In praise of (nearly extinct) big curved-screen 70mm theatres

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by MLutthans, Oct 13, 2010.

  1. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    Cool! Check out the lobby photo there with that ugly 80s-era remodel. Bleh.

    dan c
     
  2. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    This other flickr photo suggests that you're correct:

    View attachment 226528

    I always enjoy your posts, even when the content is not the happiest of news. Here's all that's left of where I saw many classic 60s-70s-80s films, including all ofthe first 3 Star Wars, Superman The Movie, Blade Runner, Easy Rider... :(

    View attachment 226531

    In happier times:

    View attachment 226532
     
  3. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Hi, Sparkydog. Thanks for the kind words and for posting another depressing photo. (I tease....but there's an element of truth to that sentiment, too!)

    That photo you posted looks like a General Cinema facility. That's in Louisville, right?

    Here's the 1-2-3 that I went to for many years. I remember when it opened, and the idea of a mulitplex was very...."Ooooohhh....MULTI-plex......" When I was in the adjoining auditorium during a Sensurround showing of EARTHQUAKE, I remember thinking: Ooh! Multiplex!! :realmad:

    http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/11796.html

    In the theatre you posted about, did they expand from a 1-2-3 to a 14 plex? By adding separate buildings? "My" 1-2-3 grew with the addition of a IV-V-VI across the street, then a 7-10 that adjoined that latter facility. All gone now.

    Matt
     
  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Doh, about five years ago, I visited my old home town, Tampa, and went by the shopping center that had the Britton Theater, where I saw all the 1960s James Bond films, Elvis movies, horror flicks, you name it. This massive theater -- I think it held at least 1200 people -- was sliced up into 6 or 7 small theaters, and just looked like hell. Time has not been kind to the building.

    I remember there was a large faded billboard on the side that I used to look at when I was a kid, proclaiming the "new Walt Disney feature Sleeping Beauty," so I figured the place had been built in 1959, and that was probably one of the first films they showed. I had many happy childhood experiences there.

    It's sad that a lot of children growing up will never know the experience of seeing a movie as an event, particularly the old road-show theaters, Cinerama, and all that stuff. Heck, I remember that people used to kind of dress up to go to the movies, as opposed to showing up in shorts, bad T-shirts, and flip-flops.
     
  5. captainsolo

    captainsolo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro, TN
    Oh gosh, I went to the Britton theater while I was in college several times! It's actually divided into 8 now and going first run supposedly. While I was at school it changed hands and was opened up as a second run that also featured Bollywood films. It wasn't terrible presentation-wise but not that great either. I don't think the new owners ever knew what they were getting into. According to the Net, it was opened in 1956 with 1800 seats and 70mm capability. Sad to see huge palace rooms just carved up with no regard for dynamics, acoustics, screen size or anything.

    Then again I've always been a historic theater nut and nearly broke down when I first discovered cinematreasures.org. I haunted old former theaters when I was a kid, always dreaming of one day restoring one to it's former glory with a massive deep curved screen and 70mm. Tellingly so, my first job was in a independent run 60's era theater that had been twinned four times and expanded to be a 6 screen.

    But for sheer Gothic atmosphere, the Tampa Theatre is a must-see. I've seen all kinds of movie palaces, but the detail in there is incredible from the lighting to the fully intact organ to the lights in the ceiling made up to look like stars in the night sky. They haven't really changed the screen and stage setup so it still resembles the look of the silent era. This made a huge impact when seeing the '25 Phantom and The Mummy which both originally played there. (Chaney and Karloff seemed quite alive I assure you!) Talk about atmosphere...the first time I went in there I half expected Vincent Price to appear playing the organ and plotting for his critic's circle award...:D

    I think the biggest screen I've personally seen is the Chinese, but sadly the film was not up to par... (some people just had to go and see Superman Returns on my only visit :realmad:) and I still have never gotten to see a true 70mm presentation which I still lament. That's not even getting into Cinerama which I would kill to see. There was a former Cinerama theater here in Nashville that was still standing a few years back but the owners finally decided to raze the place.
     
