Back in April, I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle stating that the Clay Theater, out on Fillmore and Clay, is the oldest movie theater in San Francisco. The Roxie Theater on 16th Street in the Mission District lays claim to that title, as well. I’ll be diplomatic, and take the position that they’re both the oldest movie theater in San Francisco. (Thumbnail images)
I went to the Roxie Theater Tuesday evening, for the first time in many years, to watch Bay Area Movies (BAM) screening of ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’. The showing was a sell out! I haven’t been to a movie theater this crowded since ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. Incidentally, the fellow in the white jacket and hat in the lower right center of the auditorium photo is me. (Bay Area Movies)
When I saw the crowd at the Roxie entrance as I approached, I was glad that I bought my ticket in advance. The tree on the right in my picture was just a baby in 1977 when the vintage picture was taken, and the movie theater was already 65 years old back then. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)
This is as good of a comparison picture as I could get through the trees of the early 1960s picture from the San Francisco Chronicle.
I’m a little closer to the center here for a comparison to another angle of the 1977 photo from the San Francisco Library Digital Archives.
The Roxie survived the inevitable switch to porn that was the curtain call for many old movie theaters by the 1970s. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)
A 1975 picture from the San Francisco Library Digital Archives: The movies playing show that the Roxie was still going through its tawdry period. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 