Market Street Cinema

Market Street Cinema was a historical theater located on Market Street in the Mid-Market district, San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1912 by David and Sid Grauman as the Imperial Theater.[1] It was converted into a movie theatre as the Premiere Theatre (1929) and the United Artists Theatre (1931).

Market Street Cinema
Imperial Theater
Market Street Cinema in 2012
Address1077 Market Street
San Francisco
Coordinates37.780834°N 122.4139685°W / 37.780834; -122.4139685
Capacity1,485
Construction
OpenedDecember 22, 1912
ClosedFebruary, 2013
Years active101
ArchitectClifford A. Balch

The benefit world premiere of Dirty Harry was held here[2] on December 22, 1971.[3][4]

In 1972 it was purchased by adult film producer Mike Weldon (Skintight, 1979), and renamed Market Street Cinema and was used through the early 2000s as an adult entertainment venue. It was one of the first adult venues that allow "lap dancing," where the clubs dancers would wander the crowd looking for tips by sitting on the laps of customers. Mike Weldon was sued by the Justice Department for "pimping," but repeatedly won the lawsuits given participants remained clothed during encounters, and the 'lap dances" were not "negotiated sex-acts." [5] The role of the theater in San Francisco's sex industry in the 1980s was documented in a photo essay by photographer Leon Mostovoy.[6] In October 2015, the San Francisco Planning Commission approved a plan to demolish the theatre and replace it with an eight-story building.[7]

Market Street Cinema is considered haunted in popular culture: it features in a 2013 episode of Ghost Adventures (season 7, episode 25)[8] and was used as a shooting location by filmmaker Charles Webb for a low-budget horror movie called G-String Horror.[9]

On August 15, 2016, Mint Minx Press published the novella Market Street Cinema by author Michele Machado, narrating the fictional account of a dancer working at the club in 1998.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Let's Break Down the History of the Market Street Cinema". Curbed SF. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  2. "1077 Market Street (Grauman's Imperial, 1912; Imperial, 1916; Premier, 1929; United Artists, 1931; Loew's, 1970; Market Street Cinema, 1972)". Upfromthedeep.com. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  3. "KPIX-TV newsclip from the world premiere of Dirty Harry". Diva.sfsu.edu. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  4. "download MPEG4 newsclip". Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  5. "Market Street Cinema in San Francisco, CA - Cinema Treasures". cinematreasures.org. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  6. "Leon Mostovoy: Market Street Cinema | ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries". one.usc.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  7. "Residential complex to replace century-old theater on Market Street - The San Francisco Examiner". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  8. "Ghost Adventures: Market Street Cinema". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  9. Barmann, Jay. "What Will Become of the Historic, Quite Possibly Haunted, Market Street Cinema?". SFist. Archived from the original on 2015-11-01. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  10. Machado, Michele (2016). Market Street Cinema. United States: Mint Minx Press. ISBN 0692551352.


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