  6. captainsolo

    captainsolo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro, TN
    http://cinematreasures.org/blog/2009/10/30/happy-50th-sleeping-beauty
    You're right. 70mm likely with stereophonic sound.
     
  7. Downsampled

    Downsampled Senior Member

    Does anyone know the history of the dome in Pleasant Hill, California? It's now a CineArts theater -- but is certainly the same as the Syufy domes down in San Jose. I'm very impressed that it's still in one piece. It's a large theater and it makes me nervous watching smaller, independent films in there -- every time I'm there I feel like it's going to be the last time before they tear it down.

    We went to see the new Whit Stillman movie there recently. My wife and I were the only people in there! Yikes.
     
  8. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Yes, I know that theatre fairly well. It was built for the short-lived Dimension 150 ("D-150") process, a 70mm 6-track competitor to Cinerama, Todd-AO, etc. The theatre originally had a much more deeply-curved -- and larger -- screen than it does now, although the screen now is still quite large and quite curved. The UA-150 in Seattle, also built for D-150 (thus the name), was very similar.

    It's not QUITE the same as the Century 21 in San Jose, which was built for 3-projector Cinerama, but it is very, very similar, you are correct. Both were built by Syufy (San Jose in 1963, Pleasant Hill in 1966, I think, with the adjoining theatres added later.)

    I've been in the booth at both theatres (Pleasant Hill and San Jose), and one cool feature of the booth at Pleasant Hill: It still has its original 1960's Ampex reel-to-reel film changeover control box, with settings for optical mono sound, 4 track mag stereo, and 70mm 6-track sound. It also has it's original D-150 control box on the wall. It's no longer functional, since the D-150 screen has been removed, but at one time that box controlled all the curtain and masking features, with presets for 1.37 academy, 1.85 flat 35mm, 2.35 35mm scope, 70mm, and 70mm D-150, as well as manual stop/start for any oddball needs that may arise.

    There's some good info on the excellent and under-appreciated D-150 system here: http://home.earthlink.net/~filmteknik/d150.htm

    Matt
     
  9. Downsampled

    Downsampled Senior Member

    Thanks Matt! That's a much more detailed and interesting reply than I expected. :cheers:

    I've now lived in the area for about 20 years and it seems like its appended theaters weren't there back then, but I could be mis-remembering. In any case, I've definitely seen the attached mall get a couple facelifts.

    It's sad that that dome very rarely gets big-screen blockbusters these days. We just saw Moonrise Kingdom there, and it was a treat -- but they aren't exactly packing them in with that.
     
  10. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    PleasantHillAMpex.jpg PleasantHillD150.jpg PleasantHillSeating.jpg Screen shot 2012-06-25 at 6.57.47 AM.jpg Screen shot 2012-06-25 at 7.00.15 AM.jpg When the Montgomery Ward chain went belly-up, that was really a death-nell for the shopping complex, IMO. Has anything moved into that building?

    I've got a slew of photos of the place (Cine-arts, Pleasant Hill, CA) stashed around here somewhere, but for convenience's sake, here are some that I snagged from Cinematour.com and my e-mail pal Scott Neff (and one of mine posted there), showing that original Ampex switchover box and D-150 control box that are up in the booth, and some building details.

    There were many domes like this built, mostly in northern California by Syufy, but a few elsewhere, too. Most, however, were pretty standard 35mm facilities, with only a very small number of the earliest ones being built for the megascreen, deeply-curved-screen processes Cinerama and D-150, and to my knowledge, the only two buildings of this style that were built for one of those two processes that are still functioning as theatres are in San Jose and Pleasant Hill. The D-150 UA in Colorado Springs is still more-or-less intact, but is now used for live theatre.
     
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    PleasantHillOrigScreen.jpg PleasantHillScreenPull-out.jpg
    ^^^^^^ That's 1966 stadium seating, folks! These D-150 theatres were very well designed.

    Two more shots, again stolen from Scott's collection, below.

