The Clay Theatre opened in 1913 as the nickelodeon Regent Theatre showing many Mary Pickford films. Note the shaped parapets and plaster ornamentation of the front façade.
In 1935 the theater became Clay International under Herbert Rosener and played a key role in introducing and popularizing foreign and independent films in San Francisco. It was the first theater in the city dedicated to foreign films.
In the 1970s Clay became known for cult film screenings. It was one of the early and most influential venues for midnight screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and hosted a four-month run of Pink Flamingos. Despite the urban legend it was not the first theater to show Pink Flamingos in San Francisco, nor the first to hold a midnight screening - just the best-known and best-loved.
You can see it briefly in Rob Nilsson’s taxi-centric film Signal 7 (1983).
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