Roosevelt, York, Brava and El Capitan Theaters

The Roosevelt Theater in 1944.
Opened for business in 1916 as the York Theater, it was the neighborhood's movie house until c1927 when it became the Roosevelt Theater, complete with a new sign.
Hard times (in the movie business ) and a changing community dictated another change in 1975. Its name was changed to Cine York and it started showing Spanish language movies. By 1981 the 375 seat theater, having gone full circle, was renamed the York Theater. After ten rocky years, however, it closed its doors.

The lobby of the Roosevelt Theater in c1944. It was not nearly as fancy as some others, but then it was somewhat older too.

The York Theater in 2000.
The York Theater, located at 24th and York Streets, as it looks today. It has not shown motion pictures since at least c1990 and has been mostly idle since that time.

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The Brava Theater 2001.
In 2000, the York Theater underwent a $2mil. renovation, emerging on December 6, 2000 as the Brava Theater Center for Women in the Arts.
Its motion picture days are almost surely over for good since the Brava Center will be for legitimate theater only. Unfortunately, single-screen theaters, for the most part, are no longer profitable and therefore rapidly disappearing.
For information re. BRAVA, click on Brava icon below.

The El Capitan Theater as it looked in 1933.
Opened on June 29, 1928, the El Capitan was a very popular neighborhood theater.
By the end of the 1930s, there were five, second-run theaters on Mission Street, between 16th and 30th Streets (El Capitan, Grand, Majestic, New Mission and Lyceum). Only Market Street could lay claim to more.
Like many theaters, the El Cap. suffered hard times in the 1950s or `60 and closed for good sometime between 1957 and 1959.
Today, only one of the five theaters of that period mentioned above, show movies (Spanish). Three of the others are still in place but are being used for other purposes.

Site of the former El Capitan Theater.
Although the building may look relatively unchanged from the photo above, the El Capitan Theater is no longer there. All that remains is the facade and the marque.
Autos now drive through what was once the theater lobby to a parking lot that was once the theater itself. The El Capitan Hotel is still in existance, but from its appearance � just barely.

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2000 view of Former El Capitan Theater.
Seeing this as it is today is almost enough to make a theater buff cry. I suppose it was a compromise to tearing down the entire building, but I don't agree that it was a good one.
Like many theaters that have been closed over the years, it too served as a church for a time, before meeting this horrible fate.

If you have information or photos pertaining to the above, or any other San Francisco movie theaters, that you are willing to share, I would like to hear from you.

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mibgda-2day@sfchangehappens-books.com