    In the top shot, I've tried to outline roughly what the original D-150 screen size would have been. That's outlined in red in the top shot. It's tricky to accurately delineate, though, because the original D-150 screen followed the curvature of the dome itself, following a 120-degree arc. In the bottom photo, I've drawn two arrows showing where Century Theatres physically "pulled" the screen forward from its original position, the new "pulled forward" screen being much less-deeply curved than the original. If you go to the theatre and talk to the staff, they will swear to you that the huge screen there now is the original, but they are sadly incorrect. Just nod politely and say, "OK." :)

    Matt
     
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  12. Downsampled

    Downsampled Senior Member

    Great stuff! I really had no idea there were so few left in the area. I will appreciate it even more now.

    It got a pretty thorough facelift and is now a Kohl's. Not like it's really fabulous now, but at least it's a lot better than it was ten years ago!

    (P.S. It's not even close to a 70mm theater, but if you have or run across any vintage photos of the now-gone Hacienda Cinema in Sunnyvale, I would love to see them.)
     
  13. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    I'm not saying where I found this! ;)
    [​IMG]
     

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  14. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    It was a General Cinema facility. It started as twin cinemas and like Topsy, it just grew. The worst part: dividing an original huge screen auditorium right down the center into 2 theaters, giving the seats a sloping to the side floor and a s****y small screen.

    Luckily this beauty escaped the wrecking ball: Louisville Palace, formerly Loews, then the United Artists (in the 70s they added an upstairs theater called the Penthouse. Eccchh.) I saw many great films at the United Artists. When Mary Poppins played, a pipe organ rose from below the stage and the organist played a medley of Disney songs. *sigh* It was magical. Oh, and I saw 2001 there in its fake "Cinerama" presentation & surround sound or whatever it was... it was breathtaking.

    View attachment 227114

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  15. Downsampled

    Downsampled Senior Member

    HA! I have seen this particular image before and had completely lost track of where I had seen it! I'm very tempted to order a print, despite not really liking the idea.

    The web site says this was taken in April 1984 -- at which time I was assistant manager there. I have many memories of this theater, but it was also a time when I was an "insider" and spent a lot of time at other theaters in the area. (I was 17 years old at the time.)

    I am dying to know what is on the curbside marquee there. I probably put the letters up there myself. :)
     
    MLutthans likes this.
  16. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Something a little different for this thread: The late 60's 70mm multiplex!

    The very first multiplex in Seattle was "The United Artists Cinemas 70 & 150," known colloquially as the "UA 150." It was actually two separate theatres, each with its own concession stand and restrooms, with a shared ticketing area between the theatres, and (behind the scenes) an odd little bridge-based hallway upstairs that joined the two projection booths.

    The UA150 was virtually identical to the domed theatre in Pleasant Hill, California, pictured a few posts back. The smaller UA70 was a typical, non-domed theatre, with raked seating in the front half and stadium in the back. The deluxe UA150 had fantastic Heywood-Wakefield rocking chair seats, while the UA70 had H-W non-rocking seats.

    Both theatres were 70mm compatible (although I never was aware of 70mm actually being shown in the UA70), but in the end, UA cheaped out on the smaller UA70 set-up, and only had mono sound via a single Altec A4 (with wings - visible in a behind-the-screen shot below). In the 80s, they added "Ultra-Stereo" in the UA70 side, which meant the single behind-screen channel was augmented by stereo surrounds. Weird!

    Even though this was the el-cheapo half of the two-plex, it was still a pretty nice place to see a show, with good sightlines and thickly-padded seats, plus a screen that was plenty big for the size of the auditorium.

    These photos date from well after the closure of the theatre. Power had already been cutoff, and the lobby was in the process of being stripped for demolition. I was in there (in absolute pitch-black darkness) with my Canon A1 and a humongo flash unit, but I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and had to guess at where to set the focus ring. Sadly, I was a bit off, so there's a blur to the photos, but you can still get a feel for the layout of the place, and the overall cozy atmosphere.

    Long gone.........
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     

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  17. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Here's an exterior shot taken by Scott Neff on Cinematour. That's the UA150 on the right (the domed section), and the UA 70 on the left (rectangular, normal construction).

