Laurel Theater — San Francisco, CA (1960s–1970s Era)
During the late 1960s and 1970s, San Francisco’s Market Street theater district was filled with grindhouses, adult cinemas, and independent movie houses. Among them was the Laurel Theater, a venue that screened adult films during a time when queer cinema was beginning to emerge from the underground.
Advertisements from the era promoted films like Fire Island Motel, part of the wave of 1970s gay adult films that circulated through specialty theaters, bookstores, and nightlife districts in cities with growing LGBTQ communities.
