Another old 70mm theater bites the dust. Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove, which used to have one huge 70mm screen before being chopped up into 5 35mm screens at the start of the 1990’s, has closed its doors after a lease was not agreed between Clearview and the owner of the shopping center.
The Bellevue’s 70mm presentation of “2001” in 1978 was flat, and if I recall correctly, when the credits ran at the end, the title card IN CINERAMA had been crossed out with a black magic marker, a frame at a time, with the ink barely adhering to the film, creating a sort of pixellated effect.
The original theatre, screen #1 at Studio 28 was also equipped to run 70MM. They had a special Breakfast Club 70MM showing in 86 or 87, a chairty showing. Eastbrook was awesome until it was split.
When I saw David Lynch’s “The Straight Story”, a 2.35:1 widescreen film, at the Clairidge in 1999, the extreme left side of the image was off the screen and projected on to the theater wall. What a comedown from the Cinerama days. I can still remember the way certain shots from “How the West Was Won” looked on that huge curved screen, even after 45 years.
I’ve been to the clairidge only once, and that was for Life is Beautiful. Sound and picture were so-so, but the movie was enjoyable. I didn’t know that it once had Cinerama until I read about it on this page.
dantop500…
Yes, in addition to continuing this Cinerama series, I do plan to post in the coming weeks and months more theater history booking lists. Thanks for your interest! The most recent one I posted was for San Francisco’s Northpoint, which I doubt many readers have seen given the lack of comments since its posting.
I really enjoy the theater listings when you list all the films to play big screen theaters like for San Diego. Where I live in New York you’ve done the late Astor Plaza and the Ziegfeld which brought back a lot of memories of films I had seen there in the 80’s and 90’s. Will you be adding any histories soon?
Twistr54…
I’m not aware of Grand Rapids ever having a Cinerama theater. The Midtown ran some roadshows (presumably in 35mm) such as THE SOUND OF MUSIC (71-week run!), so perhaps that’s the theater being thought of.
Grand Rapids also had the Eastbrook, which was promoted during the late 1960s as the only Michigan theater outside Detroit with 70mm presentation capability.
Thanks Tim. The last time I was at the Clairidge, the photos were taken down from the lobby walls. Don’t know if that was permanent or not. I couldn’t figure out why they’d want to do such a thing – having once been a Cinerama theater should be a source of great pride. Now I’m really glad I took those pictures of them.
Very interesting ! I like to look at them all, read about the theatre etc. You re doing a great job on this. I live between Chicago and Detroit in Michigan, and I also, am looking forward to the Detroit segment on Cinerama.
And did Grand Rapids ever have a Cinerama for a short time ( like no more than 2-3 years)in the 50s when it came out, in an old downtown creeky filthy theatre? I had been told, but I can not find any information about it. And they could of been mistaken and ment CinemaSCOPE, also, having to do with a large screen. CHEERS.
The one good thing I can say about the Clairidge: they always show the low-budget independents and limited-release studio films you can’t usually see outside of Manhattan. But everytime I go there I can’t help feeling sad about the building itself. I still remember how awesome it was in 1963 when I saw “How the West Was Won” there in Cinerama.
They had framed photos of the old Cinerama days in the lobby (which I took pictures of a couple of years ago, and had my camera confiscated for the evening because of it – you can see the pictures on the Clairidge page at 1/23/07 –/theaters/6348/). Now I believe even those photos have been taken down, and with them the last vestiges of the Clairidge’s glorious past.
Yes Paul it is sad what happened to these 2 theatres. The Bellevue is now a quad, (2 up, 2 down), and the Clairidge is a 6-plex, with theatres going down, sideways, and even on all the way down where the screen and stage once were. Its just a shame no one has any regards for the past.
Unlike the Clairidge, the Bellevue in its single-screen glory days did not have the deeply curved screen you normally associate with Cinerama. (Both theatres have since been subdivided, sadly, and you could never tell that they were once 70mm showcase houses.) So while the Bellevue ran its share of exclusive 70mm engagements, it wasn’t really set up to make a Cinerama impression. The ‘78 re-issue of “2001,” ostensibly in Cinerama, didn’t really look any different from the Super Panavision engagement there two years earlier, except that the print in '78 was in much worse shape.
Cinema 23 didn’t show Cinerama, my mistake.
Another old 70mm theater bites the dust. Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove, which used to have one huge 70mm screen before being chopped up into 5 35mm screens at the start of the 1990’s, has closed its doors after a lease was not agreed between Clearview and the owner of the shopping center.
