A reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle said of the new theater: [The auditorium] suggests the outdoors, with none of the roofed-over feel that characterizes the average theatre.

It is like sitting under a bit of blue sky, so effective is the color suggestion.In the following decades, the theatre presented such performers as The Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Roy Rogers, The Three Stooges, Ethel Waters, the Marx Brothers, and Frank Sinatra, before RKO converted it in 1954 to present films, leasing it to the Cinerama Corporation.

[5] In the transition to showing movies, some of the interior architectural work was destroyed, with an escalator replacing the central marble staircase, and neon signs being installed.

[5] BroadwaySF has presented many Broadway shows at the Golden Gate, such as Sweeney Todd, Stomp, Hairspray, Mamma Mia!, Chicago, and Rent.

[9] The Theatre staged a national touring company production of Fiddler on the Roof starring Theodore Bikel as Tevye in 2001.