SF Weekly offers a cover story this week on the uncertain future of Fillmore Street’s Clay Theater. “People don’t want the Clay Theater to die,” the Weekly says. “But judging from ticket sales, they don’t want to see films there either.”
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There’s been no breakthrough yet, but negotiations are continuing between the owner of the Clay Theater and the San Francisco Film Society, which hopes to make the theater its home.
In addition, the owner’s architect has met with the CEO of Landmark Theatres, the current operator, about renovations that might make the theater attractive to Landmark as a long-term operator.
“We are actively engaged,” said architect Charles Kahn. He said it appears that both Landmark and the Film Society prefer a single-screen theater over his proposal to create three smaller theaters, and that owner Balgobind Jaiswal is agreeable. More contentious is Jaiswal’s desire to build four townhouses above the theater and excavate underneath for parking.
“The theater is secondary to their desire to build condos,” said Graham Leggett, executive director of the Film Society. “We worry it’s not going to be workable for us.” Getting permits and building the condos could take years, Leggett said, and require the theater to go dark during construction.
Kahn said the condos are essential to fund the renovation of the theater. He said the owner is “absolutely committed” to finding a way to save the theater.
Film Society leaders have met with Kahn three times, most recently with an architect of their own they retained to help shape the future of the 100-year-old theater. “It seems problematic at the moment, but at least there’s a dialogue,” Leggett said. “It’s a work in progress.”
EARLIER: How the Clay dodged a bullet
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A sidewalk plaque at 3119 Fillmore commemorates the night the poem was first read.
The legendary poem “Howl” — which had its premiere on Fillmore Street in 1955 and is now the subject of a film showing at the Sundance Kabuki — was 29-year-old Allen Ginsberg’s first published work. But it instantly established him as a vital new voice for rapidly changing times.
It all began on what Jack Kerouac would come to call the “mad night” of October 7, 1955. That’s when Ginsberg read “Howl” for the first time at the soon-to-be-legendary Six Gallery — a former auto-body shop turned Bohemian hangout at 3119 Fillmore Street — and left the crowd of hipsters in tears.
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By Thomas Reynolds
Discussions between Clay Theater owner Balgobind Jaiswal and the San Francisco Film Society began last December after Landmark Theatres decided it could no longer afford to continue to operate the venerable theater, which has been showing films on Fillmore Street for 100 years.
The lease had actually expired two years earlier.
“The Clay has been in trouble financially for several years,” said Ted Mundorff, CEO of Landmark. “So we’ve been working on what we could do to prolong the probable demise of any single-screen theater.”
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The owner of the Clay Theater has invited leaders of the San Francisco Film Society to meet on September 13 to resume discussions about the Film Society’s desire to lease the historic Fillmore art house.
Graham Leggat, executive director of the society, said he is eager to proceed. “It’s certainly progress,” Leggat said. “It’s a better sign. How good it is remains to be seen.”
At the same time, owner Balgobind Jaiswal — who also owns the Blu and Cielo women’s clothing boutiques on Fillmore Street, as well as the building that houses Marc by Marc Jacobs — has retained an architect who is exploring how the Clay might be reconfigured to accommodate two or three smaller theaters. And he may seek to build four townhouses on top of the theaters to help fund the project.
“We are committed to keeping it as a theater,” Jaiswal said. “We are trying to find a long-term solution, rather than being back in the same situation in two years.”
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What a difference a day makes.
On Saturday, Michael Blythe, a manager at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore, was grappling with what to do after the Clay played its last picture show on Sunday. But by midday Sunday, he had a happier problem on his hands: how to phrase the good news on the marquee that there was a reprieve — the Clay wasn’t closing immediately after all.
The news came late Saturday afternoon as cast and crew were readying for what they believed to be the finale of an institution at the Clay: the monthly midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“We were all hovering around watching the telephone like it was an execution,” says Blythe. “This is a big Band-Aid, but it’s the best thing we could hope for in this situation.” Blythe says the ultimate goal remains to have a group such as the San Francisco Film Society take over the theatre that’s been operating on Fillmore for the last 100 years.
Early Sunday afternoon he was scrambling to call the popcorn vendor and others who were told their contracts with the Clay were canceled — and telling employees, including one who’s worked there since the 1970s, to come back to work.
“This has been a real roller coaster ride,” he says.
And it’s not over yet.
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The box office at the Clay Theater.
Fillmore’s jewel-box cinema, the Clay Theater, is closing at the end of the month after 100 years.
The sad news came in a simple sign posted in the theater’s windows. The Clay was thought to have a more secure future than many neighborhood theaters because it was part of Landmark Theatres. Landmark gave no indication the Clay was endangered and has publicly said nothing about the closure.
One of the final films scheduled at the Clay is a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Saturday, August 28. The theater will close the next day.
UPDATE: Leah Garchik reports in the Chron: The San Francisco Film Society would love to take over the Clay and has been in negotiations for several months with the landlord, but so far no deal’s been struck. “We think we can bring enormous value to the theater,” said Graham Leggat. “We want to build our program around it as a beacon of culture for the Fillmore Street business district.”
Read more: “It’s a blow to the neighborhood”
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Its 53rd incarnation opens tonight at the Castro Theater, but most of the action at the SF International Film Festival — and the box office — is down the block at the Sundance Kabuki at Fillmore and Post.
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By Jerome Tarshis
By way of calling public attention to its 75th anniversary this year, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is making a major advertising push all over town. The lion’s share of advertising mentions “The Anniversary Show,” a survey of seven and a half decades of painting, sculpture, and photography in the museum’s permanent collection. Almost lost in the hoopla is the museum’s recognition of its on-again, off-again commitment to having a film program, which included an early experimental filmmaker from the neighborhood.
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Q & A | RUTHE STEIN
From February 4 to 11, the Mostly British Film Festival comes to the Vogue Theater on Sacramento Street. It’s the brainchild of longtime Chronicle movie writer and editor Ruthe Stein, who’s just back in town from the Sundance Film Festival.
Tell us about this new film festival coming to the neighborhood.
It’s the Mostly British Film Festival, showing 32 films from the U.K., Ireland, Australia and South Africa. We jokingly call it a “Foreign Film Festival For People Who Don’t Like Subtitles.”
This festival comes at a great time because so many wonderful movies from these countries can no longer secure American distribution. That means the festival may be the only chance to see such terrific movies as “London River,’’ a tearjerker starring Brenda Blethyn as the mother of a missing daughter, which opens the festival, and “Balibo,’’ a political thriller from Australia starring Anthony LaPaglia. We will also present the Northern California premiere of the much-lauded “Red Riding Trilogy,’’ which British film scholar David Thomson recently called “better than ‘The Godfather.'” Thomson, who lives in the neighborhood, will introduce the films.
How did the festival come to the Vogue?
Because it is operated by my friends Alfonso Felder and Jack Bair. They saved the Vogue from extinction two years ago by forming the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, which bought the place. Alfie and Jack share my love of cinema and I told them if I ever had time I would do some programming for the Vogue. Now that I’m no longer a full time staff member at the Chronicle, I have the time.
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