Clay Theater gets a reprieve

Posted on August 29, 2010 by editors

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.

Filed under: Film, Landmarks | Leave a Comment »

Clay Theater closing

Posted on August 13, 2010 by editors

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”

Filed under: Entertainment, Film, Landmarks | 4 Comments »

Exploring jazz as sacred music

Posted on August 1, 2010 by editors

Dave Scott leads a quartet on Sunday evenings during the summer.

FIRST PERSON | DAVE SCOTT

My dad had all these books on the shelves in the basement. They were these grand philosophy books from his seminary days with fantastic titles like “The Politics of God,” “Man, Myth, Meaning” and “Truth and Ethics.” He became a psychologist. He was good at mediating, and bringing people together, and helping people work out their differences.

I think I am like my dad was, but through music instead of psychology.

(more…)

Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »

Tuesday nights at the Alta Plaza

Posted on July 1, 2010 by editors

By Kim Nalley

When I started playing at the Alta Plaza in 1995, I had no idea what an event Tuesday nights would become.

I had played at the same location at Fillmore and Clay two years earlier on Sundays. Back then it was called the Fillmore Grill. Later I stopped in to visit the old club. I sat in with pianist Eric Shifrin for a tune and the response was so overwhelming the management hired me back to sing every Tuesday.

There was one catch: They didn’t have an entertainment license anymore, so I would have to sing acoustically. This would be daunting for most singers but I had a solid classical and theater background, good projection and was willing to give it a try. 
(more…)

Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »

Jazz star becomes a film star

Posted on July 1, 2010 by editors

A fateful plane trip landed pianist Art Khu a starring role in a new jazz film.

FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | Saturday, July 3, at 2 p.m.

Art Khu was settling into his seat for the flight back from Mexico when he struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting beside him. And between takeoff and touchdown, a star was born.

The passenger was Kiva Knight, a cinematographer from the Fillmore, who was preparing to shoot a jazz film. They hit it off. Knight introduced Khu to director Marlon Gonzales, who agreed he’d be perfect in one of the lead roles.

“Pictures from the Gone World” was shot last fall and will be ready for entry in the Sundance Film Festival this fall. Khu plays “a homeless, crazy jazz piano player,” he says, one of three present-day jazz musicians based loosely on historical figures. In addition to channeling Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, Khu wrote much of his own music. He’ll present the new work — plus other original compositions and a few standards — on Saturday, July 3, during the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Khu and his band will appear on the California Street stage from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
(more…)

Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »

No more Fillmore New York

Posted on June 1, 2010 by editors

The Fillmore New York will once again be known as the Irving Plaza.

The Fillmore New York will soon be a thing of the past. The New York Times reports today that the club renamed the Fillmore in 2007 will once again be known as the Irving Plaza, its original name.

No tears were shed. “Changing the name of Irving Plaza to the Fillmore is as silly as changing the name of Carnegie Hall,” a former owner told The Times.

Adding the Fillmore name was homage to rock impresario Bill Graham and the original Fillmore Auditorium at Fillmore and Geary. Graham operated a club in New York he called the Fillmore East from 1968 to 1971. Theaters in Philadelphia and Detroit also got the Fillmore name in recent years, but it was quickly dropped in Philadelphia, The Times reports.

Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »

Sneak peek: new jazzfest poster

Posted on May 16, 2010 by editors

Coming soon to a store window near you: the poster for this year’s jazz festival, created by Michael Schwab, one of the nation’s top graphic artists. New street banners sporting the design will go up before the festival, and posters and T-shirts will be available at the 2010 Fillmore Jazz Festival, which takes place on July 3 and 4.

“DISNEYFIED?” It’s “a canny move” for SFJazz to build its new home in the Civic Center, rather than in the Fillmore Jazz District, says a local critic in The New York Times. An article in the Sunday Times on San Francisco’s “sleepy jazz scene” tips its hat to Rasselas and Yoshi’s, but dismisses “the Fillmore’s somewhat Disneyfied atmosphere these days.” Do they have Popeye’s in Disneyland?

Filed under: Art & Design, Entertainment, Music | Leave a Comment »

Int’l film fest opens

Posted on April 22, 2010 by editors

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.

Schedule and full details.

Filed under: Film | Leave a Comment »

Jazz giants in the jazz district

Posted on April 5, 2010 by editors

Ella Fitzgerald singing to Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rodgers in 1950.

April is jazz appreciation month and there’s something special to appreciate at the Fillmore Heritage Center at 1330 Fillmore. “Jazz Giants: the Photography of Herman Leonard” is a collection of some of the finest jazz photographs ever taken by one of America’s greatest living photographers.

UPDATE: Herman Leonard dies at 87

Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »

Drama at the Queen Anne

Posted on March 19, 2010 by editors

Beginning tonight, Sweet Bird of Youth will be presented at the Queen Anne Hotel.

It was soon after the new year began that Diane Bailey approached the Queen Anne Hotel on a scouting mission. The veteran actor and director was looking for just the right Victorian hotel in which she could bring to life the classic Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth.

As she entered the historic old hotel at Sutter and Octavia, she knew she had found the perfect place. “I walked in and the lobby was so grand — with curtains framing the doorway into the parlor,” she says. “It was just so gorgeous. It looked so authentic to me.”
(more…)

Filed under: Entertainment | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »