That big bridge swathed in International Orange in our backyard is turning 75 years old this weekend. In addition to a bevy of events, exhibitions and concerts taking place in the Presidio, be on the lookout for some changes in traffic conditions. Plus some great fireworks on Sunday night!

MAY 23-25
Before the Bridge: Sight and Sound at the Golden Gate Exhibit
May 23 – November 18, Wed – Sun, 11am-5pm | Montgomery Street Barracks, Building 103 (near the Walt Disney Museum)
A newly rehabilitated Montgomery Street Barracks is the setting for a sensory experience of the Golden Gate before the iconic bridge was constructed. The show combines rarely seen images including historic photographs, maps, charts, drawings, paintings and computer graphics with the sounds of the ocean, foghorns, sailors, and soldiers to immerse visitors in an era before construction of the bridge. A kids’ treasure hunt and evening programs complement the exhibit.

Music of the Golden Gate Bridge Era
May 24 & 25, 7:30pm | Golden Gate Club
Celebrate the 1937 opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. A tenor and three sopranos will present fabulous 1930s and ‘40s songs that forever defined that era: Bye Bye, Blues, As Time Goes By, The Very Thought of You, In Apple Blossom Time, Bei Mir Bist Du Sch?n and many others. $10 suggested donation.

SATURDAY, MAY 26
The Bridge on the Big Screen: It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
May 26, 6-10pm | Main Post Green
This is the first film in a cinematic series celebrating films that feature the Golden Gate Bridge prominently. Bring a blanket or low lawn chair – the flm is outdoors. Plus enjoy food from Off the Grid Food Trucks, Disney Café, and Presidio Bowling Center. Also featuring live music with Whiskey Family Band and extended hours at the nearby Walt Disney Family Museum. The film series continues into September – visit the website for full details.

SUNDAY, MAY 27
This is THE day when all of the major events will be taking place. And also the day when the Presidio will be closed to car traffic from 11am until 9:50pm. So don’t plan on driving into the Presidio on Sunday (except for Presidio residents with special passes).

If you want to attend events or just gaze in admiration at the bridge, plan to walk or bike there. Free bike parking will be available. Transit tips for the festival

The Bridge’s east and west pedestrian and bicycle sidewalks will be accessible during the day but will close at 6pm. The sidewalks will reopen to pedestrians and bikes from 10pm to midnight. Unlike the 50th birthday celebration, the bridge roadway will not be closed at any time.

The main activities will be held at Fort Point, Crissy Field, The Presidio and Marina Green. Download the festival map (PDF)

While you’re walking around and admiring the bridge, be sure to walk up to the new overlook that recently opened (enter at Lincoln Blvd. and Merchant Road). You’ll get a great overview of the bridge from a new angle.

Highlights for the day include:

• International Orange Artists’ Exhibition at Fort Point, 10am–7pm. This exhibition presents new work by contemporary artists responding to the bridge as icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration. The artworks on view were developed specifically for installation at the fort, and the interplay between the bridge and the fort enrich the experience of the exhibition as a whole.
• Dance, Music and Local Bands at the Crissy Field and Marina Green stages, 11am-11pm. Including SF Gay Men’s Chorus, Beach Blanket Babylon, Mickey Hart Band, Golden Gate Brass Band and many more.
• Road Trip through History featuring vintage cars and motorcycles from 1937 to the present. East Crissy Field, 11am–5pm.
• Vintage Maritime Display and Historic Watercraft Parade with classic boats spanning 75 years. St. Francis Yacht Club, 11am–3pm
• Fireworks, 9:30pm–9:50pm. Spectacular grand finale showcasing the Bridge, Bay and surrounding national parklands. Optimum visibility along the waterfront from Fort Point to east Marina Green. The hills above Marina/Cow Hollow and in the Marin Headlands also provide stunning views. Soundtrack aired live on KFOG 104.5/97.7FM.

GoGGBRIDGE MOBILE APP
I also recommend downloading the new GoGGBridge app for iPhone or Android. It’s full of great photos – like ones from the opening in 1937, historic information, trivia (the bridge contains 600,000 rivets in each tower and took 4 1/2 years to build), fun activities (“Paint the Bridge” where you can recolor the bridge in yellow and black like the US Navy originally proposed), a foghorn ringtone you can download, historic videos like one of Blackie, the horse that swam under the bridge from Ocean Beach, plus an easy link to the calendar of events for Sunday, May 27. The app makes a great accompaniment to the anniversary celebration.

