Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: what's that "CINEMA" font?

This is topic what's that "CINEMA" font? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-12-2002, 08:53 AM:

It seems that many theatres in the US that were built between approximately the mid-'70s and the early '80s have the word "CINEMA" (sometimes written as "CINEMAS," with the "S" being an obvious addition done at a later date) on the side of the building in a very distinctive font. This seems to be most common with older GCC houses, but many other chains and independents seem to have used it, too.

Does anyone know why they all used the same typeface? What's the name of it, anyway?

In case anyone thinks I'm crazy, here are three examples of what I'm talking about:

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-12-2002, 02:32 PM:

The 1965 Film Daily Year Book shows GCC operated 79 theaters. The 1969 edition shows almost double that with about 30 more planned for the following year. With the size that GCC reached in the 1970s plus the swapping of theaters with other companies that went on in the 1980s, it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of these signs were, at one time, on a GCC cinema.

Loews Theatres used a very similar font for their corporate logo in the early 1990s. I will scan it and add it here when I get to work.

The font is definately in the "Varsity" family, maybe a variation on Vineta. My fonts are all outta whack right now because I recently reinstalled Windows.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-12-2002, 04:06 PM:

Yeah. I think that alot of 1960's style General Cinema Theatres had those letters.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-12-2002, 04:56 PM:

Speaking of fonts, I need to know if there is a font to match this:

My boss says this was just an artist's rendering of the letters on our marquee.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-12-2002, 05:22 PM:

Where's Bobby Henderson when you need him? He has every font in existence memorized. [Smile]

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-12-2002, 05:43 PM:

Of the three photos that Scott posted, the bottom one looks like a cheap reproduction of the GCC signage. Maybe done to replace a damaged sign. It differs greatly from the others.

The GCC font uses bold upper and lower horizontals to define the boundaries of the text and "hold the word together". All the rest of the lines in the text are not as bold, including the horizontals in middle of the E, A and S.

Also defining this font is the fact that all verticals are seriffed top and bottom. Note the N and A ... normally, the lower right corner of N would not be significantly seriffed and the top of the A is usually only half seriffed, if at all.

With the photos next to each other, I can see that the Loews font is not as close to the GCC font as I had originally thought, so never mind. [Smile]

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 12-12-2002, 08:04 PM:

Actually, the bottom one looks like the font used on the white GCC's in my area that all had the blue shadow-box interior. They were white brick, with a glassed-in lobby. There were three of them here...all are long gone now.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 12-12-2002, 11:01 PM:

GCC and Redstone both used this lettering. The font is a western-style. Somewhere online is a foundry that has "identifont" or something like that on their website, where you just answer several questions about what you're looking for, and then it tells you the font.

Pretty cool, I wish I could remember which foundry that was.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-12-2002, 11:50 PM:

I'd been away for awhile and what do I find when I get back? People are talking about FONTS! OK, I'll relax, I promise.

That "CINEMA" font looks kind of like Old Towne 536 by URW (it has been included in recent releases of CorelDRAW and Macromedia Freehand). However, the source for those old theater signs is something different. I cannot tell for sure from the photos if the "CINEMA" signs are illuminated aluminum channel letters or if they are individual formed plastic letters. Given the odd choice of letter style used, I would say the theater bought from a mass production supplier with a very limited range of letter styles.

Mass production sign products companies like Gemini have a number of very dated, clunky looking letter styles. They continue to use them in stock channel letter and injection molded, formed plastic letter sign products. A great many fonts have come and gone over the years. That "Esquire" sample looks modeled after some kind of dead, art deco looking font. It reminds me of the cast aluminum letters on a school in my town that is old and falling apart. Emigre has some fonts that look kind of like that, but not exactly. Many respected font foundries like Agfa, Adobe, Linotype, Berthold, etc., tend to sell fonts that only remain relevant in design circles. They won't go to the trouble digitizing a new OpenType font from some design that looks like it came from a bad Emmanuelle soft-porn 70's sequel or an Andy Griffith Show episode.

Still, "wood type" fonts (or western fonts) can find their use. Here is a sample of some of the more popular ones today. You might recognize some of the ones used in movies like "Tombstone" and even "Moulin Rouge".

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-13-2002, 12:22 AM:

Playbill looks like it could fit the bill if there were an extended version of it.

The Esquire marquee was designed in 1940 by William David. The facade is the only original portion of the theater. The rest of the building was demolished and rebuilt because it had been gutted and repurposed as office space before the Esquire Plaza project began.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-13-2002, 04:04 AM:

The font on the drug store marquee on the left doesn`t look too far away from the Esquire font. Also, the S in Times in the middle is a bit similar in that the diagonal is very long. Obviously this kind of design was very trendy back then...
To my untrained eye the Poplar font looks like it doesn`t quite belong with the others. Were those Western fonts actually used so much in the later 19th century or is that a cliche from Western movies?

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-13-2002, 04:25 AM:

The Times was owned by the same company and was also designed by William David. It was built a year after the Esquire. The entire block that the Times and the drug store is on was demolished to make way for the Hyatt Regency hotel.

The "CINEMAS" signs on GCC theaters are typically illuminated channel letters.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 12-13-2002, 11:25 AM:

Ditto to what Adam said, the GCC and Redstone theatres had channel letters.

I've always thought the "western" lettering style referred to the west, as in the western hemisphere. I'd first heard this in the early 70s, and oddly enough (given my love for Western movies), never thought of it as "Old West". [Big Grin]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-13-2002, 02:09 PM:

I have always associated this type of font with the Wild West since my earliest days of childhood as we had a few Western toys such as a saloon (which had a sign that said "Saloon") or a carriage on which it said "Wells Fargo", all in such a font.