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Author Topic: United Artists Cinema 150 Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 11-04-2003 08:32 PM                    NY, not IL. The typo is from the in70mm.com listing of the ICS list which I modified to reflect the 20th edition list that I have. That list does indeed say Lefrak City, LI. As there does not appear to be a Lefrak City municipality out on Long Island I have to presume the theatre was located at a shopping center development in Queens (borough of New York City) called Lefrak City. Typo or not I kinda liked the idea of a grand D-150 theatre in some unknown hamlet in downstate Illinois. After all, they do have the Princess II.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-04-2003 08:43 PM                        http://www.cinematreasures.org/theater/4047/ UA opened the Lefrak as part of the same-named apartment complex. It stood on the north side of the Long Island Expressway. After years of running it, UA closed the theater. The movie house temporarily reopened as an Indian cinema, but soon closed again. Finally Loews took over the lease and triplexed it. Soon it was running action, horror and comedy. Eventually it closed, was gutted and converted to retail space. The frame of the marquee over the entrance, as well as the flat marquee that faced the Long Island Expressway are both still there, but have been covered by signs. Contributed by philipgoldberg YOUR COMMENTS Some more details: The UA Lefrak was located on 99th Street just north of the Long Island Expressway to service the large apartment complex called Lefrak City. It was known as the Cinema Bombay when it converted to Bollywood fare in the 1980's. My guess is the theater dated to the early 60's. posted by EdSolero on February 15, 2003 at 12:10am It was located on 99th Street just north of the LIE service road. I think it was the Bombay while it was showing Indian fare in the late '70's and '80s. posted by EdSolero on October 8, 2003 at 2:46am  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 11-05-2003 09:22 AM                     Thanks Daryl and Steve Because Michael Coate asked me the same question where is this theatre.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Hauerslev Master Film Handler Posts: 451 From: Copenhagen, Denmark Registered: Aug 2000 posted 11-05-2003 09:25 AM                        hi, pls. let me know all the D-150 cinema typos and I´ll correct them Updated [ 11-05-2003, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: Thomas Hauerslev ]  |  IP: Logged Jonathan M. Crist Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 531 From: Hershey, PA, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 11-05-2003 11:32 AM                     The former Trans-Lux in Harrisburg PA in the Colonial Park Shopping Center was built as a D-150 theatre. Bob Maar appears in the opeining day photos that I have seen.  |  IP: Logged Roger Katz Film Handler Posts: 61 From: Thomaston, CT, USA Registered: Feb 2003 posted 11-05-2003 08:25 PM                     Here's an error: the UA Trumbull was not in Bridgeport, CT. It was in... you guessed it... Trumbull, CT. Trumbull is a wealthy suburb of Bridgeport.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 11-09-2003 08:26 PM                        quote: The typo is from the in70mm.com listing of the ICS list which I modified to reflect the 20th edition list that I have. That list does indeed say Lefrak City, LI. that's because Queens is physically located on Long Island but is actually part of New York City. But for address purposes, Queens works differently than the other boroughs of NYC. In every other borough, one would write CITY, STATE as in Brooklyn, NY. In Queens, one writes the name of each town or neighborhood, so it's Flushing, NY or Forest Hills, NY. Officially, the theater was in Elmhurst, NY. (And I still find it hard to believe that this was a D-150 theater.)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-09-2003 10:24 PM                     As a kid I saw Patton at the Palace(aka Bismark)Theatre in Chicago in D-150, so I wonder if this should be added as a temporary D-150 theatre just for that run. Mark  |  IP: Logged Michael Coate Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1904 From: Los Angeles, California Registered: Feb 2001 posted 11-12-2003 12:05 PM                     In addition to the "Cinema 150" series of theatres, didn't United Artists have the similarly named "Cinema 70" in a number of cities? Anyone remember these?  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 11-12-2003 12:47 PM                     I remember UA having the "Theatre 70" name in Oakland (later renamed Cinema 1 when a bay area chain took it over). Also, I thionk they used the name (Theatre OR Cinema 70) next door to their CINEMA 150 in Downtown Seattle.  |  IP: Logged Marcial Feliciano Ramos Expert Film Handler Posts: 108 From: Puerto Rico Registered: Oct 2003 posted 11-13-2003 09:35 AM                     The Cinema 70 and Cinema 150 in Seattle. For sometime people called it "Seattle Center".  