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Author Topic: Your Favorite Theater Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-04-2010 11:39 AM                     No, those projectors were transferred to a different GCC.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-04-2010 12:01 PM                     For me...I guess it will always be the K-B MacArthur. It was the world-premier theatre for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The booth was just "home" to me. The theatre also was really nice to see a movie in. It had decent acoustics too. I do miss it. (in 1983 it was cut up into a 3-plex by Circle Theatres...It was closed under the Cineplex or Loews banner and is now a CVS drugstore <sniff>. Certainly, I also have a fondness for the Uptown (Washington, DC). That theatre can make any movie feel better. Steve  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-04-2010 12:58 PM                        Hmmmmm. Well, I sure miss the Coralwood 6. That's the theatre I started at in 1989. I believe it's still there in Cape Coral, Florida. Now a ten plex run by Marquee Cinemas. Also, I sure do like the theatre I manage now: The Royale 14 in Hyattsville, Maryland. However, my favorites of yesterday would be the Highway 28 Drive-In in Goshen, Ohio (gone for a long time) and the Mariemont Theatre in Mariemont, Ohio. The two places I went to as a kid.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-04-2010 03:48 PM                        No favorites for me in this shithole town anymore. Just less crappy ones. Back in the day it would have been the Fox Charleston Plaza.  |  IP: Logged Todd McCracken Master Film Handler Posts: 263 From: Northridge, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 01-04-2010 04:27 PM                    My favorite is gone. The old neighborhood Fox theater on Reseda Blvd in Granada Hills, Los Angeles. It was a small 1 screen with a balcony built in the 20's or early 30's. It just was perfect for watching movies as a kid. You got 70's films in a 20/30's atmosphere. Great combo.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-04-2010 06:38 PM                     The best screens in London are Empire 1 in Leicester Square and NFT 1 on the South Bank. Flawless projection and sound, well designed stadium auditoriums, get the feeling one inspired the other, Empire 1 is about five times bigger though. I also really like the BFI IMAX, even for a 35mm show it looked good. These are the only cinemas worth going out of your way to see if you're in London. Notable mentions go to Odeon Leicester Square, vue Fulham 6, vue West End 5 and 7 (identical twins!) Odeon West End 2 and the Chelsea Cinema, all are big screens, seating is good and film is done right there. Cinemas that I like but don't have good projection and/or screens are the Prince Charles Cinema, Riverside Studios, Odeon Swiss Cottage, Odeon Panton Street and Odeon Covent Garden, mainly because the customers aren't arseholes and they show good films. The Riverside in particular is the best arthouse in London for their double bills, although they've gone too commercial at weekends now.  |  IP: Logged Tom Inglis Film Handler Posts: 34 From: Croydon London, England Registered: Mar 2009 posted 01-04-2010 06:42 PM                     i went to the new HMVcurzon in wimbledon today, and it was lovely. Really nice homey feel, great seats, great legroom, great foyer, nice relaxed staff. Great presentation.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-04-2010 06:58 PM                     Want to add Cineworld Haymarket 1 to the notable mentions actually, kinda scuzzy in there but great screen and you see glimmers of what it once was. Tom I was meaning to check the hmvcurzon out, but I don't like the pretentiousness of the Curzon chain. Also they are really expensive, and my new company show all the art films at their smaller West End sites anyway (I mentioned the names above) so would rather not pay. I have a 2 for 1 thing there, might see what it is like.  |  IP: Logged Tony Gallimore Expert Film Handler Posts: 108 From: Willis, Virginia, USA Registered: Jul 2009 posted 01-04-2010 07:23 PM                     I'm going to break ranks and choose a long gone drive-in theatre as my favorite of all times... not because the sound was especially wonderful (plain old mono on a post speaker) and the screen had a small piece missing on the right side (about a foot square) that gave it character, plus there was no zenon, just 70 amp carbon arc and twenty minute changeovers. Nothing mind blowing there, but the atmosphere in general was out of this world. Friends met there every weekend, pulled out their lawn chairs and sat around a speaker post, some even brought a grill, but most just got their hotdogs at the concession stand. The popcorn was popped in peanut oil and they offered only four flavors of soft drinks, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper and Orange. People would begin pulling in between 6:00 or 7:00PM for the 8:45pm showtime. Two or three times during the summer, there was an all night show... usually four features which ran until the dawn light washed the image off the screen. Best theatre I ever worked for. Oh yeah, we eventually replaced that missing shingle on the screen!  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-04-2010 08:36 PM                        Tony: is this place mythical? Real location? Louis  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-04-2010 09:00 PM                        Following Tony's lead I'll mention the Surf Theater in Huntington Beach, CA. As a kid in the 60s, we went there all the time. As I recall the auditorium's stucco walls (great acoustics!) were painted with scenes of naked mermaids riding dolphins. They had a "Pal Club" for kids with a kids show on Saturday. On your birthday you got in free and they gave you a Hershey's bar. Oh yeah the presentation was probably horrible too. I remember seeing some movie there that was in "inemaScop" according to the opening titles. The concession stand was directly behind the rear wall of the auditorium and water leaked through the wall and under the seats. The biggest deal I remember there was somehow they got A Hard Days Night and it played to huge crowds. Those were the days!?  |  IP: Logged Brian D. Whitish Expert Film Handler Posts: 103 From: Seattle, WA, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-05-2010 12:24 AM                     Here in Seattle most of my favorites are gone.(UA 150, Southcenter, John Danz). My current favorite is Cinerama here in Seattle, Mann Village, Cinerama Dome, Big Newport, and Bruin. Theatres I miss are Eastgate and Westgate in Portland. Mann National, Plitt Century Plaza, and pre carved up Avco in LA. Northpoint in SF.  |  IP: Logged Mike Schindler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1039 From: Oak Park, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-05-2010 12:38 AM                     Speaking as a customer, my favorite theater of all-time was McClurg Court in Chicago. Unfortunately, it has closed.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-05-2010 01:45 AM                     Course, my favorite theatre was the one in my home town of Idaho Falls: The Paramount Theatre. Built in 1919 as a stage house with a large balcony. When film and sound came into town, the theatre had to convert the spotlight room which was inside the balcony itself. Thus, there was only a 50 ft throw to the screen, which was lifted up in the fly for stage usage. When Cinemascope and stereophonic sound came to being, the building was totally remodeled in the French romantic to accomodiate the wide screen with full adjustable masking tabs to use all the available aperture ranges. Place also had full waterfall curtains along with title curtains. I grew up seeing all of the Disney features here and in 1971, finally had the opportunity to become a projectionist, but on part time basis. I goet full time there until I moved over here in 1984 and it was closed a year later. The city bought the theatre and converted it to an art center with a full restoration completed along with renaming it back to the original name of "The Colonial" As for Drive-in's, was the "Motor-Vue Dr.In" in this town with a screen of well over 140 ft wide and almost 100ft tall. Booth had Motiographs with Strong Futura II's, but the real treat was there were Motiograph mag penthouses and twice as many Motiograph amp racks so each car would have two speakers to hear stereo sound. This drive-in is still in operation today. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Eric Hooper Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 532 From: Fort Worth, TX, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 01-06-2010 01:10 PM                     quote: Brad Miller My favorite still hasn't changed and no theater will ever be what it was. Brad the old GCC Southland Cinemas in Hayward, CA was an almost exact replica of your theatre, but the main auditorium like you have pictured was twinned, with a wall down the center. Even the light pattern on the ceiling creating the shadows on the seating is the same. And the smaller auditorium was cut into three. (So, from a twin to a 5-plex). Even twinned, the two large theatres were very good. God I miss that place.  |  IP: Logged

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