St. Jude’s booming 75th

Posted on October 20, 2010 by editors

The St. Jude Shrine inside St. Dominic's Church.

By Stedman F. Matthew

More than 60,000 people visit the St. Jude Shrine at St. Dominic’s Church every year to light a candle, say a prayer and seek solace from their suffering. The shrine — founded by the Dominican friars in 1935 in the middle of the Great Depression to bring hope to a world that desperately needed it — is celebrating its 75th anniversary on October 28. Its mission continues unchanged — and gains new potency — as we find ourselves once again in the midst of a financial crisis.
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How the Clay dodged a bullet

Posted on September 3, 2010 by editors

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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Filed under: Film, Landmarks, Neighborhood History | 1 Comment »

Film Society, theater owner resume talks

Posted on September 3, 2010 by editors

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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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.

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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 »

A mogul and his mansion

Posted on June 13, 2010 by editors

Le Petit Trianon, at 3800 Washington, is a replica of Marie Antoinette's refuge at Versailles.

Renovation of  Le Petit Trianon — long delayed — is now scheduled to begin this summer. The grand home at 3800 Washington Street has been empty for years and largely unattended, even since it was bought in 2007 for $22 million by tech mogul Halsey Minor, founder of CNet.

“The state of Le Petit Trianon is a perfect metaphor for the troubles of Minor,” says a Bay Citizen report, which calls the landmark home “almost comically formal.”

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Hotel Drisco: luxe local guesthouse

Posted on June 2, 2010 by editors

Outside, the Hotel Drisco is nondescript; inside, it's old world elegance.

By Chris Barnett

If you’re looking for a hideout to brainstorm the next Google, hammer out a multibillion dollar merger or tryst the night away, the Hotel Drisco on the hilltop corner at 2901 Pacific and Broderick might fit your bill. A bastion of secrecy since its opening more than a century ago, there is scant history about the comings and goings of the owners and guests of the 43-room Pacific Heights luxury roost.
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Hotel Majestic in bankruptcy

Posted on May 1, 2010 by editors

Photograph of the Majestic Hotel's entry by Susie Biehler

By Chris Barnett

Owners of the 58-room, 116-year-old Edwardian style Hotel Majestic at Sutter and Gough have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy to keep creditors from checking in and padlocking its ornate, cut glass front doors.

Under Chapter 11, the hotel and its Uptown Joe’s restaurant and Butterfly Bar remain open for business.

There is an upside for locals: The hotel has cut its neighborhood rate to a bargain $79 a night plus tax. Out of towners can book a room starting at $89 a night plus tax, says Paulo Monte, the current general manager. Occupancy is running at 60 percent, he says. A year ago, rooms were fetching $150 nightly.
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Marcus Books celebrates its 50th

Posted on May 1, 2010 by editors

Photograph of Marcus Books manager Karen Johnson by Joe Manio

By Tessa Williams

It would be easy to pass by the purple Victorian at 1712 Fillmore without realizing its importance to Bay Area black history.

Located just north of Post Street, the building’s modest presence belies its legacy, both as the former home of Jimbo’s Bop City — the legendary after-hours jazz club — and as the current home of Marcus Books, the oldest independent black bookstore in the country, which is celebrating half a century in business this year.
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At long last, temple retrofit begins

Posted on April 26, 2010 by editors

Congregation Sherith Israel at California and Webster Streets.

TAKE A LAST LOOK at the majestic pink temple glowing in the late afternoon sunlight at the corner of California and Webster.

It is quickly being enveloped by scaffolding for a seismic retrofit that will strengthen the hundred-year-old home of Congregation Sherith Israel. And it will lose its distinctive salmon pink paint job and emerge next year in its original gray-green color of unpainted Colusa sandstone.

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