Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: United Artists Cinema 150

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Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 11-01-2003, 09:01 PM:

To remember one of the most magnificent screens ever build...do you know where UA build Cinemas 150's in the US and outside the US? how many still operating?

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-01-2003, 09:15 PM:

Not familiar with them. Were they purpose-built theatres for the Dimension-150 (D-150) 70mm process ("Patton", "The Bible") that used a deep curved screen? I recall that D-150 inventor Richard Vetter was with UA.

Film Teknik Article

Come Back D-150

D-150 In 70mm Article

Filming Patton

Patton HQ Article on Production

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-01-2003, 09:16 PM:

Do you mean theatres with the Dimension 150 (D150) system in general or only those that were built by the UA Theatre Circuit?

Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 11-01-2003, 11:47 PM:

the ones build by UA...UA called them CINEMA 150

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 11-02-2003, 12:48 AM:

The former U.A. 150 in Carolina Puerto Rico still had the original D-150 lenses and construction blueprints in storage prior to closing. The screen had a four way masking system for 1.37 / 1.85 / 2.35 anamorphic and D-150. The location suffered from years of U.A. neglect and was bought out by Caribbean Cinemas which injected $450,000 in improvements. Our former company installed new 35 & 70mm projection ( from DP-75 and 4kw ORC in the D-150 to Cinemeccanica V-8/35-70mm and Christie lamphouse at 6kw / dual machine + platter ) and ( DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS-8 )sound in the five plex ( original D-150 house + added U.A. shoebox cinemas in an additional building.UA special Bauers / ORC consoles to Cinemeccanica V-5 + consoles ). In addition to myself and staff, I recruited the late Alysson Defaria, then of U.A. to finish the project.
The cinema survived a few more years but had to close due to structural weakening and higher maintinance cost due to hurricane damage which would have required $500,000 ( including replacing seats, drapes, main curtain, air conditioning, roof rebuilding ) to fix. The center had poor parking for a 780 seat D-150 house and we had built 29 cinemas within 10 minutes of this location over the years. It was a grand dame to the end.

I remember driving many miles to St. Petersburg Florida D-150
cinema ( name which escapes me....getting senile ), an independent operator, to see Patton. I remember the "painted on" steadyness of the flag on the screen as Patton walks on stage.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 11-02-2003, 05:35 PM:

There used to be a D150 theater in Long Island, I think in Syosset.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-02-2003, 10:00 PM:

Bah...double post.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-02-2003, 10:01 PM:

D-150 Theatres

Source:
The International Cinerama Society theater listing 20th edition.

Sukhumuit...............Bangkok, Thailand
Cine Sabena.............Bogota, Columbia
UA Trumbull.............Bridgeport, CT USA
Von Riebeek.............Cape Town, South Africa
River Oaks..............Calumet City (Chicago), IL USA
UA Cinema 150...........Oak Brook (Chicago), IL USA
UA Cinema 150...........Colorado Springs, CO USA
3 Falke Bio.............Copenhagen Denmark
UA Cinema 150...........Dallas, TX USA
Continental.............Denver CO USA
United Artists..........Detroit, MI USA
UA Groton 150...........Groton, CT USA
Cine 150................Laredo, Mexico
UA Lefrak...............Lefrak City, NY USA
UA Cinema 150...........Little Rock, AR USA
Odeon Marble Arch.......London England
Egyptian................Los Angeles, CA USA
Rialto..................Louisville, KY USA
UA......................Louisville, KY USA
Cine Latino D-150.......Mexico City Mexico
Loews State.............New York, NY USA
Rivoli..................New York, NY USA
Camelot.................Palm Springs, CA USA
Metro...................Panama City, Panama
Century 21..............Pleasant Hill, CA USA
Cine Variedades.........Puebla Mexico
Metro Boavista..........Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Cinema 150..............Sacramento, CA USA
UA Cinema 150...........San Juan Puerto Rico
Northgate...............San Rafael, CA USA
Cinema 150..............Santa Clara, CA USA
UA Cinema 150...........Seattle, WA USA
UA Cinema 150...........Syosset USA
Continental.............Tulsa, OK USA
Cinema 3................West Springfield, VA USA
UA Cinema...............White Plains, MD USA

Edit: typo fixed

[ 11-04-2003, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: Steve Kraus ]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-03-2003, 02:45 PM:

One of the long-gone Holiday Showcase Cinemas in Buffalo NY (on Union Road near Galleria Drive) had an auditorium equipped for D-150. I saw "Patton" there.

