The Palace is once again a church. The Word Assembly – The Palace holds services there, and has a great facebook page which has pictures and videos of their services at the Palace.
Two of my original photos were deleted and replaced with “color corrected copies” which I do not appreciate. My comments under the photos were also removed, and credit for these photos were given to the new poster. Please correct this from happening again.
This “color corrected copy” is a duplication of my original photo posted, and it overwrote my comments. This is a hallway shot of the Powell that I took, showing the men’s room at the end of the hall. The auditorium wall is on the left, and you can see the drinking fountain.
Saw “The Color Purple” there. The auditorium we were in had a nice size screen and great sound system with the screen having curtains that opened and closed. Lobby had a interesting layout with the pay phones and restrooms upstairs. Only went there a few times. It seemed that no one seemed to miss it after it was demolished.
In the early 80’s an attempt to operate the Music Hall as a upscale gay disco failed miserably. It was still called the Music Hall and lasted for less than a year. We went once and never went back. The seats were removed from the main floor and replaced with a dance floor. The rear upstairs was changed into a bar, small lounge and coat check area. They charged almost $20.00 to get in there (outrageous at the time) but you could buy a six month membership for $100.00. Sound system was terrible.
Chuck Johnson, had a great tv show on KEMO Channel 20 called Soul Beat. His studio was located in the Eastmont Mall. He took over operation of the theater, changing the name to the “Soul Beat Cinemas”.
Bunch of us went in there once to see this X movie called “Angel Above Devil Below” a spoof on the exorcist, where this womans vagina gets possessed and starts yelling things. The whole audience was laughing it was great. What was strange was that during the exorcism scene (furniture flying around the room) the film jammed in the projector, we all watched the film melting away on screen. Everyone hooted and yelled, it was great fun. It was a nice theater inside, except it smelt like stale mothballs.
Yesterday’s 6.0 earthquake in Napa, caused some damage to the Uptown. Photos show it being roped off, with reports from newspapers of damage to the exterior and to the interior. The extent of the damage is unknown, as there was no power in the building for a decent inspection.
@jackiethecoed. Thank you for the great story! My dad Charles “Eddie” Green, sadly passed a few years ago. He would have enjoyed your reply. He used to live at the Roxy Hotel up the street from the theater. One hot summer day, he decided to walk to the El Rey without a shirt, and got arrested for indecent exposure. Yvonne bailed him out.
The Uptown, in my opinion, was San Francisco’s first luxurious dirty movie theater. The center curved section of the marquee had a painted glass overlay that read “movies for mature swinging adults”. Winterland next door was thriving with great rock bands, with the Uptown getting many customers after the concerts. It was said that a undercover check revealed “leud conduct” in the balcony and they raided the place. The operators lost their appeals on obsenity charges and the City shut the Uptown down. I don’t remember if it reopened after that.
The picture of the interior was found on www.cowellhistoricalsociety.org, and there are other pictures of the Enean as well. I have a old 8mm movie of us coming out of the Enean from a birthday party, at dusk with the original marquee lit up (looks fantastic) I will post stills of the movie once I get it properly duplicated.
Great News! The grand reopening of the Bal will be on 4/23/10. According to the website calendar, renovations are being done, including the installation of a new curtain. Classic films are scheduled to play, starting with His Girl Friday on the 24th.
The El Rey did not exist in the 70’s and did not show hard porn. It was torn down in the late fifties to allow the MacArthur Freeway to be built. My father was a projectionist there. When he was there, it was a burlesque house only, with cutie movies, no hardcore, but at the time, was considered very X! It was always getting raided for stupid stuff dad said. The owner of the El Rey, also operated the Gayety Theatre on Turk Street in San Francisco. Behind the Gayety snack bar were pictures of the El Rey on the back wall tons of photos of the El Rey, with pictures of all the strippers. My dad said that even though the T&D, Moulin Rouge, 16th Street Follies continued on after, the El Rey was the king theater of burlesque! cool!
The El Rey, located on Ocean avenue, was a beautiful theatre. The mitchell brothers rented it out and showed their premiere screening of “Autobiography of a Flea” complete with champagne and blotter acid. Before it became the Church of the Pentecost, Margo St. James of Coyote, had a week long film festival about prostitution worldwide. Magnificent films were shown there. Patronage was terrible. The interior layout of the theatre is exactly the same as the Alameda Theatre, as both were built by Timothy Pfluger, but the artwork was entirely different. If you are ever in the area, the congregation is very friendly and will let you walk around. Still a beautiful theatre!
The Palace is once again a church. The Word Assembly – The Palace holds services there, and has a great facebook page which has pictures and videos of their services at the Palace.
Two of my original photos were deleted and replaced with “color corrected copies” which I do not appreciate. My comments under the photos were also removed, and credit for these photos were given to the new poster. Please correct this from happening again.
This “color corrected copy” is a duplication of my original photo posted, removing my comments. This photo I took of the Powell was in 1976.