    [​IMG]

    Matt
     

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  18. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    Notice the huge leg and foot room provided for patrons - in that second photo you provided!
    I have to pinch myself... I am freaking out...by also looking at an almost identical carbon copy replica of the outside and inside of Melbourne 's original State Theatre. Capacity around 3300.The same deep blue 'heaven & stars' interior roof...the seats, the carpet pattern, the Roman statues in alcoves....!
    It also jogged my memory ....about the steam foot warmers, some theatres in those days had. Used usually on winter days and nights, to either place your feet on - as well as warm the theatre as well. As well as theearly 50's period of usherettes with high piled wave -permed hair and long ankle length dress uniforms. The lobbies were a wonder...si-fi imagined tickets boxes in shapes such as a balanced globe of the World. My all time favorite at a local cinema was complete low slung on the floor. metal rocket ship -You bent down and brought tickets at its 'front windows' from its seated 'controller'. . The ticket sellers - to enter and leave - had to open a roof canopy and either climb up or down several stairs
     
  19. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    A few posts back, I posted some shots of the smaller "UA70" half of the complex. Here are some shots I took of the larger "UA150" auditorium.

    The screen was 24x70', and followed a 120-degree arc. You can see the pretty-intense curvature in the photo immediately below, taken in, I think, 1999 or 2000, mid-demolition.
    [​IMG]


    Also, here are a couple of shots I took (a bit on the dark side) from back in 1993 or so.
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Matt
     

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  20. ChrisWiggles

    ChrisWiggles Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Subscribing. Gonna come back and nerd out on this thread later! :)
     
  21. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    In the thread about the upcoming Cinerama screenings in Los Angeles, fellow member chadbang commented about the former Cinerama theatre in Honolulu, and posted the exterior photo which I've reproduced below.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Below chadbang's photo are two photos I took in that theatre in the 1990s. One shows the 22' tall, 120-degree deeply curved screen (less curved than Cinerama standard due to architectural limitations of the space); the other shows the "Charlie" projector (the one that projects the right third of the image during true 3-projector Cinerama exhibition) just sitting at the port (sealed off), where it sat for the final 3-projector show in that building back in 1963 or so. As I mentioned in that other thread, if you catch a 3-strip show at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, this actual machine is one of the ones in use (with a modern lamphouse, of course).

    Matt

    EDIT: I'm repeating myself! I see that I've already posted that middle pic back at post 39.
     

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  22. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Here's a challenge to my SoCal compadres!

    Below is a photo I took (on another in a series of rainy days in these parts) of the Tacoma Mall Theatre, built for 70mm Cinerama in 1968, and demolished several years ago. This theatre was concurrently built as an exact clone of a theatre in the greater Los Angeles area that is still open today as part of a multiplex, although the deep-curve screen has been replaced with a flatter one.

    [​IMG]


    Anybody able to figure out what its "California Twin" is? Here's hint #1, with more to follow if needed: Check out those chandeliers!

    Matt
     

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  23. sparkydog

    sparkydog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    Interesting! Information about Melbourne's State Theatre seems to be hit-or-miss on the internet. Do you have a link for a good historical overview of the facility?
     
  24. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Newsreel footage of the long-gone Cooper Cinerama in Denver: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-wonderful-world-of-the-brothers-grimm-preview/query/Cinerama

    Also, long, long overdue, referring to post #122:
    Hints 2 and 3: It's owned by Pacific Theatres, and there's another, closed Pacific Theatres facility literally across the parking lot.

    Matt
     
  25. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Wow, I know a big theater in Tampa, Florida that looked exactly like that (circa 1970), complete with the chandeliers! I remember it was on Westshore Blvd. a couple of miles from the airport, but I don't think it's there anymore.

    No doubt the theater chain had one architect come up with a standalone design, and then used it in many different cities. Not the first time this happened. I'm reminded of the classic "movie palaces" designed in the 1920s by John Eberson, which were used in dozens of cities, using a sort of "Moorish castle" design.

    [​IMG]

    I saw a lot of 1960s movies in this theater, including Help and a bunch of others. Quite an amazing place, even when it was getting run down in those years. Three balconies!
     

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