Clay Theatre | |
---|---|
Location | 2261 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California, United States |
Coordinates | 37°47′26″N 122°26′04″W / 37.7905°N 122.4344°W |
Built | c. 1913 – c. 1914 |
Designated | May 6, 2022 |
Reference no. | 302 |
Clay Theatre is a historic 1913 single screen theater building in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. [1] It was formerly known as The Regent, The Avalon, The Clay International, and Landmark's Clay Theatre. It has been listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since May 6, 2022. [2]
It was founded in c. 1913 – c. 1914, as The Regent, a nickelodeon-style small movie theater often showing Mary Pickford films. [2] [3] It later became The Avalon in 1931. [2] [3]
In 1935, it opened as The Clay International under the leadership of Herbert Rosener, and was focused on showing foreign films. [2] [4] It was the first theater in the city dedicated to foreign film. [2] The Song to Her (1934), and Goodbye, Beautiful Days (1935) were shown here in 1935. [5]
In the 1950s, the building exterior was greatly modified, including moving of the ticketing booth and a change to the shape of the entrance (formerly an archway). [1]
In modern-day, the single screen theater held 325 seats. [1] Filmmaker John Waters had remembered early showings of Pink Flamingos (1972) at the Clay Theatre. [6] It was also known for midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), after the film release and a decade after. [7] [8] The Clay was part of a chain of indie theaters across the United States owned by Landmark Theatres starting in 1991 (and sometimes called Landmark's Clay Theatre). [1]
In late January 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clay Theatre was closed by Landmark Theatres. [1] [6] In 2021, the owner removed the seating from the theater and filed an application to covert it to retail use. [9] The local community rallied in hopes of the building re-opening as a movie theater, [1] and in May 2022 it was designated a city landmark. [2] In February 2024, it and the adjacent store were sold. [9]