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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 09-27-2007 09:49 AM
Showtime: Historic theater to reopen in Lewistown
By DIANE COCHRAN
Of The Gazette Staff
Billings Gazette link (with pictures)
LEWISTOWN - A historic theater that has been a source of entertainment for almost a century is set to reopen next month after a yearlong restoration and remodeling project.
Managers hope to light up two screens - twice as many as before - inside the 93-year-old Judith Theatre on Main Street in mid-October.
"It's always fun when you open something like a theater," said Becky Depuis, who will lease the theater with her husband, Gary. "People are excited about coming to the movies. It's kind of like having a party every night."
Locals have been clamoring for the grand reopening. "Every day I get people coming in here asking, 'So, when's it going to open?' " said Leaf Argotti, who runs a coffee shop in one of the two retail spaces on the theater building's first floor. "People are just so excited to see the new place."
It has been a long wait.
The Judith closed its doors a year ago, about the time it was purchased by Lisa and Theo Wright. It is Lewistown's only indoor movie theater; a drive-in operates at the edge of town during the summer.
The Wrights had finished restoring the Warr-Lane building a few blocks away and were ready for a new project.
"We felt like it was a fabulous old building, and Lewistown needs a theater," Lisa Wright said. "It was a wreck. We had a lot of work to do."
Hoping to secure a federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit, the couple sought to return the 13,000-square-foot building to its original look.
The building was constructed in 1914 and hosted live stage performances before becoming a 20th Century Fox movie theater. A photograph from the 1930s shows the theater with a "Fox Judith" marquis.
Wright said it was purchased in the late 1940s by Don Campbell, who lived with his family on the building's second floor while showing movies on a single screen above the old stage on the first floor.
The Wrights bought the Judith from Campbell's son, also named Don.
Various businesses occupied twin retail spaces on either side of the theater entrance over the years, including a Western Union stop, a real estate office and a candy store.
Argotti's coffee shop, the Rising Trout Café, occupies the space once filled by Arrow Confectionary, Argotti said.
"I even had somebody thank me" for opening the café in this spot, she said. "They said, 'Thank you. This used to be my favorite hangout.' "
The Wrights based their restoration work on old photographs of the building's exterior and a color scheme they discovered on the original tile floor in the lobby.
New paint and some carpet - the mosaic tile remains uncovered - follow that slate blue, gold, red and dark green palette.
What used to be the theater's backstage area is now a second auditorium with stadium seating. Having dual screens will vastly improve the Judith's offerings, according to the Depuises.
To get new releases, theater operators often have to commit to showing a film for multiple weeks.
That works fine for theaters with more than one screen. After a week or two, the film can be moved to a secondary screen and a new show debuted on the main one.
But a single-screen theater either has to show the same movie for a month or longer - and it doesn't take long for everyone in town to have seen it - or wait until the movie has been out for a while before getting it.
The Depuises will be able to rotate new releases through the Judith's two screens, and the theater will have even more leverage to secure films because the Depuises, who live in Polson, operate 11 other theaters across Montana and Idaho.
That means they can show a film for a couple of weeks in Lewistown and then send it to one of their other locations, Becky Depuis said.
"If (a distribution company) knows we can take a print and keep it busy for six to eight weeks, they might give us one," she said. "But if it's a place where it can only play for two weeks, they might say no."
The Depuises hope expanded hours will also help revitalize the theater.
Movies will show three times a day every day of the year except Christmas Eve, Gary Depuis said.
The Judith used to close during the summer.
"We don't expect it to be an overnight success because people will have to get into the habit," Gary Depuis said. "But a town that size, you definitely have your moviegoers."
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James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 09-27-2007 10:30 PM
Mann Slide Road/Cinemark Movies 4 was 4 screened, The Fox was 4 screens. What I found surprising was when Mann opened the Slide Road new in 1979, not one of the auditoriums had Dolby Stereo, where Southplains Cinema had it in it's biggest house and Skeet Noret had 2 screens with Dolby Stereo. (Showplace 6)
Monte, the time you were offered the job here was after Cecil Shearer left the Fox. He was their primary booth man and knew how to keep the equipment running, which consisted of 4 Cinemecanicas (Slide Road), Drive-In platters (Slide Road), 4 Ballentyne Pro-35 with 6k reels, 2 Simplex 35's with 6k reels and 2 Norelco DP75s with 6k reels. His wife continued to run the booth at Slide Road. About 10 years later, he got back on at the Fox and tried to recruit me. In 92, Cinemark took both theatres over, and Cecil retired.
Movies 4 didn't get Dolby Stereo until Southplains closed in 94.
Movies 4 closed the day Tinseltown opened in 1998.
I worked at the Fox between 85 and 89 as a booth operator. Got valuable experience, but I wished I left when the theatre got platters in 87 (Potts 5-deck, which runs 2 auditoriums.) I guess I just had to wait until I got laid off... ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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