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Theaters
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January 18, 2010
Future for the Loew’s Canal?
NEW YORK, NY — The long dormant Loew’s Canal Theatre could have a new life as a local performing arts center.
Hidden deep behind a shuttered electronics shop on Canal Street is what an Asian-American arts group hopes will become the Lincoln Center of Chinatown — a massive 2,300-seat theater that’s been sealed off for three decades.
The former Loews Canal theater at the corner of Ludlow Street is a sleeping giant of a performance space that has been the target of a six-year-long effort to create a new cultural center in a neighborhood that has struggled to recover from 9/11.
But for the first time the project may have the backing of the building’s owners, local banker Thomas Sung and his family, who late last month agreed to launch feasibility studies for the arts project.
Read the full story in the New York Post.
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Ridgewood Theatre facade is a landmark
RIDGEWOOD, QUEENS, NY — Progress on the fight for the Ridgewood Theatre continues as the facade is landmarked.
After attending the Landmarks Preservation Commission 1/12/10 Public Meeting, I am elated to report that the historic Ridgewood Theatre was unanimously voted by commissioners as an Individual Landmark! A nearly 2-year effort under Friends of The Ridgewood Theatre as Chairman (since March 2008), in affiliation with various preservation and cultural groups, members of Cinema Treasures, elected officials, and a mass audience, truly paid off! I extend my thanks to the broad coalition of supporters, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission for doing the right thing on behalf of the people.
Read more at the Rego-Forest Preservation Blog.
Update: For video of this story, see NY-1’s coverage.
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New screens coming to Rocklin, CA and Opelika, AL
SANTA ROSA, CA — A former Mervyn’s store in Rocklin, CA, a suburb of Sacramento, is being converted into a 16-screen multiplex by the SR Entertainment Group. The $10 million complex is expected to open in September.
SR Entertainment Group has four theaters in Sonoma County, including Roxy Stadium 14 in Santa Rosa and Airport Stadium 12 near Windsor.
The group doesn’t release sales figures, but business is booming, Tocchini said. With consumers cutting back on travel, movies are an affordable escape, he said. New generation 3-D films such as “Avatar” are driving record attendance, Tocchini said.
There is more in the Press Democrat.
According to this brief item in the Ledger-Enquirer, Opelika, AL, about 54 miles northeast of Montgomery, will be the site of a 14-screen cinema to be built by Revolution Cinemas in the Tiger Town Shopping Center.
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January 13, 2010
Squatters may have caused fire in vacant Yonkers theater
YONKERS, NY — The shuttered Kimball Theatre was the victim of another fire, possibly due to squatters living in the abadoned building.
Fitzpatrick said the cause of the fire was unknown and under investigation, but he noted that the building’s gas and electricity have been cut off for years since a devastating, three-alarm fire on Nov. 16, 2004, that started in an adjacent laundromat.
That fire gutted the movie house — at the time a furniture store — and it caused other adjacent businesses to close.
In 2008 the Cottage International Development Group and Glenman Construction, both of Yonkers, reached out to city officials about developing a 200-unit housing complex at the site of the theater and adjoining plots of land.
Read more in the Journal News.
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January 12, 2010
Memories and appreciation for having worked in a theater inspire woman to donate $125,000 to Auburn’s State Theater
AUBURN, CA — She did not do it for notoriety, but as a personal memorial to having worked in a movie theater during the Great Depression. Viola Wrigley recently gave $125,000 to the effort to restore Auburn’s State Theater as a performing arts center.
Wrigley, 93, worked at the Tulare County city of Exeter’s movie house as a girl during the Depression era.
Jobs were hard to come by and Wrigley started out as a flashlight-wielding usherette before graduating to trusted cashier at the family owned enterprise.
The money she earned helped put her through college in Visalia and sent her on her way into a successful design and business career that continues to this day.
There’s more in the Auburn Journal.
