These negatives show a once popular theatre in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Opened as the Oriental Theatre in 1909, then renamed the Mandarin in 1925 and finally the Sun Sing in 1950, the Sun Sing Theatre has a different history than many of those previously explored on this tumblr.
While many of the other theatres on this blog started out as Vaudeville houses and then transitioned to film exhibition, the Sun Sing was originally an opera house where Chinatown locals could watch visiting troupes perform Cantonese Opera. By the time the theatre became the Mandarin, movies were becoming the popular entertainment form, but as this 1996 SF Weekly article explains, Chinese immigrants often felt uncomfortable at theatres outside of Chinatown.
Architect and Chinatown historian Philip Choy says the theaters were an important aspect of life in Chinatown, especially for first-generation Chinese-Americans. “Very few people ventured outside Chinatown,” says Choy, 71, who grew up there. “In those days, Chinese people were really not welcome in Western movie theaters. Also, they didn’t really understand the language, so there was no point in going to the American movies.”
On a typical weekend night, audiences would line up to see the latest films from Hong Kong and China at the Sun Sing or the Great China. Admission was a dime, which included a newsreel and cartoons in English, and a main attraction in Cantonese. Moviegoers smoked (and spat), and munched on popcorn, melon seeds, and other snacks during the shows.
For many first-generation immigrants, the Chinese movies evoked the familiar in a country where everything was new. Many of the films had typically “Chinese” themes and story lines that resonated with audiences, like the unfaithful husband, the disloyal son, and the country bumpkin. Slapstick comedies starring actors like Hai Chow (called “Shoehorn,” because of his long chin), legendary tales of the Sam Gok, or “Three Kingdoms,” and the inevitable tear-jerkers were equally popular among Chinatown moviegoers.
(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)
