Several years ago, a big deal was made about the theater being "saved", as it was moved with giant inflatable A&C figures seeming to pull it. When it was indicated that it would be incorporated into the AMC, it was generally sort of thought that it would be incorporated into an auditorium - I figured that they'd close off the balcony & underbalcony, & make the orchestra with the proscenium the big auditorium. The way it turned out was not what most were expecting.

There's a bit in Titus Andronicus where Titus' sons have been arrested, & a guy comes up & says that the emperor will spare their heads if Titus will give up his hand. Titus cuts it off & says "Here ya go!", & a little bit later a guy delivers his sons heads & says "Here ya go!" Titus probably thought the deal for saving his sons heads was, like the deal to save the Empire, supposed to be a little different.

John Pytlak has picked up on something that I've noticed too. It sort of becomes more unpleasant when so much recoqnizable reminder remains of a more sumptuous theatrical environment remains. The use of the Eltinge/Empire as the lobby of the AMC 25 probably satisfied who-knows-what-all regulations & historic requirements (they sure didn't need that much lobby) & the effect is initially spectacular in the contrast & incongruity of the escalators running through the proscenium, but after the initial visual impact, you start thinking about what you're looking at, & it becomes sort of depressing. You pass through this indicator of a gone, palatial theatrical experience into one which is contemporary, fairly featureless & unintending to impress.

When so much is still there to easily see what it was, it's sort of grisly & has an unpleasant feeling, like something immoral has been done. It's like a head on a pole. The Michigan in Detroit is another example:

Before: http://www.atos.org/Pages/Palaces/Michigan/Michigan.html

After: http://detroityes.com/downtown/michtheat_pan.htm

Everybody ooh's & ah's over the old proscenium theaters, & they're the most likely to be saved, but the postwar movie theaters are almost all gone. Auditorium decoration had been moving to more simplified schemes since art deco started coming in, then when sound came in & drapes, horsehair-stuffed mats & carpeted panels on the walls became more essential & worked into the design. You can see it especially in the Cinerama & D-150 theaters that are pictured all over the web - just drapes all around the walls. Those theaters were more severe, extreme & "undecorative" extensions of current auditorium schemes. The standard theaters at the time had decoration based on similar needed treatments for the walls, & usually out-of-the-catalog fixtures. But really the difference which made them work better than current generic stadium theaters were that they were closer descendants from an art deco tradition that was carried through auditorium decoration schemes - a scheme that relied greatly on line, much more than ornaments & fixtures. You can't get any sort of line going for a decoration scheme in short stadium shapes.

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That second pic with the tiny screen reminded me of a film festival I was recently at at the State Theater in St. Petersburg, FL. While not exactly an impressive movie "palace", this single screener had some character to it. Unfortunately, there is no longer a booth, a screen, sound, or even chairs in it anymore, since they use it for punk and heavy metal concerts mostly, and the concession stand has been changed into a bar. Even the murals on the wall were covered with dirty drapes. So how did they run a film festival in this place? Easy. Folding charis, a sagging sheet as a screen, speakers from the stage, and glorious video projection!! (all the movies were on video anyway). I took what pictures I could, but I can't get my scanner working at the moment. It was a shame.

Keith Albee Theatre, Huntington,WV.

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This shows the 2 identical "Q-System" signal processors that recorded the nuke info on 35mm film. You can see the film recorder & 500' magazines on the right. The operator could look through a viewing port and see the CRT and digital matrix image being recorded on film. That's not me tripping over the 'scope probe though.

This is the darkroom where I broke my toe sleeping on the job. That's a LabMaster 35mm film processor. The b/w photo above was developed and printed using the equipment & chemicals in this darkroom.

This is the control panel of "Old Sparky", the 50KW diesel generator that went blooey (not my fault).

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quote:

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I don't like theatres that have the audience higher than the screen. I don't think you should ever look down at a movie screen...especially when so many (American) camera angles are upward-looking.

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All right young man, if you don't want to sit in the balcony with the rest of the family, you can just watch the REST of the movie from the orchestra pit! Don't think we're going to let you sit in the orchestra seating or god forbid the loge with the rest of your hoodlum friends; we know what happens there!

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Steve

OTOH, I did experience "pain" watching a sneak preview of Robin Williams' "Jack". The only seats left were in the front row, which was no more than 5 feet from the screen in their largest theater. I had to watch it in 10 minute intervals because my neck and eyelids hurt.