On Sunday, March 26th 2000, the Regency II in San Francisco played its final shows before quietly closing forever. Located just around the corner from its closed-two-years-ago-and-now-a-ballroom brother the Regency I, the II featured excellent 70/35mm projection (Norelco DP75, Christie AW370, Strong Super-80) and sound (Dolby CP500 with 6-chan mag and SRD, QSC amps, and the only Biamped SURROUNDS I have ever known of) nice interior atmosphere, including a curtain,and of course Union operators... It is the latest victim of the megaplexes, most notably the AMC1000 just down the street... It will be missed...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum...

Aaron

 

I work at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, which is an art-deco palace built in 1927 by the Fox chain as a vaudevillian house but converted not long after into a single-screen gem.

In the early seventies, the balcony got closed off to became a second screen. Sometime after, the current owner, Allan Michaan bought the place and converted streetside retail space to add two more screens.

The ambiance of the main auditorium is largely unchanged, and Allan poured a mountain of cash into restoring the old girl to her past glory. He's an antique collector, and as other movie palaces closed, he bought some of their fixtures to save them from landfill and added some to the Grand Lake.

In the 585 seat main auditorium we now have the old curtain from the Fox San Francisco (one of the largest "flying" curtains in California), and several pieces of furniture from other movie houses gone by.

His pride and love are manifested in the two smaller auditoriums, both of which are handsomely appointed. One of them is decorated in Egyptian motif, complete with hand-stenciled heiroglyphics and plaster reliefs resembling the interior of a pyramid. (Last year we played "The Mummy" in this auditorium!)

Everyone in the neighborhood says they love the Grand Lake, but it's not doing the kind of business we should be doing if all those people were buying tickets. Competitors ten minutes away double and triple our take showing the same pictures on smaller screens with noticeably worse presentation, even on the first weekend. (The Grand Lake is a 100% union operation.)

Why would anyone see a picture in an auditorium that's one-half to one-third the size, with lab splices, scratches, and no operator nearby? It might have something to do with bountiful free or validated parking, new, airline-style seating, huge chain bookstores nearby so you can kill time, two or three prints of the same movie so you don't have to be dilligent about looking up a showtime.

It all reminds me of the time Heathkit announced it was going out of business. The plants and equipment were bought by another company, but it was no longer going to sell kit radios and Morse sending sets.

The switchboards were overwhelmed by calls from grown men, some on the verge of tears, saying, "You can't close!" The operators were given a one-line response, which stopped the callers dead in their tracks:

"When was the last time you bought a Heathkit?"

The old single screen movie palaces are doomed, the way the Bengal Tiger in the wild is doomed. See them while you can.

No matter what people say, they behave differently. They might say they're loyal to their loving middle-aged wife, but in the afternoon they're sneaking off to the no-tell motel with their twenty-something secretaries.

kenn

P.S. If any Film-Tech readers are in the area, stop by and say hello. I'm sure Stephan or Randy will be happy to see you and give you a booth tour. If I'm on duty, the coffee's on me.

 

Since neither of us is Oliver Stone, let's not assign any evil intent to AMC or its directors without hard evidence. An organism's first duty is to survive, and a corporation looks for opportunities, the same way a jackal looks for the old and the lame. The jackal is not evil. It's just trying to make a living.

It seems to me the public gets what it deserves. H. L. Mencken once wrote, "You can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public."

Lest I sound too sanctimonious in this vein, I admit freely that I will walk an extra block to shop at Starbucks instead of my local coffee houses. Why? Because Starbucks is cleaner, the service is faster, and while it is less personal, they have never given me hi-test when I asked for decaffeinated.

kenn
 

In fact we currently ran "Sixth Sense" to a packed house, both early and late shows this past weekend. I hope this continues. We have had good "word of mouth" advertising.

We aren't union, and we aren't first run, but we are an old 1928 single-screen, running a 50 year old booth the best it can, and we are selling the tickets!
 

I must say... the union operators kept GREAT care of the equipment. I have never seen CLEANER AW3 brains than those at the Regency II.

I feel like organizing my non-union projection staff in Fairfax for a field trip to visit a Union run booth... just so they can see the REASONS why the GOOD union operators get paid so much.

We have a union guy... he works only 2 days a week. He's a big fan of his easy chair he has up in the booth... he doesn't do all that much. (Except wait for his pension) But HEY - let's not say something unless I can say something nice.

I've always been impressed with all of Rennaisance Rialto's theatres... the whole bunch of you guys should be proud.

I'm done rambling now.