SHARE YOUR OWN BRIDGE MEMORIES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Wells Fargo, one of the sponsors of the 75th celebation, started a website called Built in the Bay, inviting people to share their stories, photos and videos about the bridge which will be put into a digital mosaic later this year.

Happy 75th Anniversary to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Sarah B.

This is a great collection (playlist) of videos related to the Golden Gate Bridge, assembled to celebrate the 75th anniversary:

This video contains vintage 8mm footage of the Golden Gate Bridge opening in 1937:

Stokereport posted this most excellent clip of a fight at Ocean Beach from the 1974 film “Slaughter in San Francisco”, starring Chuck Norris (though he’s not in this clip). Sound effects galore!!

Notice how it’s sunny when he drives up, but when he hits the beach, overcast and gloomy. Typical Ocean Beach!

You may remember they had a “sponsor-a-seat” promotion several months ago, where patrons could “buy” a new seat for the theater and get their name on it. Fundraising went well and with the help of funds from their partner the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, both auditoriums at the Balboa will have brand new seats after next week. The interior of the theater will also be repainted.

In their recent newsletter, CinemaSF, who now manages the Balboa, writes that this is phase one in a 3 part renovation program for the theater. “The second phase will include a new concession stand, plus new curtaining in the auditoriums. And finally, the third phase will allow us to offer food service, beer and wine!”

The Balboa Theater will re-open on Friday, May 4 with showings of “The Avengers” and “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”. On Sunday, they’ll screen two documentaries from John Korty:

At 5pm we’ll show “John Allair Digs In” (trailer), the story of the greatest keyboard player in Marin County history, whose career has spanned from the early 60′s until now. There will be a Q&A with John Allair immediately after the show. Next up is “Miracle in a Box” (trailer), which follows a Steinway piano as it is lovingly reconstructed, brought back to life, and ultimately given away to a worthy student of the piano. There will be a Q&A with John Korty after this program.

Sarah B.

It always interesting to ask people if they would climb Mt. Everest. Usually the answer is either “no way!” or “hell yes!” depending on their personality.

Well, what about skiing down Mt. Everest? This Wednesday night, the Balboa Theater is screening a 2009 documentary called Skiing Everest. It follows a group of ski mountaineers who are on a mission to descend the “the most dangerous slopes on Earth, navigating hidden crevasses, sheer 10,000-foot drops, and perilous weather.”

Piece of cake, right?

In this freshly edited, fast-paced profile of this elite group, filmmaker Mike Marolt, his brothers Steve and Roger, and their intrepid friends passionately push the limits of skiing to its highest frontier. Fourth generation Aspenites whose father was on the 1960 Olympic ski team, the Marolts take us for thrilling rides on some of the world’s highest peaks including the first American descent of an 8000 meter peak, Shishapangma, as well as Everest in a journey to become world leaders in the sport of high altitude skiing.

The film begins at 7pm. Advance tickets are available online or at the Balboa box office ($10). And if you can’t make it to the theater, the movie is available to download (rent or buy) from Amazon.

Sarah B.

You’ve probably heard of Bollywood – it’s the nickname for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India (formerly known as Bombay). But Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood – so dubbed in 1932 for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based.

Beginning this Fridat, the Balboa Theater has teamed up with Bird & Beckett to present Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood, featuring contemporary and classic Bengali-language films. The festival runs Friday, March 16 through Tuesday, March 20.

Tollywood has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based Bollywood machine. Film connoisseurs have long savored the work of Bengali directors Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen, and more recently Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghose and now Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury… At the Balboa, we’ll endeavor to give you a rich taste of many of these talents of Kolkata’s “parallel cinema.”

The festival will feature the Bay Area premiere of Aparjita Tumi, the brand new feature film by award-winning director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. The film was shot last summer entirely on location in the Bay Area — from Carmel to San Jose and Fremont to San Francisco. And according to Bird & Beckett, “key scenes for the film were shot in your favorite neighborhood bookshop, Bird & Beckett, and your favorite “great little place to eat,” Higher Grounds.”