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-15-2003 04:36 PM                        The UA 150 in Syosset was indeed on of the last remnants from the golden age of the single screen flagship houses. We would all pile in the car and drive the hour plus on the Long Island Distress Way from Brooklyn (which is on Western Long Island) to Syosset just to see a movie in that great theatre. When I first discovered it back in the mid-80s, people said I was crazy to drive all that way just to see a movie -- then I took them out there, and sure enough, one by one, I converted them till finally I had most of my friends doing the "UA 150 thing." The screen curve wasn't as deep as Cinerama; I read somewhere that it is really a 120 degree curve, not 150, but it sure imparted that wrap-around feeling even to 35mm 'scope pictures. Their sound was great. And they did it the old fashioned way, what I call High-Showmanship -- courteous ushers in uniforms, curtains, curtain warmers, etc. It was top-notch presentation of picture and sound and definitive showmanship that most theatre operators could take lessons from. It was pleasure to watch. They had one Century JJ and a Norelco -- odd having two different projectors in a change-over house. They also had a Christie platter for 35mm runs. In later years they stopped using the curtains because UA went slide show crazy and insisted running the slides even in such a grand house as the 150, bringing showmanship down to its utilitarian, assembly-line lowest, cheapest worst. I had spoken to the manager many times and when I came into the theatre and found the naked screen with the slide show running, I sought him out and we discussed it at length. He agreed it was very tacky, but it was the law of the UA land. No exemptions. I said, OK, so you have to run the crappy slides, but why not just end them a couple of minutes before the show, close the curtains, play a few short non-sync cuts and then treat the show like you never had ugly slides and that inane running DJ commentary annoying everyone for the past 20 minutes. He said he would love to, but unfortunately the curtain motor had broken and UA was not interested in fixing it. They weren't interested in fixing a broken speaker in the Left screen channel which flapped on low bass passages. I was always terrified that they would inevitably muli-plex it right from under me and every time I went out there, I would expect to see a sign saying UA Multiplex. I would always ask if it would be standing the next time I came by. I learned that the only reason the place was not turned into a 15-plex was because UA didn't own it -- it was leased. And it seemed that because the UA home office is in Syosset, the big brass kept the theatre going because they liked to used it as their own private screening room and a place they could show off. Sadly, even executive pride couldn;t keep it opened -- they closed it only a two years ago, although it was still garnering large crowds and my sense was that it was making money.....just not enough for the greedy sobs. Frank PS -- Does anyone know if the Dimension 150 lens was used in front of regular lenses to correct the horizon distortion when projection non-D150 film? Maybe I just liked the look of the deep curved screen so much that the curve distortion never bothered me. Or was it being corrected by a special D-150 lens? And PPS -- Queens isn't the only borough that gets special addressing anomolies -- Manhattan also gets to call itself, not by the borough as the rest of us -- except poor Queens that has to use towns and hamlets and even neighborhood names -- and then there's Bronx which has to call itself THE Bronx, but it's Manhattan gets to address itself, not Manhattan, NY, but New York, New York. This is a real sore spot for the rest of us. I mean, how come we Brooklynites can't call ourselves New York, New York? We are just as much New York City as is Manhattan. Yah, well, when we send out our 60,000 brochures, our database spits them out as Manhattan, NY. And they get there just fine. New York, New York....harumph.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-15-2003 08:51 PM                     Frank, The Super Curvulon attachment was used only for 70mm presentations and was used in front of a Kollmorgen back up as in a scope lens setup. The Super Curvulon had very high resolving power of close to 70 line pairs across the image as Steve K has found out from a local Chicago Tech!! I believe the Super Curvulon attachment was also made by Kollmorgen Optical for D-150. The other lenses in the D-150 range for the other formats were normally Kollmorgens that had a metal f-stop inside to improve focus on the deep curve. Hard to say if they were using those old lenses there or if they had gotten newer stuff. UA is dumb like that sometimes. Unless the old lenses were burned from the huge lamphouses that were used in that theatre there is no reason not to use them. The combination of JJ and Norelco is interesting and possibly a was set up as a shootout to see what machine was really better. Of course it would have easily been the Norleco as the lens mount is about the best for those old lenses. The Curvulon weighed in at about 20 pounds with backup and would have eventually distorted the JJ lensmount without auxillery support. The Norelco also has the best water cooling there is in a 35/70 projector. BTW: Norelcos were standard in all D-150 Theatres. The sheer mass of the machine makes for much more stable projection. I also feel that D-150 was the best of the best of the 70mm formats. All it takes in seeing Patton in D-150 and you are left with no doubt at all. Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 11-16-2003 12:01 AM                        quote: Yah, well, when we send out our 60,000 brochures, our database spits them out as Manhattan, NY. And they get there just fine. New York, New York....harumph. Actually, you don't need the City and State at all. If you just use the ZIP code, the mail will get there just fine. If I'm hand addressing an envelope, I always only use the ZIP. And if you use a ZIP+4, you don't even need the street address. What's the point of all this redundancy?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 11-16-2003 01:14 AM                        The point is so many people have illegible hand writing. If they write it enough different ways the post office might be able to read one of them.  |  IP: Logged

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