CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Showgirl Magic Museum

museum in San Francisco, California

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ110207371 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Showgirl Magic Museum is a history and culture museum in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, California in the United States. The museum showcases on the 20th-century nightclub scene in Chinatown.

History

The Showgirl Magic Museum was founded in 2020 by former nightclub dancer and model, Cynthia Yee. Yee created the concept for the museum in March 2020, when California went under a statewide stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The basement of the Clarion Performing Arts Center, where Yee serves as vice-president, was serving as a music education space prior to the pandemic. When the space was required to close due to the stay-at-home order, Yee decided the space could be better used as a museum to showcase the once vibrant nightclub and showgirl scene in Chinatown in the 19th century.

The museum was going to open on Halloween 2020, however, more stay-at-home orders required the museum opening to be delayed until May 1, 2021.

Collection and exhibitions

The museum is open by appointment only, with exceptions being special events or performances at the Clarion Performing Arts Center. Guests to the museum are guided through the exhibitions by members of the Grant Avenue Follies, a performance group founded by Yee. Yee also gives tours.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Showgirl Magic Museum” as museum in San Francisco, California. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 2021—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Showgirl, Magic and Museum can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as museum in San Francisco, California. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110207371. Authority coordinates are 37.793, -122.407. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 2021.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Showgirl Magic Museum”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Showgirl Magic Museum primary sources, Showgirl Magic Museum archive and Showgirl research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Showgirl Magic Museum”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Showgirl Magic Museum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.