Sunday’s lineup spotlights “Nagmoti” — a film from the early 1980s by the now legendary musician, ethnomusicologist and filmmaker Gautam Chattopadhyay. This dramatic feature film, set in a community of gypsies in the Ganges river delta southeast of Kolkata, won the 1983 Silver Lotus award for Best Bengali Film at the National Film Awards, India’s equivalent of the Oscars. We’ll show it in a 35mm print that’s rarely been seen since Gautam’s untimely death in 1999.

The festival lineup; all showings at the Balboa Theater:

Fri. March 16
7:00 pm – The Japanese Wife, Aparna Sen – 2010 (105 min.)
9:15 pm – Aparajita Tumi, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury – 2012 (120 min.)

Sat. March 17
3:30 pm – Antaheen, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury – 2009 (120 min.)
6:00 pm – Aami Adu, Somnath Gupta – 2011 (110 min.)
8:30 pm – Iti Mrinalini, Aparna Sen – 2012 (128 min.)

Sun. March 18
2:00 pm – Moner Manush, Goutam Ghose – 2010 (150 min.)
5:00 pm – Nobel Chor, Suman Ghosh – 2012 (100 min.)
7:00 pm – Live music performance – Bengal & Beyond (45 min.)
8:15 pm – Nagmoti – 1983 (115 min.)

Tues. March 20
5:00 pm – Nagorik, Ritwik Ghatak – 1952
7:00 pm – Aranyer Din Ratri, Satyajit Ray – 1970
9:00 pm – Calcutta 1971, Mrinal Sen – 1972

Sarah B.

In addition to screening the live broadcast, the Balboa is also hosting a Red Carpet event beginning at 3:30pm, inviting guests to dress “up or down as your favorite nominated movie (literal translation and bad puns allowed), or as a movie star”.

There will be prizes for the most creative costumes including movie passes, DVDs, posters, t-shirts, and much more. And whoever guess the most correct Oscar winners goes home with a VIP Season pass to the Balboa Theater.

Reed Kirk Rahlmann is back this year as the master of ceremonies at the event (Billy Crystal will be hosting the real deal). The Balboa will also be selling beer and wine for those who want to imbibe during the show.

The Oscars air at 5pm, the red carpet event begins at 3:30pm. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance or the night of the show.

Sarah B.

Meyer has been running the Balboa Theater since 2001, when he took over management from the Levin family owners. At the time, the Balboa was showing second run movies and barely making ends meet. Meyer knew he needed to take on a different strategy to revive the old movie house, which had been in business since 1926.

“With an enthusiastic staff led by General Manager Roger Paul we made a commitment to showing quality movies, offering excellent customer service, creating an informative website and a weekly newsletter. We set out to build an audience and sense of community. Prices would be among the lowest in town both at the box office and concession stand while upgrading the experience for audiences. We would have filmmaker and author visits, special events, contests and fun.”

Since taking it over, Meyer has built a loyal audience for the theater and made it a thriving part of the Richmond District community. He’s also brought some exciting, innovative programming to the theater ranging from the premieres of historic documentaries, screenings of operas and ballets, special award show screenings for the Golden Globes and Oscars, along with community building events like free HD viewing of the Superbowl just last week.

It was last July when Meyer first announced that he would be stepping down from his leadership post at the Balboa. At the time, the longevity of the theater was in question. But before he departed, Meyer worked with the The San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation to arrange for them to take over the Balboa’s lease through 2024. The SFNTF will also help fund improvements to the Balboa like a refurbished marquee, a new heating system, and seats. Some of the changes have already taken place.

In his closing letter, Meyers says his other cinematic commitments have made it tough to manage the Balboa full-time. “The work involved in operating independent cinemas takes a commitment of time, energy and fresh ideas. It has become increasingly difficult for me to do my best contributing these things while doing my full time job as Co-Director of the Telluride Film Festival.”

Filling his ample shoes will be Adam Bergeron and Jaimi Holker, a husband and wife team who describe themselves as “dyed-in-the-wool movie buffs”. They approached Meyer last year about getting involved with the theater.

