The grand opening of the Coliseum Theater in 1918. Courtesy of Western Neighborhoods Project.
We’re lucky to have two movie theaters in our neighborhood – the 4-Star and The Balboa Theater – but in our past, we had many theaters, including the largest one in San Francisco (I’m sure many readers remember lining up to see Star Wars at the Coronet!).
This Saturday at 11am, the always interesting Western Neighborhoods Project will present West Side Movie Theatres, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Coliseum Theater on Clement and 9th Avenue (now a Walgreens).
The program at WNP’s “home for history,” 1617 Balboa Street near 17th Avenue, will feature historical images, music, artifacts, and memories of theatres from Clement Street all the way south to Stonestown. Admission is $20 to the general public and $10 for Western Neighborhoods Project members (buy tickets).
The Coliseum Theatre opened on November 22, 1918, on the southeast corner of 9th Avenue and Clement Street with a Mary Pickford film, Johanna Enlists. The opening had been delayed over concerns of contagion during the great influenza pandemic, which peaked in October 1918. The theatre opened just eleven days after the official end of World War I, and the receipts from the evening were donated to the Red Cross.
With 2,200 seats, the theatre’s capacity exceeded some of the big movie houses downtown and reflected the popularity and importance of movies in America at the time. Into the 1980s, Richmond District residents had five different theatres from which to pick for a night’s entertainment. In addition to the Coliseum Theatre, the Bridge, Coronet, Alexandria, Balboa, and 4 Star showed everything from foreign films to major blockbusters.
The Coliseum was made into a “talkie” with the introduction of sound in 1929. Movie theatres always tried to appear modern and current, and most underwent frequent renovations. In 1931, the Coliseum received a lush Art Deco remodel with geometric designs painted throughout its interior and the theatre ceiling stenciled with a vibrant jungle of palm fronds. A decade later, a cleaner, streamlined look was in and all the busy patterns were painted over. Over the screen, a stylized female charioteer replaced the zig-zags and tropical forest.
The Coliseum closed for a few years in the early 1950s because of business competition from the Alexandria and the new Coronet Theatre on Geary Boulevard. When it reopened, it was with a simpler vertical sign reading just “COL.” The theatre’s most success period came in 1975, when it had the exclusive San Francisco showing of Jaws. The film ran for six months, with lines around the block. (Nine years old, I begged my mother to let me go. To her credit, I suppose, she refused.)
On October 17, 1989, the Bay Area was abuzz with the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s meeting for game three of the World Series. The Coliseum appropriately, although perhaps over-optimistically, was playing the baseball fantasy film, Field of Dreams. (What baseball fan would see a movie over the World Series?) The Loma Prieta earthquake struck forty-one minutes before the first scheduled showing of the day, and the 71-year-old movie house never screened another film. The Coliseum’s operators, United Artists, decided the costs to repair earthquake damage and reopen weren’t worth the ticket revenues, which had already been in decline.
The Coliseum building sat boarded up and graffiti-blighted for eleven years. (Not as long as the Alexandria Theatre building on Geary and 18th Avenue has been closed—14 years and counting!) Finally, the building was redeveloped and opened in 2002 with a drug store on the ground level and fourteen condominiums above. Some original details calling back to its entertainment days are still visible on the building today, including a lyre at the top center of the façade.
Saturday’s event will also feature an extended look at the Alexandria Theatre and the current plans for the building’s future. Click here to buy tickets to Saturday’s event.
Sarah B.
Inside the old Coliseum Theater. Courtesy of Western Neighborhoods Project.
The Coliseum Theater location today – home to a Walgreens and condos. Courtesy of Western Neighborhoods Project.