Comments from terrywade

Thanks again KINO what a great looking curved screen!

Thanks David for the photo. Great 70mm satin banner under the marquee. Probably came from National Screen Service long out of business. Need one for my living room, you never find them on E Bay.

M*1944 thanks for sharing this great old photo. Looks like the old screen for flat 1.33 or 1.85 was made of bricks then they added a wood wing for CinemaScope® in the 1954 time frame. The sold thick old screen tower probably withstood many storms but the wood wings may not have done so well in a big Texas storm. It was way cheaper for so many of these Drive In’s to keep the old square screen and just add sides for a scope movie. Thanks again.

I just noticed this must have been the original flat screen before the wider CinemaScope® screen was added to the sides.

Thanks David for the image. You can see when they added the CinemaScope® wings to the sides probably in 1954? What a place to live under the back of the screen! Thanks again.

Thanks I wonder if this western art had black lights on them to make a glow?

Thanks David for this rare photo of the Northern California king pin of movie theatres and drive-in’s Ray Syufy. He was a smart business person buying up farm land and putting in outdoor movie screens and building 70mm Super Cinerama® dome screens around CA. The land the Syufy family still owns the sons have taken over to sell the old drive inn’s for mall space then they put in a new multiplex cinema on the property. The Syufy family kept a few of the old drive in’s around CA,Nevada and Arizona now under ‘Westwind Theatres’ and still run them today with the flea markets. Ray was way ahead of his time as a independent movie theatre owner and real estate guru. He went after the big movie studios to get first run movies for his small chain of cinemas. Thanks to the Syufy family located in Marin county that still carry his legacy.

Thanks Jim for this clip from Boxoffice Mag. The Nimitz freeway in the East Bay had many old outdoor movie theatres as the farm land was so cheap in the 50’s & 60’s. It was so fun driving by when I was a kid with their giant CinemaScope® screens. The property was worth so much they all come down in the early 1980’s. I have a ton of old Boxoffice mags and It’s great to look at the Modern Theatre section from the 1950’s & 60’s to see all the new movie theatres indoor and outdoor going up plus all the new wide screen systems coming.

David thanks for the curved screen photo.Must have looked great on a scope movie also.

Thanks so much 50’s for this photo. What a great curved screen almost like Cinerama® at the Drive In.

M1944**thanks for this great photo of the back of the PP DI semi curved screen. You can see the wood sections on the sides that they added for CinemaScope® in the 1950’s.

Thanks Kino. I wonder is this art wall mural was ever lit from the back? Would look great with low blue halo light from behind when a movie was on. The place just sits empty year after year and a pool may be going in. I saw 70mm ‘Cleopatra’ roadshow semi flat Todd AO screen here many years ago plus many other 70mm roadshow movies. This was UA’s second tier 70mm theatre down the street from the torn down Coronet. The Coronet was the first theatre to have a curved Todd-AO screen in SF in 1955 for Oklahoma.