“After spending time with them it was clear that they had the passion required,” Meyer write. “Adam has business experience running and marketing a restaurant and producing many music events each year. Jaimi has an accounting background and currently is a production designer for movies and television. And they both have high energy and creative ideas.”

Adam and Jaimi will also manage the Vogue Theater with help from Roger Paul who will stay on as General Manager. The Vogue was taken over by the SFNTF four years ago to save it from closing.

In their first letter to theater supporters, Adam and Jaimi wrote “We will strive to provide you with movies and events you will love in an authentic and charming setting, and we may even have a few tricks up our sleeve as time goes on.” They closed with a quote from the 1971 film Harold and Maude: “*Reach* out. Take a *chance*. Get *hurt* even. But play as well as you can. Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE!”

The two theaters will also employ Jan Klingelhofer to book films. Meyer will also stay on as a consultant to SFCinema, helping them plan the future for both the Balboa and the Vogue Theaters.

Check out the new CinemaSF website here and when you stop by the Balboa, be sure to welcome Adam and Jaimi to the neighborhood!

Gary Meyer will still be around at times (like at the Balboa’s 86th birthday bash on March 4), saying in his letter, “I look forward to seeing many of you but this time I will be with you in the audience.”

Sarah B.

The Balboa Theater is looking spiffier these days after the marquee received some much-needed tlc.

It’s the first in a long list of planned improvements at the theater that are being completed with the help of the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, who took over the theater’s lease to prevent it from closing altogether.

Other planned improvements include an all-digital projection system, new wall coverings and new seats (which you can get your name put on if you so desire).

Looking good, Balboa! Just in time for awards season.

Sarah B.

The Internet Archive (Clement and Funston) will be screening two “Lost Landscapes” films in the coming weeks featuring San Francisco and Detroit.

The films are compilations of old footage of each city, compiled by archivist Rick Prelinger of the Prelinger Archives. The films are feature-length compilations of home movies, industrial films, outtakes and newsreels showing each city as it was. All of the footage is pre-1970 and is a fascinating look at an earlier time in these urban landscapes.

First up on January 24 at 7:30pm is “Lost Landscapes of San Francisco Part 6″. I saw this at the Castro Theater in December and I highly recommend it. If you’re interested in San Francisco history or just enjoy seeing old footage of the city, you’ll really enjoy it. See footage of San Francisco’s cemeteries just before their removal, unique drive-thru footage of the Old Produce Market (now Golden Gateway) in the late 1940s, cruising the newly-built Embarcadero Freeway, grungy back streets in North Beach, and newly-rediscovered Cinemascope footage of Playland, the Sky Tram and San Francisco scenes, all in Kodachrome. One of my favorite parts was watching bi-planes take off over the dunes of the Sunset District.

On February 22 at 7:30pm, there will be a screening of “Lost Landscapes: Detroit Part 2″. Most of the material has never been shown publicly, and this year’s show will include a great deal of new footage, including women workers at World War II Chrysler plant, Detroit public school students (1947-48) in class, on the streets, and
on a field trip to the Diego Rivera murals, Detroiters making a pilgrimage to the newly opened Northland Center in 1956, driving down Woodward during the 1950s, in Kodachrome and much more.

To attend one or both screenings, send an email to rsvp@archive.org to reserve your spot. Include your full name, the number in your party and which screening(s) you want to attend.

And don’t miss the 1955 Cinemascope footage of San Francisco at the top of this post. It’s an example of the fascinating kinds of clips that Prelinger has assembled for “Lost Landscapes: San Francisco”.

Sarah B.

Ever since the Balboa Theater got a new lease on life – literally – with the help of the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, lots of improvements are underway.

Director Gary Meyer tells us that new heaters were installed last week, so that means no more chilly shows at night. In keeping with tradition, the new heating system was installed by Atlas Heating, the same company that installed the theater’s original units in 1926.

They also began work on restoring the facade which should be done in a few weeks.

Other planned improvements include an all-digital projection system, new wall coverings and new seats (which you can get your name put on if you so desire).

Last week, 170 people attended a fundraiser at the Balboa to help pay for improvements at both the Balboa and the Vogue Theater on Sacramento, both of which are managed by the SFNTF.

Sarah B.