatre
Clay Movie theatre.jpg
Clay Theatre in 2007
Location2261 Fillmore Street,
San Francisco, California, United States
Coordinates 37°47′26″N122°26′04″W / 37.7905°N 122.4344°W / 37.7905; -122.4344
Builtc.1913 – c.1914
DesignatedMay 6, 2022
Reference no.302
Location map San Francisco County.png
Red pog.svg
Location of Clay Theatre in San Francisco County
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Clay Theatre (California)

Clay Theatre is a historic 1913 single screen theater building in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. [1] It was formerly known as TheRegent, TheAvalon, The Clay International, and Landmark's Clay Theatre. It has been listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since May 6, 2022. [2]

Contents

History

It was founded in c.1913 – c.1914, as The Regent, a nickelodeon-style small movie theater often showing Mary Pickford films. [2] [3] It later became The Avalon in 1931. [2] [3]

In 1935, it opened as The Clay International under the leadership of Herbert Rosener, and was focused on showing foreign films. [2] [4] It was the first theater in the city dedicated to foreign film. [2] The Song to Her (1934), and Goodbye, Beautiful Days (1935) were shown here in 1935. [5]

In the 1950s, the building exterior was greatly modified, including moving of the ticketing booth and a change to the shape of the entrance (formerly an archway). [1]

In modern-day, the single screen theater held 325 seats. [1] Filmmaker John Waters had remembered early showings of Pink Flamingos (1972) at the Clay Theatre. [6] It was also known for midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), after the film release and a decade after. [7] [8] The Clay was part of a chain of indie theaters across the United States owned by Landmark Theatres starting in 1991 (and sometimes called Landmark’s Clay Theatre). [1]

Closure

In late January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clay Theatre was closed by Landmark Theatres. [1] [6] The local community has rallied together in 2020 and the years after, in hopes of the building re-opening as a movie theater. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castro Theatre</span> Historic movie palace in San Francisco

The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche—to the basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland's Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California during that period. The theater has more than 1,400 seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Theatre</span> Movie theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, USA

The Alabama Theatre is a movie palace in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1927 by Paramount's Publix Theatres chain as its flagship theater for the southeastern region of the United States. Seating 2,500 people at the time, it was the largest in the Birmingham theater district. The district was once home to many large theaters and movie palaces that featured vaudeville, performing arts, nickelodeons and Hollywood films. Built to show silent films, the Alabama still features its original Wurlitzer theater organ. The Alabama Theatre and Lyric Theatre are the district's only remaining theaters, and as of 2024, both are in operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Addition, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood of San Francisco in California, United States

The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movie palace</span> Type of movie theater

A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Excelsior District, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood of San Francisco

The Excelsior District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.

Landmark Theatres is a movie theatre chain founded in 1974 in the United States. It was formerly dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent and foreign films. Landmark consists of 34 theatres with 176 screens in 24 markets. It is known for both its historic and newer, more modern theatres. Helmed by its President Kevin Holloway, Landmark Theatres is part of Cohen Media Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuart Theatre</span> Move theatre in Los Angeles, California, USA

The Nuart Theatre is an art-house movie-theater in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the flagship location of the Landmark Theatres chain in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalina Casino</span> Movie theater, ballroom and former museum in California, United States

The Catalina Casino is a large gathering facility located in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles in California. It is the largest building on the island and the most visible landmark in Avalon Bay when approaching the island from the mainland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UC Theatre</span>

The UC Theatre is a music venue on University Avenue near Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States. From 1976 until 2001, it was a movie theater known for a revival house presentation of films. In 2013, The Berkeley Music Group was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to renovate and operate the UC Theater as live music venue. It reopened its doors on April 7, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Oaks Theatre</span> Historic movie theater in Houston, Texas, United States

The River Oaks Theatre is a historic movie theater located in the River Oaks Shopping Center in the Neartown community in Houston, Texas, United States, east of the River Oaks community. The theater has three projection screens; one large screen, downstairs, and two smaller screens, upstairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagdad Theatre</span> Historic theatre in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Bagdad Theatre is a movie theater in the Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon, United States. It originally opened in 1927 and was the site of the gala premiere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, and of My Own Private Idaho in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Pacific Heights, San Francisco</span> Place in California, USA

Lower Pacific Heights, also known as Upper Fillmore, is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, between Pacific Heights, the Fillmore District, Laurel Heights, and Japantown. The neighborhood is centered on the commercial corridor of Fillmore Street between California and Post streets, with California Street to the north, Geary Boulevard to the south, Presidio Avenue to the west, and Van Ness Avenue to the east.

Fillmore Towne Theatre is a former vaudeville and movie theater in Fillmore, California and is a landmark in downtown. Built in 1916, the single-screen theater showed silent films.

Robert Naify was an American businessman and motion picture and media tycoon known for his ownership of the movie theaters chain United Artists Theatres, the largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuit in the United States, today part of Regal Cinemas. He also founded the cable company United Artists Communications Inc and post-production and sound mixing firm Todd-AO. He lived in San Francisco, California until his death on April 7, 2016 at the age of 94.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piedmont Theatre</span>

The Piedmont Theatre, located on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California, is Oakland's oldest continuously operating movie theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balboa Theater</span> Historic theater in Newport Beach, California

The Balboa Theater is a historic former movie theater on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. Opened as the Ritz Theater in 1928, it screened mainstream film for 47 years. In 1975, Pussycat Theaters acquired the venue and converted it to an adult movie theater to the ire of residents and city officials. The Pussycat operation became the subject of several police raids and an eventual criminal court trial for its exhibition of pornographic films. In 1979, Landmark Theatres became the Balboa's operator, operating it as an arthouse theater. The Balboa Theater screened its final movie in 1991 and remains closed despite attempts to reopen it.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was an urban renewal agency active from 1948 until 2012, with purpose to improve the urban landscape through "redesign, redevelopment, and rehabilitation" of specific areas of the city.

The Luggage Store Gallery, also known as 509 Cultural Center, is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts organization founded in 1987, and has two venues located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The organization has sponsored many local artists, including those that are considered to be part of the Mission School, and of skateboard or street art culture.

Root Division is an American arts nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002, and located in the Mid-Market/South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Whiting, Sam (January 21, 2020). "Clay Theatre to close, last Bay Area single screen in Landmark art house chain". Datebook, The San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Kukura, Joe (April 20, 2022). "The Clay Theatre on Upper Fillmore has finally received historic landmark status". Hoodline.
  3. 1 2 Tillmany, Jack (2005). Theatres of San Francisco. Arcadia Publishing. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-7385-3020-8.
  4. "Foreign Made Pictures To Be Screened Here". The San Francisco Examiner . March 28, 1935. p. 14. ISSN   2574-593X via Newspapers.com.
  5. "French Romance Film Due". The San Francisco Examiner . April 17, 1935. p. 10. ISSN   2574-593X via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Kukura, Joe (July 26, 2021). "Landmark status for Clay Theatre moves forward, theater may reopen yet". Hoodline.
  7. Zigoris, Julie (2022-03-24). "Sense vs. Sentiment: The Battle for the Soul of Fillmore's Clay Theatre". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  8. Barmann, Jay (2020-01-17). "Historic Clay Theatre in Pacific Heights To Close on January 26 After 110 Years". SFist. Retrieved 2024-01-18.