The Chutes Zoo opened in 1896 and included animals from all climes, claiming more than its fair share of carnivores. The zoo’s top-liner, Wallace the Lion, drew the crowds. Wallace was touted as the largest, fiercest lion in America. Other zoos offered as high as $5,000 to purchase him. Part of his attraction came from the fact that he had proved untamable, though many a lion-tamer had tried. Other animals available for viewing included a South American jaguar, the Black Bear Brigade, a pair of Indian leopards, kangaroos, wallabies, a brigade of cinnamon bears, and a small pride of lions. The hyena proved a major disappointment; the melancholy beast never laughed. The Congo family, three orangutans, Joe, Sally, and Baby Johanna Congo, joined the fray late, around 1900. The trio aped a human family when seated at the table, with Joe smoking his pipe and Sally sipping tea while Baby Johanna tossed the dishes or played with her doll.
The Darwinian Temple housed a great array of monkeys including Capuchin, Rhesus, Saponins, Spider, Pigtail, and Dog-face, many available to touch and feed by hand. Glass cases encircling the interior of the structure contained reptiles from around the world.
The Chutes Museum displayed a sad lot. It included all of the zoo animals that died in captivity—stuffed! Rajah, the Bengal tiger, largest of his species, constituted one of the feature attractions of the museum. The brochure, Chutes and Its Myriad Attractions, 1901, stated:
“Here may be seen the three-thousand dollar, long-tailed and longmaned horse, “Beauty.” This animal, in life, was one of the chief attractions of the zoo; in death, he is a permanent object of interest, not alone to those who knew him in the zoo, but to those who now see him for the first time. A more beautiful animal never lived.… Also the immense alligator “Jess,” over fourteen feet in length, can here be seen, along with numerous other animals of all descriptions that, for too short a period, constituted a part of the live animal collection in the chutes zoo.”
The Chutes Theatre opened on June 27, 1897, and claimed to be the largest vaudeville house west of Chicago. Operated year-round, day and night, the auditorium measured 100 feet wide by 130 feet long with seating for 2,000 on the lower floor and another 1,000 in the gallery. The theatre sponsored amateur nights, local performers and vaudeville acts, animal acts, and acrobatic performances, as well as audience-participation events like Cake Walk Night, where those skilled in the art of dancing the cake walk competed for prizes (See ‘Scuse me while I Cakewalk at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/lucas/cake.html). By 1899, the Chutes began booking name acts like Little Egypt with her “Hoochy Kootchy” act. They also demonstrated Edison’s chromatograph. Both shows drew large crowds.
Its rides, theatre, attractions, and restaurant kept the park lively until midnight. Outdoor electric illumination, as well as an illuminated electric fountain, lit up the park at night. An electric tower, similar to the one built for the Midwinter Fair, marked the park’s location for those in the surrounding areas. The beacon could be seen for miles.
THE CHUTES AT TENTH AND FULTON
By the turn of the century, the park had outgrown its limited space. The value of the land had appreciated markedly, and was now worth more than the proceeds from the park. San Francisco housing was marching westward and land speculators wanted the property to build the homes clamored for by a growing upper-middle class. Owners Charles Ackerman closed the park on March 16, 1902, tore it down, and rebuilt the amusement mall on leased property located on Fulton Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, opening again on May 1, 1902. The new park took advantage of the open spaces in the sand dunes of the Richmond district, expanding its offerings. All of the attractions from the old park found their way to the new site except for the zoo. The restaurant and café still operated in the same manner, with adult beverages kept segregated from the ladies and kids. The park also sported a “sign of the times”—a free “commodious automobile and buggy shed, with an entrance on Tenth Avenue.”
Shoot-the-Chutes again took top billing with riders encouraged to look for the Farallon Islands beyond the Golden Gate and even Honolulu, Japan and China from the top of the ride. The new Scenic Railway on its elevated track passed painted tableau-style pictures of remote places including the Alps, Venice, the Blue Grotto of Capri, the Rock Caves of Ellora, India, Egypt, Dixieland and California.
The Chutes on Fulton boasted the first movie house in the city. Named Gillo’s Artesto, it offered silent film shorts like Jim Corbett training for an upcoming bout. The audience would watch anything.
Moving pictures—the concept boggled the mind. Then, so did the Mystic Mirror Maze, a house of mirrors guaranteed to put at least one bump on your forehead. If that wasn’t enough, Cabaret De Le Mort displayed historic instruments of torture and death.
The Circle Swing created another opportunity for thrills. Basket cars, suspended by cables from a large tower wheel, were spun out by centrifugal force as the wheel turned. The faster the spin, the higher and faster the baskets spun around the tower.
The rowdy new Chutes Pavilion Theater still claimed to be the biggest west of Chicago. Situated on purchased property on the east side of Tenth Avenue, it occupied the south-east corner of Tenth and C (later named Cabrillo) Streets. A great barn-like structure one hundred feet wide by 155 feet long, the theatre seated 2,200 on the main floor and 1,800 in the gallery. Access was via a tunnel under Tenth Avenue or by a bridge over it to the block where it stood on the east side of the grounds. Hosting some of the best shows in the business, the theater ran an ongoing series of acts, performers, and plays. “Shooting the Chutes,” a musical comedy featuring the comedian team of Harkwood and Leonzo, played in late September 1905. Al Jolson played the Chutes Theatre in 1907 in celebration of the city’s reconstruction.
Entrance to the Chutes at Fulton and Tenth streets. —Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
The park remained open daily until April 18, 1906. That morning the ground shook and pieces of the park shook themselves apart. San Francisco’s Great Earthquake managed to shut the doors at the Chutes for a few weeks, but it bounced back quickly. The city needed time to lick its wounds and the park offered a respite from the rebuilding of the city. The Orpheum’s Theatre group leased the Chutes’ theatre, bringing large, entertainment-starved crowds out to Tenth Avenue. Their first production opened on May 20, 1906, just a bit more than a month after the cataclysmic event with vaudeville acts and a short movie reel. The Orpheum rebuilt in the Fillmore Theatre district eight months later but their tenure at the Chutes proved lucrative for the Ackerman family.
Shooting the Chutes at the Fulton Street park. — Author’s collection
The Chutes announced the construction of a roller skating rink on October 21, 1906, to be open before the Christmas holidays. Located on the northeast corner of Fulton and Tenth, it boasted a double floor, intended to soften the noise of the rollers on hardwood. Delayed by heavy rains, by the time it opened on February 9, 1907, the crowds were migrating to the new entertainment district on Fillmore Street. Coney Island Park opened on Fillmore on November 23, 1907, offering direct competition.
Charles Ackerman died the next month, leaving Chutes management to his son Irving, a young Yale-trained lawyer. Irving bought out the Fulton lease and sold it all off. He then purchased the Coney Island Park lease and building, constructing his New Chutes on the block bounded by Fillmore, Turk, Webster and Eddy streets.
The Circle Swing Flying Machine at the Chutes. —Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University