The Death of the Clay

My posts have been very Kurosawa, lately. That’s understandable as my Kurosawa Diary and the Pacific Film Archive’s Akira Kurosawa Centennial series come simultaneously to an end. But I figured I needed to write something about the death of Landmark’s Clay Theatre.

In case you haven’t heard, the Clay, which may be the only remaining single-screen theater in the Landmark chain, goes dark on Sunday, and will probably never light up again. The San Francisco Film Society offered to take over the Clay’s lease or buy the building, but landlord Balgobind Jaiswal isn’t interested. See Meredith May’s article in the Chronicle for details.

The Film Society’s interest is obvious. The Clay is located a short (but steep) walk from the Kabuki, and is used heavily for the San Francisco International Film Festival (or was used, I should say).

To make things all the sadder, the Clay marks its 100th birthday this year. It opened as a nickelodeon in 1910, and has been showing movies ever since.

I have to admit that it was never a favorite of mine. Although I went to an awful lot of movies during the two years I lived in San Francisco (1977-78), I have no memory of visiting the Clay. Afterwards, I crossed the Bay once to see Live of Brian there; I don’t remember why I didn’t see it someplace closer. With all the spring days I’ve spent at the San Francisco International Film Festival over the past few years, the only event I attended at the Clay was Kevin Kelly’s State of Cinema Address in 2008.

Still, we’re losing a piece of local movie-going history. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last.