Posted by Timothy Ervin (Member # 733) on 11-03-2003, 03:05 PM:

There was/is a Cinema 150 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
There was a Continental in Tulsa and Oklahoma City and one in Denver I believe. The Continental in OKlahoma City was a nice one.....too bad it is long gone. [Frown]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-03-2003, 09:03 PM:

THere were several D150 theatres in Canada the Holiday Inn in Windsor Ont, The Centre Twin Hamilton Ont, There were several 70mm Cinerama houses as well

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 11-04-2003, 12:05 AM:

I believe the Continental in Oklahoma City was a 70mm Cinerama theatre.

Posted by Daniel Wright (Member # 1983) on 11-04-2003, 11:50 AM:

There were three Continentals and I think all were built from the same blueprints. The oklahoma city location is still standing, But has been vacent for many years. You have pictures on your site of the Denver location. It is now a
UA theatre and has had several screens built on but the original house is still intact.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 11-04-2003, 03:22 PM:

On Steve's list above, it lists the UA LeFrak City, Il, USA.

Where is that theatre located? Because it comes up in map searches as "City could not be found"
And UA does not list any theatre by that name in their unit listings.

Daryl
I did the searches using LeFrak. It was just mistype.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 11-04-2003, 03:24 PM:

It's LeFrak not LeFark.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 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.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 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

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 11-05-2003, 09:22 AM:

Thanks

Daryl and Steve

Because Michael Coate asked me the same question where is this theatre.

Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 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 ]

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 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.

Posted by Roger Katz (Member # 1625) on 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.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 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.)

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 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

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 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?

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 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.

Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 11-13-2003, 09:35 AM:

The Cinema 70 and Cinema 150 in Seattle. For sometime people called it "Seattle Center".

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 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. [Razz]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 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

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 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?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 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.

Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 11-16-2003, 06:10 AM:

THE Picturville in Bradford (U.K) uses a D-150 lens to screen 70mm on there Cinerama screen and it is pin sharp right from edge to edge.
The lens is one hell of a lens on the front of there DP70.

I still think that the image is no better than when they show 70mm on the Cinemeccanica Vic 8.
Darren

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-16-2003, 04:01 PM:

I always felt that VIC 8's are capable of a far better 70mm image than they are 35mm. The problem with the Vic 8 is when you run double reel 70mm. The penthouse just doesn't like that small diameter hub on the reel and you may end up with some wow in the sound if the feed arm is not very well maintained. There were a pair of VIC 8's in McClurg Ct. in Chicago for 30 years that still had the original movements in them...although one of them was hammering near the end. Stinkaplex Odoron replaced them with 35/70 X-L's ...a definate step backwards and a system that definately let you hear that they were running double 70mm reels.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-16-2003, 08:54 PM:

Reel diameter should not affect the wow and fluter on the mag of a vic 8 since the film is captured between 2 driven sprockets
The soft loop also put very little wear on the track and the head
(the same as the old RCA penthouse but the sprocket is driven)
The Vic8 in 70 and 35 has a stable image if maintained properly and is very light efficient which the dp70 is not

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-16-2003, 09:38 PM:

Gord, I'll take a Norelco any day over a VIC 8. The light efficiency is about the same in both machines, probably no measurable difference with the same deg. shutter on both machines The cooling on the Norelco is also far better. It is quite easy to get wow from a VIC 8/10 penthouse if there is any jerking back on the film as it unwinds with a smallish hub. Its actually worse in the 8 due to the smaller diameter sprockets than it is with the larger diameter sprockets in the 10. The 10 was a more massive, much better built machine IMHO except for the drum shutter. There are many 10's still running although far less were imported here in the U.S. whilst many 8's have worn themselves out.

