Central NY Theater Memories

posted by Michael Zoldessy on July 21, 2006 at 4:36 am

AUBURN, NY — A column in the Auburn Citizen discusses the former theaters of that region:

In my last column, I stated that the Burtis Grand on North Street, which had been closed, reopened as a movie theater and was renamed the Capitol. In became Auburn’s fourth motion picture theater, all of which were in the downtown area. It was not a Schine theater as were the other three – Strand, Jefferson and Palace.

A friend of mine, Frank (Chich) Locastro, was a projectionist at the Capitol, and I would occasionally visit him in the projection booth where we would chat between reel changes.

Please visit, the Auburn Citizen site for the rest of the story.

Comments (1)

Karen Colizzi Noonan
Karen Colizzi Noonan on July 22, 2006 at 12:02 pm

Once a truly breathtaking Eberson theater with an “outerspace atmospheric” design as seen on the theater’s page on Cinema Treasures. When i spoke with G. David Schine (son of Myer Schine) in the mid 90s, he remembered this theater vividly and described much of the interior ornamentation precisely from memory. He was quite fond of this unique theater.

Despite its dilapidated condition, the beauty and the stunning decor stil s©hines through – one of Eberson’s more over-the-top designs and one of Schine’s most memorable theaters – truly one of a kind!

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