Petalumans of Yesteryear Friday, April 25th, 2025, Petaluma, CA
By G. Allen Johnson, Staff Writer April 6, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
When San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stepped from behind the red curtain onstage at the Great Star Theater, he received polite applause. But he can read a room.
“I’m not the Daniel you’ve been waiting for,” he joked, “but I’m here nonetheless.”
Lurie was referring to Hollywood actor and East Bay native Daniel Wu, a guest of honor during the 100th anniversary celebration of the 400-plus-seat theater — the only active theater in any Chinatown in the United States — that was nearly filled to capacity on Saturday, April 5.
“This theater is one of the gems and jewels of our city, of our Chinatown,” said Lurie, who declared Saturday as “Great Star Theater Day” in San Francisco and praised owners Roger Pincombe and Alice Chu, who revitalized the event space. “Thank you to both of you for everything you’ve done, not only for this community, but for our entire city.”
The Great Star first opened in 1925 as Great China Theater primarily as a Chinese opera house and cultural events center. It added movies to the menu during World War II; future martial arts action star Bruce Lee, born up the street at the old Chinese Hospital, hung out at the theater, where his father performed Chinese opera, as a teenager during the late 1950s.
After decades of mostly disuse and neglect, Pincombe and Chu, who are married, reopened it in 2021 as a nonprofit and have hosted hundreds of events such as a “Star Wars” burlesque parody, which brought in some 40,000 ticket buyers during a three-month run in 2022; last month’s premiere of “The City of Sensitive Frauds,” a documentary examining gentrification in San Francisco; and several programs for CAAMFest, the Asian American themed film festival, and comedy series SF Sketchfest.
To honor its century of versatility, Saturday’s program was stacked with Bay Area acts, which began with a traditional dragon dance performance by Leung’s White Crane Dragon and Lion Dance Association that blocked Jackson Street traffic.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/great-star-theater-sf-chinatown-20259763.php
Greg