1922 San Francisco Landmark Theater and Site of a 1933 Tragedy
445 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Performance ticket prices vary by show; typical Broadway touring productions $50-150 per seat.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored 1922 theater with elevators and accessible seating
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1922 · Historic Broadway Touring House · San Francisco Theater District · Renaissance Revival Architecture
The Curran Theatre was built in 1922 by theater impresario Homer Curran on Geary Street in what would become San Francisco's Theater District. The 1,667-seat house was designed in the Renaissance Revival style and intended as a venue for traveling Broadway and West End productions. The Curran has hosted touring productions across more than a century of operations, including major American premieres in the 1930s through 1950s and continuing through the present.
The theater's most-documented incident occurred on the evening of November 28, 1933, two nights before Thanksgiving. Twenty-five-year-old box-office treasurer Hewlett G. Tarr was working the ticket window before a 7:30 pm performance of Show Boat when twenty-one-year-old Edward "Eddie" Anderson attempted a robbery. According to Anderson's later statement, his pistol caught on the box-office bars and discharged, striking Tarr in the heart. Tarr stumbled down the stairs behind the box office and died at the theater. He had been supporting his widowed mother and was two weeks from his wedding day.
Anderson was arrested almost immediately, tried, and convicted. After a deliberation that lasted approximately seven hours, the jury returned a death sentence. He was hanged at San Quentin State Prison. The case is documented in San Francisco Police Department records and in the contemporary press archive of the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner.
The Curran was acquired by Carole Shorenstein Hays and family in the 2010s and underwent a comprehensive restoration completed in 2017. The renovated theater continues to host Broadway touring productions and special events.
Sources
The principal haunting story at the Curran Theatre concerns Hewlett G. Tarr, the young box-office treasurer killed in the 1933 robbery. Traditional accounts describe his image appearing in the large mirror that stood for decades in the lobby near the box office, particularly during performances and most often to audience members who knew nothing of the venue's history. Witnesses have described a handsome young man in 1930s clothing, possibly wedding attire, reflected in the glass without a corresponding person standing in the lobby.
The SF Weekly's Yesterday's Crimes column traces the persistence of the story across more than eight decades. The fact that Tarr was two weeks from his wedding when he was killed gives the lobby-mirror account an added emotional weight in San Francisco theater lore.
Additional reports include phantom footsteps along the upper-balcony aisles, particularly after a performance has cleared, and the occasional sound of a deep male sigh in the box-office area. Restoration of the theater in the mid-2010s removed or relocated some of the lobby furniture associated with the Tarr accounts; reports have continued.
Notable Entities
Attend a Broadway touring production or special performance at the Curran. The theater's lobby, with the historical mirror associated with the Hewlett Tarr story, is the most directly relevant space to the venue's haunted lore and is publicly accessible during shows.
Several SF ghost-walking tours pass the Curran's Geary Street facade and recount the Hewlett Tarr robbery and shooting. Tours pair the Curran with other Theater District and Union Square ghost-folklore stops.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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