The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's October 2013 Calendar

Some luck and some knowledge helped me decode the puzzle in the October calendar of the Castro Theater.

October 29 - I immediately recognized Elsa Lanchester from Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

October 21 - I thought the October 31 photo was a publicity shot from The Mummy (1932) or some such film as the gown the woman is wearing looks like a mummy's wrapped cloth.  I looked up The Mummy on IMDB and discovered the female lead was Zita Johann, an actress I recall from Howard Hawks' Tiger Shark (1932).  Not finding the photo on IMDB, I googled "Zita Johann The Mummy" and quickly found the photo, but not the photo on October 31 but rather the photo on October 21.  That's Zita Moran dressed in an ancient Egyptian headdress.

October 31 - Knowing Boris Karloff was in Bride of Frankenstein and The Mummy, I scoured through images of his films from the 1930s and could not find the October 31 photo.  Eventually, I gave up on the Karloff angle.

I noticed that The Monster Squad (1987) is playing at the Castro on October 19.  I remember enjoying that film when it came out and started to focus on it.  The monsters in The Monster Squad consisted of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  I started to believe that the woman in the photo on Halloween was associated with one of those films.  Since The Creature from the Black Lagoon was made in 1954 and the photo looks older, I focused on Dracula (1931) and The Wolfman (1941).  The female lead in Dracula was Helen Chandler.  The female lead in The Wolfman was Evelyn Ankers.  After looking at many internet photos of the two, I decided neither was the woman shown on October 31.

Riffing on Bride of Frankenstein, I started looking for sequels to Dracula and The Wolfman.  I found Dracula's Daughter (1936) and it's IMDB page made me hopeful.  The DVD cover drawing looks like the October 31 photo although the gown is wrinkling over the right shoulder on IMDB rather than the left shoulder in the photo.  I learned the lead actress in Dracula's Daughter was Gloria Holden (Marguerite Churchill from Raul Walsh's The Big Trail was also in the film).  I googled "Gloria Holden Dracula's Daughter" and the image was near the top of the search results.

Summarizing the photos in chronological order:

October 21 - Zita Johann from The Mummy (1932)

October 29 - Elsa Lanchester from Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

October 31 - Gloria Holden from Dracula's Daughter (1935)

I saw The Mummy at the Balboa several years ago during a Boris Karloff retrospective.  It's been 30 or more years since I saw Bride of Frankenstein.  I don't recall ever hearing about Dracula's Daughter much less seeing it.

I assume the clues simply point to Halloween in general or perhaps The Monster Squad.

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Speaking of creature features, this Sunday (September 29) the Castro is screening Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong! at 2 PM.  This 2008 documentary by Tom Wyrsch has screened many times in San Francisco but I keep missing it.  Wyrsch also directed Remembering Playland at the Beach (2010), Sutro's: The Palace at Lands End (2011) and The Cliff House & Sutro Heights (2013) - all three of which I have seen at the Balboa.  Watch Horror Films is about the Saturday night television show Creature Features which ran on KTVU from 1971 to 1984 and was hosted by the late Bob Wilkins and later John Stanley (whom I saw at a fundraiser at the Balboa a few years ago).

Speaking of Saturday night television series showing horror films, I arrived home a couple Saturday nights ago and saw that Saturday Night Live was a rerun.  I flipped over to KOFY to catch Balrok and No Name on Creepy KOFY Movie Time.  Typically the films are so bad that I can't stand it.  The in-studio skits between the breaks are so bad they are good...sometimes.  Anyway, I was amazed that CKMT was showing Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer (1979).  I've long wanted to see that film but I came in halfway through the film and the picture quality on the TV wasn't that great and they kept interrupting the film to tell stupid jokes.

Speaking of horror, I mentioned that I wanted to see Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky at the Castro last night.  I didn't make it to the film.  Instead, I was invited to Scary Sixth Street (aka Psycho Sixth Street) to dine at the recently reopened Tu Lan.  I first went to Tu Lan over 20 years ago and I don't remember the area being so rough.  I figure one of three things have happened.  1) I was young and dumb back then, 2) I'm old and scared now and/or 3) 6th St has gotten worse.  Anyway, I'm going to try to stick to visiting Tu Lan during daylight hours and even then the area is too sketchy for my comfort.

Tu Lan was the same as it ever was.  They have new furniture and the prices are up slightly but the menu hasn't changed (same numbering for the menu items), the food is still tasty and the smoke from cooking still fills up the interior space.  I can only hope their sanitation and food preparation standards have changed for the better.