Mark

Posted by Robert Throop (Member # 61) on 11-21-2003, 03:42 PM:

There is a really excellent article by Joe Kelly about the Syosset theatre at www.in70mm.com/

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-23-2003, 10:27 AM:

I recently inherited a near mint D-150 Super Curvulon for my collection of bent glass. I have to say it is certainly the most impressive lens ever made for 70mm projection. I'll post some pics later on....
Mark

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-23-2003, 10:51 PM:

Mark I have never had a worn out vic 8 and considering that in north america there biggest installed base was in canada that says something
Also never ever had a wow issue with any reel on them and have serviced far to many to have not encountered a problem if it existed

Also the the cinemecanica shutter is about 8% more efficient than the dp70 is and the combination of double water and air cooling is superior

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-23-2003, 11:22 PM:

Gord,
There is no need for additional air cooling in a DP-70. The shutter already has air scoops built into it...ok, I'll give in, call it added air cooling of the gate area if you'd like. At 2880 rpm it certainly moves alot of air [thumbsup]

. I know of DP-70 installations that have run 10kw with only a simple water chiller and the plate stays cool to the touch. The fact that Shakeamacanicca had to add an outboard air blower only makes up for their lack of proper water cooling and a decent main frame that can stand up to the heat(The Vic 10 was much better built in this respect), plus the lack of open area near the shutter for decent airflow. There were also other shutters available for the DP-70 that would slightly increase the light on the screen. I found a pair of these at the old Cinestage Theatre in Chicago when Steve K and I snuck in there just before demolition....., anyway these days 8%+ can easily be made up just by using the correct type lenses, screen, and or lamphouse. There are also several machines in our supply of them that are equipped with these very slightly narrower shutters...and then a properly set up DP-70 is far, far steadier than any Italian machine could ever be anyway.

Hey....Hop on a plane, come down here. I'll give you the tour of old dead Vic 8's. Two in Twin Falls, and Two in Boise...all four that were running in Chicago for 20 plus years have been gone for at least a decade, don't know where they went. there were several here in SLC at the Century Cinedome that are long gone. There is however one lone Vic 8 still running in Twin Falls to this day. All others in the mountain states have been long retired. Two somewhat skeletonized Vic 18's that were retired serve as parts machines to keep the one Vic 8 running.

Parts are actually much more expensive down here for the Vic 8, or Italian machines for that matter, than they are for the DP-70. That aspect certainly helped many Vic 8's move along to the grave quickly. There is however one lone Vic 8 still running in Twin Falls to this day. All others in the mountain states have been long retired. When you come down for the tour we'll have a [beer]

in that booth to celebrate the one Vic 8 still running out here. There are over 50 DP-70 still in service, or put back into service...I'll also be happy to take you on that tour as well.

Mark

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-24-2003, 01:39 PM:

Robert, thanks for that link to Jack Kelly's article, but the theatre he is talking about can't be the UA 150 in Syosset. He says that in 1986 it was triplexed. The UA 150 remained a single screen theatre until it closed a few years ago. Could there have been two UAs playing 70mm in Syosset? That's a small town for two flagship theatres by the same chain, no?

Frank

Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 11-25-2003, 02:04 AM:

See 70mm projection lenses here

The D-150 lens in Bradford was supplied with the help of Dr. Richard Vetter. The projection staff measured the screen dimensions down to the millimeter in order to get the right lens.

Posted by Robert Throop (Member # 61) on 11-25-2003, 04:59 AM:

Frank,
The Syosset in the article was I believe, adjacent to the 150. The UA 150 didn't open till 1969 or 70.

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 11-25-2003, 05:53 AM:

Thomas said:

quote:
The D-150 lens in Bradford was supplied with the help of Dr. Richard Vetter. The projection staff measured the screen dimensions down to the millimeter in order to get the right lens.

Please Thomas ,thousandths of an inch we only measure film width in millimeters and then only if it's more than 35 [Roll Eyes]