Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre - History

History

The Mitchell brothers opened the O'Farrell as an adult cinema on the site of a former two-story Pontiac car dealership. Upstairs they produced and directed the pornographic films they showed downstairs. Later, observing that the Condor Club in North Beach had been a topless bar since 1964 apparently with legal impunity, the Mitchells decided to make their establishment primarily a striptease club by having their carpenter build showrooms.

The Mitchell brothers' classic adult film Behind the Green Door premiered at the O'Farrell in 1972, with the brothers' parents in the audience. The Mitchells produced and directed (and occasionally made cameo appearances in) many others of varying lengths, with mixed commercial and critical success.

In the 1980s, newly elected Mayor Dianne Feinstein walked into the O'Farrell and said, "I want to check this place out." Jim Mitchell, in the lobby at that moment, reportedly said, "Sure, if you buy a ticket." Feinstein walked out. Soon after, raids occurred, ostensibly to restore safety and health of exotic dancers and resulted in obscenity charges being filed against the Mitchells. The brothers, apparently not lacking a sense of humor, changed their marquee to read, "For showtimes, call..." and displayed Feinstein's unlisted phone number.

In the early 1970s, the theater would stop its adult features at midnight on Wednesdays, then re-open as the 'Nickelodeon,' with five-cent admission and free popcorn. The audience of young hippies would be shown movies such as Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello, Yellow Submarine, or other counter-cultural favorites, all non-pornographic, with much communal drinking and marijuana smoking, and general carousing. Inspections and disruptions by the fire department and police were common, but the shows usually continued until three in the morning or later.

The O'Farrell featured sex shows on stage until the courts ordered them to discontinue doing so. As well, the dancers in New York Live! originally were nude as they sat on customers' laps, but a judge instructed the O'Farrell's management to ensure that the girls, when doing lap dances, at least wore brassieres and underpants. Spontaneous onstage lesbian sex acts are still common at the O'Farrell.

The Mitchell brothers supported various cartoon artists, and when the 1984 Democratic National Convention was held in San Francisco, they opened the second floor of the O'Farrell to a group of underground cartoonists covering the convention for the San Francisco Chronicle.

For a period in the early 1980s, the Mitchells, as a special attraction, featured "headliners," female porn stars who danced in the O'Farrell's Cine-Stage (a movie theater with a stage at the base of the screen). The management sold a separate admission ticket ($20) for those performances. On February 1, 1985, the Cine-Stage was raided by a dozen police officers during a headlining appearance by Marilyn Chambers (star of Behind the Green Door); the district attorney declined to press charges. Police later retaliated against a journalist who had suggested that the raid occurred to derail an ordinance that would have stripped police from rights to license adult theaters. Perhaps because of the Marilyn Chambers incident (as well as the increasing financial burden of booking famous performers into the O'Farrell), the Mitchells virtually discontinued headliners. One exception was the late Megan Leigh (1964–90), a former house dancer who quit the O'Farrell in 1986 to begin starring in adult videos. Leigh returned at least once to dance in the Cine-Stage, presumably to sold-out crowds.

Over the years, the Mitchells were the defendants in over 200 court cases involving obscenity or related charges. Always victorious, they were represented by aggressive counsel (Michael Kennedy, then Artie Mitchell's wife Meredith and, following her dismissal, the late Tom Steel and his law partner Nanci Clarence).

Hunter S. Thompson claimed in his 2003 book Kingdom of Fear that he had worked for a while as night manager at the club in 1985, an assertion repeated in some news articles.

In February 1991, the theater entered the news after Jim Mitchell fatally shot Artie. Michael Kennedy defended Jim Mitchell and convinced the jury that Jim killed Artie because the latter was psychotic from drugs and had become dangerous (Artie had recently threatened to throw a Molotov cocktail into the O'Farrell's lobby; his brother, in 1996, established the "Artie Fund" to raise money for drug-abuse prevention). Jim Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and released from San Quentin in 1997, after having served half his sentence. (See the article on the Mitchell brothers for details.)

During the celebrations for the O'Farrell's 30-year anniversary in 1999, burlesque star Tempest Storm, by then in her 70s, danced on stage. Mayor Willie Brown declared a "Tempest Storm Day" in her honor. Marilyn Chambers returned to perform in the theatre on July 28, 1999 in what Willie Brown dubbed "Marilyn Chambers Day."

In 2004, two similar San Francisco clubs (the New Century Theater and the Market Street Cinema) were visited by undercover police officers, and some dancers allegedly propositioned them. The dancers were cited for prostitution and the managers for operating a brothel. The assistant manager at the Market Street Cinema told the police to investigate the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. All charges were later dropped; these days, the authorities seem not to mind what transpires between the customers and dancers as long as it remains discreet.

When San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women proposed in 2006 to ban private booths and rooms at adult clubs because of concerns about sexual assaults taking place there, several O'Farrell dancers spoke out against the ban.

As of 2006, Jeff Armstrong, its longtime business manager, continued running the O'Farrell; legal representation is provided by former San Francisco Supervisor and two-term District Attorney Terence Hallinan.