I haven't been on street level for that stretch of Mid Market for awhile.  A block and a half are completely boarded up as if the buildings were condemned.  It looks like Detroit.  It must be part of the long anticipated Mid Market Redevelopment.  They were talking about that when I first visited Tu Lan in the early 1990s and it still hasn't happened.  I also noticed the Warfield Theater is being remodeled.

Castro Theater Calendar - October 2013

The Cliff House & Sutro Heights

Tom Wyrsch has had a strong run of locally focused documentaries in the past few years.  First, he directed Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong!  That documentary spotlighted the local television show Creature Features which ran for 14 years.  It was off the air by the time I moved to the Bay Area but I have heard about it from many viewers, particularly people who were teenagers during its run, 1971 to 1984, which is the same age demographic as me.  I have yet to see Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong!

Wyrsch folowed that up with Remembering Playland at the Beach which I saw at the Balboa in 2010.  Again, I moved to the Bay Area long after Playland at the Beach closed but have heard stories about it.  The demographic is a little older since Playland closed in 1972.

I guess the success of Remembering Playland at the Beach inspired Wyrsch to move up the road to make his next film - Sutro's: The Palace at Lands End which is about Sutro Baths.  That establishment burned down before I was born and I have yet never heard anyone I know talk about going to the Baths.  I saw Sutro's: The Palace at Lands End at the Balboa in 2011.

Wyrsch's latest film is screening, not surprisingly, at the Balboa.  This time he has focused his lens on the Cliff House as can be gathered from the title of his latest film, The Cliff House & Sutro Heights.

The Cliff House & Sutro Heights; documentary; directed by Tom Wyrsch; (2013) - Official Website

The Cliff House is still in existence.  I've been there to dine, play the old time arcade games at the Musée Mécanique when it was there (it was relocated to Pier 45 in 2002) and see the Camera Obscura.  I think that makes The Cliff House different than the previous films I have seen by Wyrsch.

First, the Cliff House loses the nostalgia and for me, the shroud historical importance which comes from not having ever been there like Playland or Sutro Baths.  My memory of dining at the Cliff House 15+ years ago is that of a slightly overprice meal of mediocre quality with a view of a fogged in Pacific Ocean.  Not much to write home about.  Sutro Heights Park was, in my mind, the wooded and grassy area with statues around the corner from the Cliff House.

Putting aside my opinions of the Cliff House & Sutro Heights Park, The Cliff House feels like Wyrsch has gone to the well one too many times.  Many of the locals interviewed in The Cliff House appeared in Playland and Sutro's.  To a viewer who has seen all three documentaries, Wyrsch seems to be repeating himself.  Indeed, some of the interview subjects mentioned they would spend the day shuttling back & forth between Playland, Sutro Baths and the Cliff House.  It seems like a child's paradise.  I would likely have been doing it if I grew up in the area at the time.  The problem is that Wyrsch has covered this ground before and adds some background scenes regarding Playland and Sutro Baths which I recall from the previous films.

Not putting aside my opinions of the Cliff House & Sutro Heights Park  I wonder how much of nostalgia I would have agreed with if I had experienced Playland and Sutro Baths.  If Wyrsch can wax poetic about the current Cliff House, an establishment I am neutral about at best, what does it say about Playland and Sutro Baths.  Indeed, Wyrsch's documentary and conversations I have had indicate Playland was run down and somewhat seedy at the end.

Ultimately, who am I to challenge another man's nostalgia?  I'm the guy paying the admission price.  It was interesting to learn about the Victorian Chateau Cliff House which is the most grandiose of the four or five versions which have existed.  Gone for more than 100 years, that version only existed for 11 years before one of the many fires on the site destroyed it.  A freighter carrying gunpowder or some explosive ran aground nearby and exploded thus raining fiery debris on the Cliff House.  It was interesting the current Cliff House superimposed on the Victorian Chateau to get a sense of how much larger it was.

I don't know if I'm going to see anymore of Wyrsch's films if he continues documenting the Sunset District.  I say that but I'm always interested in San Francisco history.  Some of the interview subject mentioned the Merrie Way Stands which I was completely unaware of and sounds intriguing.  Also, I've always wanted to learn more about Fleishhacker Pool.

The Sutro Cliff House (aka Victorian Chateau, aka Gingerbread Palace)