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January 11, 2010
Historic Ridgewood Theatre may earn Landmark Status on Jan 12, 2010 at LPC Public Meeting
RIDGEWOOD, NY — Queens' historic Ridgewood Theatre (55-27 Myrtle Ave) closed its doors in March 2008 without warning, but patrons & preservationists are now elated that the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a Public Meeting, where Commissioners will vote whether to designate the theater as Queens' newest Individual Landmark (façade). The Public Meeting for the Ridgewood Theatre (Agenda Item #3, LP-2325) is set for Tues, January 12, 2010 from 10:15 AM —– 10:25 AM at the Municipal Building, 1 Centre St, 9th Floor North, NY, NY 10007: http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/calendar/01_12_10.pdf
A hearing was held on March 24, 2009 as a result of a Request For Evaluation form and research, a letter campaign, a petition drive, and a MySpace Group coordinated by Friends of The Ridgewood Theatre, which was founded by Preservationist Michael Perlman after the theater’s closure in 2008. Testimony in support of Individual Landmark status was diverse and abundantly positive, and also included written testimony from Thomas A. Lamb, the great-grandson of Architect Thomas W. Lamb, who was tracked down by Chair Perlman. Co-owner Mario Saggese expressed his support for landmarking the façade, and also said the owners envision a historically-sensitive plan for the downstairs auditorium space consisting of retail to make it economically viable, with modern screens upstairs.
Opening its doors on December 23, 1916 and closing in March 2008, the Ridgewood Theatre was deemed “the longest continuously operating first-run neighborhood theater citywide, and potentially throughout the U.S.” It staged Vaudeville, silent films, saw the advent of photoplays, the first ‘100% All-Talking’ feature, Lights of New York (1928), & Technicolor. Its original seating capacity was 2,500, but currently contains 5 screens and seats 1,950.
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January 8, 2010
Paris theater gutted by fire
PARIS, AR – The recently renovated Main Street Cinema was destroyed by a blaze on Jan 2. A previous theater in the town succumbed to the same fate in 2005.
Fire officials said the cause of the blaze is under investigation and that no one was inside when the fire broke out.
“It gave the families some place to take their kids to see movies and have something to do on the weekends,” said area resident Kathy Caughman.
Orange flames glowed from inside the theater as several fire departments worked to prevent the fire from spreading.
More detail with video at 4029tv.com
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January 7, 2010
New theaters coming to Simpsonville, SC and Warner Robins, GA
SIMPSONVILLE, SC — Great Escape Theatres is planing a March opening of its new 14-screen multiplex in this Upstate city. One of the auditoriums will be for IMAX presentations, and the complex will include a cocktail lounge.
A new movie theater is opening in the Upstate this spring. It will have the only Imax screen between Charlotte and Atlanta.
Great Escape is under construction on South Street in Simpsonville just off interstate 385 in between Fairview and West Georgia roads. “We expect folks to drive over from that famous Woodruff road area, drive over to the movies,” said Simpsonville mayor Dennis Waldrop.
The theater will also have a lounge that serves meals and drinks, not just popcorn.
Read more at WYFF.
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January 6, 2010
Former San Juan Capistrano theater to reopen
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA — The five-screen former Edwards Cinema in the Franciscan Shopping Cente will be reopening.
The company’s president said they hope to sell gourmet snacks, beer and wine in the new theater, which is expected to open by the end of January. He said the theater will feature a variety of films, including some hard-to-find, special-release movies. The theater’s property owner said it would open by Thanksgiving. But construction continues at the site.
Read more in the OC Register.
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January 4, 2010
Former Towne 3 in San Jose becomes BIG Cinemas San Jose
SAN JOSE, CA — Reliance/BIG Cinemas, which specializes in Bollywood films, has purchased and renovated the Towne 3 Theatre on the Alameda in San Jose. Opened as the Hester in 1926, the cinema was most recently known as the India Film Center 6 (although it had three screens). It had been previously both a porn and art theater over the years.
Paletta was joined by Uday Kumar, North America business head for Reliance/BIG Cinemas, and Chris Gehring, district manager for Phoenix BIG Cinemas Management, at the launch of the theater — California’s first theater to receive a top-to-bottom renovation as part of Reliance’s ambitious move to take over dozens of outdated, second-run American theaters and convert them to Indian movie palaces.
The Reliance team was quick to recognize the years of hard work by Raman Sanchula, Lalit Chopra and Lu Muvva, who ran the IMC6 and made the theater a center for South Indian movie buffs.
Read about the changeover in the India Times.