This “color corrected copy” is a duplication of my original photo posted, and it overwrote my comments. This is a hallway shot of the Powell that I took, showing the men’s room at the end of the hall. The auditorium wall is on the left, and you can see the drinking fountain.
Saw “The Color Purple” there. The auditorium we were in had a nice size screen and great sound system with the screen having curtains that opened and closed. Lobby had a interesting layout with the pay phones and restrooms upstairs. Only went there a few times. It seemed that no one seemed to miss it after it was demolished.
Went there only once and saw the movie Carrie. It was a nice place to see a movie, but the seats were uncomfortable.
I was friends with Piers Freeman, who was a employee there in the 70’s. Saw many a movie there. Miss it very much.
In the early 80’s an attempt to operate the Music Hall as a upscale gay disco failed miserably. It was still called the Music Hall and lasted for less than a year. We went once and never went back. The seats were removed from the main floor and replaced with a dance floor. The rear upstairs was changed into a bar, small lounge and coat check area. They charged almost $20.00 to get in there (outrageous at the time) but you could buy a six month membership for $100.00. Sound system was terrible.
Chuck Johnson, had a great tv show on KEMO Channel 20 called Soul Beat. His studio was located in the Eastmont Mall. He took over operation of the theater, changing the name to the “Soul Beat Cinemas”.
Sadly, the El Camino was demolished in July 2015 to make way for new development.
The design of the rooftop sign was very similar to the Fairfax in Oakland. Curious if it was built by the same company.
Bunch of us went in there once to see this X movie called “Angel Above Devil Below” a spoof on the exorcist, where this womans vagina gets possessed and starts yelling things. The whole audience was laughing it was great. What was strange was that during the exorcism scene (furniture flying around the room) the film jammed in the projector, we all watched the film melting away on screen. Everyone hooted and yelled, it was great fun. It was a nice theater inside, except it smelt like stale mothballs.
Yesterday’s 6.0 earthquake in Napa, caused some damage to the Uptown. Photos show it being roped off, with reports from newspapers of damage to the exterior and to the interior. The extent of the damage is unknown, as there was no power in the building for a decent inspection.
@jackiethecoed. Thank you for the great story! My dad Charles “Eddie” Green, sadly passed a few years ago. He would have enjoyed your reply. He used to live at the Roxy Hotel up the street from the theater. One hot summer day, he decided to walk to the El Rey without a shirt, and got arrested for indecent exposure. Yvonne bailed him out.
Good news! The Palace is being reopened for stage performances. www.palacetheateroakland.com
http://oaklandwiki.org/Dimond_Theater (meant to post the link and not the photo)
Status should be sadly changed to demolished. According to today’s San Francisco Chronicle, the walls were torn down Monday morning.
The Uptown, in my opinion, was San Francisco’s first luxurious dirty movie theater. The center curved section of the marquee had a painted glass overlay that read “movies for mature swinging adults”. Winterland next door was thriving with great rock bands, with the Uptown getting many customers after the concerts. It was said that a undercover check revealed “leud conduct” in the balcony and they raided the place. The operators lost their appeals on obsenity charges and the City shut the Uptown down. I don’t remember if it reopened after that.
I finally found my photo of the interior of the Palm, and posted it. Enjoy!
Just downloaded a photo of the Hayward, taken in august 1976, the day right after the fire.
Added a photo of the Powell that I took, I believe, in 1975. I also found a flyer when the Powell showed all male porn films. It was a great theater.
The picture of the interior was found on www.cowellhistoricalsociety.org, and there are other pictures of the Enean as well. I have a old 8mm movie of us coming out of the Enean from a birthday party, at dusk with the original marquee lit up (looks fantastic) I will post stills of the movie once I get it properly duplicated.
Great News! The grand reopening of the Bal will be on 4/23/10. According to the website calendar, renovations are being done, including the installation of a new curtain. Classic films are scheduled to play, starting with His Girl Friday on the 24th.
The El Rey did not exist in the 70’s and did not show hard porn. It was torn down in the late fifties to allow the MacArthur Freeway to be built. My father was a projectionist there. When he was there, it was a burlesque house only, with cutie movies, no hardcore, but at the time, was considered very X! It was always getting raided for stupid stuff dad said. The owner of the El Rey, also operated the Gayety Theatre on Turk Street in San Francisco. Behind the Gayety snack bar were pictures of the El Rey on the back wall tons of photos of the El Rey, with pictures of all the strippers. My dad said that even though the T&D, Moulin Rouge, 16th Street Follies continued on after, the El Rey was the king theater of burlesque! cool!
The El Rey, located on Ocean avenue, was a beautiful theatre. The mitchell brothers rented it out and showed their premiere screening of “Autobiography of a Flea” complete with champagne and blotter acid. Before it became the Church of the Pentecost, Margo St. James of Coyote, had a week long film festival about prostitution worldwide. Magnificent films were shown there. Patronage was terrible. The interior layout of the theatre is exactly the same as the Alameda Theatre, as both were built by Timothy Pfluger, but the artwork was entirely different. If you are ever in the area, the congregation is very friendly and will let you walk around. Still a beautiful theatre!