Film Vaults of the Tenderloin

 Posted by on November 7, 2013
Nov 072013
 

245-259 Hyde Street
The Tenderloin

 Film Vaults of San Francisco 1930's

I have driven by this area with these stunning Art Deco/Art Moderne buildings all in a row, and never pursued the history.  An evening of beers at the Brown Jug with Mark Ellinger and my eyes were opened.

Originally theaters purchased the films they showed their patrons. Then Harry, Herbert and Earle C. Miles, San Francisco brothers, realized there was a business in buying films in bulk and renting them to movie houses. Their original distribution centers were on Market Street/Golden Gate Avenue.

Inside these four buildings were film vaults with thick concrete walls and big iron doors with elaborate sprinkler and ventilation systems.  The reason is, the original films were highly flammable nitrate-based.  Movie theaters frequently caught fire because of these flammable films, even more reason for a delivery system.  In the 1950’s a less flammable form of acetate based film, actually called safety film, came into existence.

 

MGM Lion

The first building of the series is the MGM Film Vault, distinguished by the MGM Lion.

 MGM Grand Film Vault SF

These four buildings are built on two lots.  The MGM and the Comedy and Tragedy buildings were on one lot (255-259) and the brown building and the blue building hidden behind the tree were on a second (245-251).  These now all sit on one lot.

According to Mark’s article at Found in SF  the original owners of the corner building were the Bell Brothers in 1930 and then Frank and Ida Onorato in 1947.

Until the end of the 1980s, businesses along this stretch of Hyde Street and around the corner on Golden Gate Avenue included Wally Heider Studios (now Hyde Street Studios), Monaco Labs and Leo Diner Films—a recording studio and motion picture labs/post-production facilities that, with the advent of acetate-based Kodacolor and black-and-white reversal motion picture film in the early 1950s, had taken over film exchange buildings.

Comedy and Tragedy on Hayes Street, SF

*Hyde Street Film Vaults

The architects were O’Brien Brothers and W.D. Peugh (1930). These gentlemen worked together on several buildings in San Francisco including the Art Deco Title Insurance Company Building on Montgomery Street, where you can read about their long history with San Francisco.

These buildings housed 20th Century Fox, Loews, and United Artists film exchanges as well.

Film Vaults of San Francisco's Tenderloin

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Ornamentation on one of the fil vaults

 

 

  2 Responses to “Film Vaults of the Tenderloin”

  1. Glad to know our afternoon at the Brown Jug turned out to be so productive. The Tenderloin is full of old film exchange buildings, but the Deco designs along Hyde Street are standouts.

    We really do need to collaborate on a piece about the beautiful civic lamps of San Francisco. Just sayin’…

  2. These are so wonderful! Thanks for showing them.

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