Part 1: New York City
Part 2: Chicago
Part 3: San Francisco
Part 4: Houston
Part 5: Washington, DC
Part 6: Los Angeles
Part 7: Atlanta
Part 8: San Diego
Part 9: Dallas
Part 10: Oklahoma City
Part 11: Syracuse
Part 12: Toronto
Part 13: Columbus
Part 14: Montreal
Part 15: Northern New Jersey
Part 16: Charlotte
Part 17: Vancouver
Part 18: Salt Lake City
Part 19: Boston
Part 20: Philadelphia
Part 21: Fresno
Part 22: Detroit
Part 23: Minneapolis
Part 24: Albuquerque
Part 25: El Paso
Part 26: Des Moines
Part 27: Miami
Part 28: Orange County
Part 29: Pittsburgh
Part 30: Baltimore
Part 31: Long Island
The Bellevue’s 70mm presentation of “2001” in 1978 was flat, and if I recall correctly, when the credits ran at the end, the title card IN CINERAMA had been crossed out with a black magic marker, a frame at a time, with the ink barely adhering to the film, creating a sort of pixellated effect.
“The Breakfast Club”??? In 70mm???
The original theatre, screen #1 at Studio 28 was also equipped to run 70MM. They had a special Breakfast Club 70MM showing in 86 or 87, a chairty showing. Eastbrook was awesome until it was split.
When I saw David Lynch’s “The Straight Story”, a 2.35:1 widescreen film, at the Clairidge in 1999, the extreme left side of the image was off the screen and projected on to the theater wall. What a comedown from the Cinerama days. I can still remember the way certain shots from “How the West Was Won” looked on that huge curved screen, even after 45 years.
I’ve been to the clairidge only once, and that was for Life is Beautiful. Sound and picture were so-so, but the movie was enjoyable. I didn’t know that it once had Cinerama until I read about it on this page.
dantop500…
Yes, in addition to continuing this Cinerama series, I do plan to post in the coming weeks and months more theater history booking lists. Thanks for your interest! The most recent one I posted was for San Francisco’s Northpoint, which I doubt many readers have seen given the lack of comments since its posting.
I really enjoy the theater listings when you list all the films to play big screen theaters like for San Diego. Where I live in New York you’ve done the late Astor Plaza and the Ziegfeld which brought back a lot of memories of films I had seen there in the 80’s and 90’s. Will you be adding any histories soon?
Twistr54…
I’m not aware of Grand Rapids ever having a Cinerama theater. The Midtown ran some roadshows (presumably in 35mm) such as THE SOUND OF MUSIC (71-week run!), so perhaps that’s the theater being thought of.
Grand Rapids also had the Eastbrook, which was promoted during the late 1960s as the only Michigan theater outside Detroit with 70mm presentation capability.
Thanks Tim. The last time I was at the Clairidge, the photos were taken down from the lobby walls. Don’t know if that was permanent or not. I couldn’t figure out why they’d want to do such a thing – having once been a Cinerama theater should be a source of great pride. Now I’m really glad I took those pictures of them.
Very interesting ! I like to look at them all, read about the theatre etc. You re doing a great job on this. I live between Chicago and Detroit in Michigan, and I also, am looking forward to the Detroit segment on Cinerama.
And did Grand Rapids ever have a Cinerama for a short time ( like no more than 2-3 years)in the 50s when it came out, in an old downtown creeky filthy theatre? I had been told, but I can not find any information about it. And they could of been mistaken and ment CinemaSCOPE, also, having to do with a large screen. CHEERS.
Yes Bill, the pictures are still on the Clairidge cinema treasures site, great to see!
The one good thing I can say about the Clairidge: they always show the low-budget independents and limited-release studio films you can’t usually see outside of Manhattan. But everytime I go there I can’t help feeling sad about the building itself. I still remember how awesome it was in 1963 when I saw “How the West Was Won” there in Cinerama.
They had framed photos of the old Cinerama days in the lobby (which I took pictures of a couple of years ago, and had my camera confiscated for the evening because of it – you can see the pictures on the Clairidge page at 1/23/07 –/theaters/6348/). Now I believe even those photos have been taken down, and with them the last vestiges of the Clairidge’s glorious past.
Yes Paul it is sad what happened to these 2 theatres. The Bellevue is now a quad, (2 up, 2 down), and the Clairidge is a 6-plex, with theatres going down, sideways, and even on all the way down where the screen and stage once were. Its just a shame no one has any regards for the past.
Unlike the Clairidge, the Bellevue in its single-screen glory days did not have the deeply curved screen you normally associate with Cinerama. (Both theatres have since been subdivided, sadly, and you could never tell that they were once 70mm showcase houses.) So while the Bellevue ran its share of exclusive 70mm engagements, it wasn’t really set up to make a Cinerama impression. The ‘78 re-issue of “2001,” ostensibly in Cinerama, didn’t really look any different from the Super Panavision engagement there two years earlier, except that the print in '78 was in much worse shape.
I am looking forward to the intallments on Detroit and Cleveland, the places where I saw most of the Cinerama films.