Travel another way

The Castro Theatre was built in 1910, and originally  located at 479 Castro Street . In the mid 1920s, a  larger Castro Theater was built at 429 Castro Street, its current location, only a few doors up from the original theatre. Its facade was ornated in the   Spanish Colonial Baroque style , just like the basilica in Mission Dolores.

The architect in charge was Timothy L.Pflueger who also worked on Oakland’s Paramount theater, among others.

It officially opened to the public on 23 June 1922, showing the Paramount release Across the Continent (1922), starring Wallace Reid.

Today, movies are still played at the Castro theater, but special events are real treats, such as sing-alongs , festivals and concerts, as well as charity events that are taking place there from time to time. The interior decoration and the Wurlitzer pipe organ  played on special events give the whole atmosphere an exquisite ambiance and make you travel back in time.

In January 2008, when Gus Van Sant shot his movie Milk, dedicated to the memory of Harvey Milk, assassinated in San Francisco in  , the neon lights were renovated on the theater’s marquee , and the facade  repainted.

Yearly  events:

• Noir City: the Film Noir festival(Jan-Feb)
• San Francisco International film festival (Ap-May)
• the Asian American film festival (March)
• Berlin and beyond: German film festival (Jan)
• San Francisco Jewish festival (Feb)
• Shock it to me:  Classic horror film festival ( Oct)
• and more….

Current programming:

• Noir City 7 (black and white movies)

Coming soon:

• February 6: Midnites for Maniacs
• February 7: Scary Cow Festival
• February 15-26: Milk
• February 27-March 5: Amarcord
• March 23: Petula Clark
• April 8 – 13: Mamamia sing-long (I’ll be there ! I love sing-alongs and Abba! What a treat!)

For more details, visit http://www.castrotheatre.com/index.html

Videos:

• Interviews for the 85th anniversary of the theater
• The Wurlitzer pipe organ