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Author Topic: Theatre closed for a week or two? Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 10-26-2003 04:51 PM                    Let's get this in the public record as well: The Oakbrook Theatre (originally a single screen 70mm house, later chopped into Oakbrook 1-4), Oakbrook, Illinois, in the Chicago western suburbs is about to come down. This is a former Plitt / Cineplex Odeon / Loews Cineplex venue on the periphery of the Oak Brook Center open air shopping mall. The protective barricades are up and the heavy equipment is there so it looks like it will be coming down in the next few days.  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 10-26-2003 05:28 PM                     Don't forget that the Ziegfeld in midtown Manhattan was closed for 2 weeks before it opened Brother Bear.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-26-2003 05:38 PM                     Thats too bad about the Oakbrook.....Same fate as the UA Cinema 150 across the street. I can remember seeing "In Harms Way" there when the Oakbrook first opened....in fact I believe that was the first film to play there. I also saw "Deliverance", "Papillion", 1941 in 70mm, and "Midway" in Sensurround there and can remember standing in line with friends waiting to get in and feeling the outside of the building shaking from the high level low frequency. After it was carelessly twinned it went from a quality place to really awful. A dividing wall was put up and the two JJ's were just re-aimed to the new screen locations, the keystoning was soooo bad. It was a typical Plitt Hack job back then, I went once after it was twinned but never again after that. The Cinema 150 across the street was also a great place but thats a whole other sad story in itself. Mark  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-28-2003 08:40 AM                     Well, the GCC Orlando Fashion Square is officially dead as well. The projectionist that works at our place (also a former GCC) used to work there a long time ago. I beilieve it was one of the first THX installations in the country as well. EFW bought it for a while (and ran it with GCC signage apparently, since the marquee STILL reads GCC) then closed it. A few months ago, that same projectionist came in all excited. "They're doing something with Fashion Square 6!!" he said. Indeed, they were doing SOMETHING... Yesterday he came in sad. "They're doing something with it allright, but it's not going to be a theater. There are windows cut all around the building now..." Sure enough, a drive past (my first time, mind you. The damn thing is tucked so far back from everything) revealed the transformation of a theater into office space. Windows cut all around and peeking in you could see they had lowered the cieling to make it 2-story all around. No more box office or lobby. The whole front was remodeled. Makes me wonder where all that equipment went. We needed some parts a while back that were all at that location from being shuffled around by EFW when they owned the two places. So much for that. The marquee is still there, but probably not for long. The office building is pretty much done already. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Eric Hooper Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 532 From: Fort Worth, TX, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 11-20-2003 10:28 AM                     The Coronet's life has been extended, and will now remain open through the END OF 2004!!! Heck, if more extensions keep happening, it might even make it to that Star Wars film in 2005.  |  IP: Logged Edward Jurich Master Film Handler Posts: 305 From: Las Vegas USA Registered: Jul 2003 posted 11-25-2003 11:11 AM                     I got to thread up one of those 70mm films at the Oakbrook the first year it opened. I knew one of the operators (George, can't remember his last name) and he let me thread up reel one between shows. The thing I remember most was how heavy 2000' of 70mm is lifting up into the upper magazine.  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 11-26-2003 01:17 PM                     Great to hear the Coronet has received a stay of execution. Theatre closings happen. In the early 70s we had six houses open in Asbury Park NJ. In 74 Walter Reade's flagship Mayfair and the next-door St. James were taken down. The Paramount on the boardwalk closed. The Savoy closed. The Lyric was twinned (up-and-down, with the balcony becoming #2). The Baronet struggled on and then closed. In nearby Ocean Grove the Strand was torn down along with the North End Hotel. Today the Paramount holds regular stage events but the booth is stripped. The Baronet exists as an occasional art house, with the stage reopened. The Savoy is intact but closed for almost 30 years. The Lyric continues as an XXX twin. The Baronet (opened in 1913 as The Ocean) is in danger of being torn down as Asbury Park rebuilds itself. Nearby, the old Neptune City Theatre has just been rebuilt into a senior center. The Shore and Eatontown Drive-Ins are long gone. The Community in Eatontown is gone, as is the old Seaview Square in Ocean Twp. In Long Branch NJ, the old Paramount on Broadway, a 2400 seat atmospheric palace from the old days, may be restored to a performing arts center, but just talk now. In the meantime its stage continues on as the warehouse for Siperstein Paint Co. We used to have a lot of places around here. A lot of people made a good living working them. So much for progress.  |  IP: Logged

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