Colonial Theatre Co. (Coliseum Theatre, San Francisco)

Product Details

Historical Context

The Colonial Theatre Co. was incorporated in Oklahoma on April 5, 1906 and was located in San Francisco, California on 9th and Clement Streets.

The company's movie house - known as the Coliseum Theatre - opened on November 22, 1918 showing Johanna Enlists starring Mary Pickford. It was equipped with a Robert-Morton organ.

Originally designed in a Greek Revival style by the Reid Brothers, its 2,200 seat capacity exceeded some of the big theatres downtown and reflected the popularity and importance of movies in America at the time.

The Coliseum was made into a “talkie” with the introduction of sound in 1929. Movie theatres always tried to appear modern and current, and most underwent frequent renovations. In 1931, the Coliseum received a lush Art Deco remodel with geometric designs painted throughout its interior and the theatre ceiling stenciled with a vibrant jungle of palm fronds. A decade later, a cleaner, streamlined look was the fashion and out went the zig-zags and tropical forest.

The Coliseum closed for a few years in the early 1950s, losing business to the Alexandria and the new Coronet Theatre on Geary Boulevard. When the Coronet began hosting long-run shows such as Oklahoma! (44 weeks) and Around the World in 80 Days (96 weeks), the opportunity arose for the Coliseum to reopen showing second-run films. Another modernizing remodel brought a new vertical sign with three simple letters: “COL.” The theatre’s most successful period came in 1975, when it had the exclusive San Francisco showing of Jaws. The film ran for six months, with lines around the block.

On October 17, 1989, the Bay Area was abuzz with the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s meeting for Game 3 of the World Series. The Coliseum appropriately, although perhaps over-optimistically, was playing the baseball fantasy film, Field of Dreams. The Loma Prieta earthquake struck forty-one minutes before the first scheduled showing of the day, and the 71-year-old movie house never screened another film. The Coliseum’s operators, United Artists, decided the expense to repair earthquake damage wasn’t worth the declining ticket revenues.

The Coliseum sat boarded up and graffiti-blighted for 11 years. Finally, the building was redeveloped with much of its exterior details, including that lyre, preserved.

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