Ed Blank was right in his 2008 posting.
Showcase East’s opening in 1976 marked the beginning of the end for all of the great downtown (and near downtown—e.g., King’s Court, Squirrel Hill, Chatham, etc.) Pittsburgh theaters.
As much as it pains me to so any theater close, I can’t deny a certain satisfaction is seeing Becca’s photos of the dead Showcase East.
Karma is a b***h, ain’t it?
I blame the Toronto Film Festival organization for letting the Uptown die.
With the (seemingly) gazillions of dollars they rake in each year, they could have easily spent the needed cash to make the theater handicap accessible.
But even in the early ‘00s those greedy TIFF-ers had their eyes on the prize: that absurd, museum-like monstrosity downtown they’re now calling home.
Sad, but typical of those cynical, pretentious, p.c.-to-a-fault Canucks.
Tragically, the theater sits empty 350 days a year. What a shame.
The extensive remodeling that was done a few years back was extraordinary.
Now if only the new owner could figure out how to make it a viable, ongoing business.
I remember a single-screen movie theater in downtown Cincy that was opened in the summer of 1975. They were playing “Revenge of the Pink Panther” at the time. Does anyone know whether it was the Royal? It looked lovely all lit up at night, but I didn’t have the chance to go inside unfortunately.
Also recall a really tiny downtown Cincy twin theater inside of an office building (or small shopping center) that was in operation in November ‘75. Anybody???
I lived in New Jersey briefly back in the early ‘80s, and remember Cinema 46 with affection.
Saw “E.T.” there at a sneak preview (wow! remember those?) Memorial Day weekend 1982.
They actually passed out little metal badges that you could pin onto your shirt saying, “I saw 'E.T.’”
I still have mine, in fact.
The funny thing is, the theater was barely half-full, and I remember thinking that the movie was going to be a b.o. disappointment.
Also have fond memories of some other Jersey theaters I patronized back then on a regular basis: the Royal and Center in Bloomfield; the Bellevue, Claridge and Wellmont in Montclair; the Essex Green
triplex; the Verona and Nutley theaters; Cinema 23 (in Montclair??); the Paramus Mall single-screener and the larger Paramus ‘plex with 70 mm capabilities (saw “One from the Heart,” “Quest for Fire” and “Annie” in 70 mm there that same year).
I discovered the Clay by accident while exploring the streets of San Francisco one July afternoon a few summers back. It’s the sort of funky, friendly neighborhood theater I remember from my childhood. How nice to see that a few of them still exist today!
Back in high school I made regular Pittsburgh movie pilgrimages from Youngstown, and saw some classics at the Squirrel Hill: “Cries and Whispers” (April 1973); “Day for Night” (New Year’s Day 1974); “A Brief Vacation” (Memorial Day 1975); “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (Dec. ‘75); etc.
The theater had a very sophisticated, big city feel (similar to some NYC theaters of the time like the Coronet, Sutton and Paris), and I vaguely remember a nearby restaurant that we would go to while in Squirrel Hill (Poli’s maybe?) Great memories.
I have vivid, indelible memories of the Warner Theater from my youth. Two of my favorites are seeing Blake Edwards' “The Great Race” at a packed Sunday matinee in 1965 (boy, did that wide screen beauty look great on their huge screen!); another was the dementedly awful (but no less lovable) Mexican kidflick “Santa Claus” at a 1963 Thanksgiving weekend matinee when I was 5 years old.
How sad that Powers Auditorium is only open a handful of evenings per year, and sits empty and unloved the rest of the time. But it at least it didn’t meet the same fate as the Palace, State or Paramount…..i.e., “Wrecking Ball (or Worse) Central.”
I remember going to the Shea back when I was a kid. My family vacationed every summer at nearby Geneva-on-the-Lake, and Ashtabula wasn’t too far away. The theater was impressively grand like so many old theaters of its era (including several in downtown Youngstown).
Among the many films I saw there were “The Lion in Winter” (in 1969), and a double-feature of “Willard” and “10 Rillington Place” (in 1971).
A few of the movies I recall seeing at the original Wedgewood Cinema:
double-bills of “Berserk” and “The Torture Garden” (February ‘68) and Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” and “The Lady Vanishes” (fall '71); “Soylent Green,” “The Wild Rovers,” “Don’t Worry We’ll Think of a Title” (with Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie from the old “Dick Van Dyke Show”); subruns of “Dr. Dolittle” and “Camelot;” “Me, Natalie;” “Daddy’s Gone-a-Hunting;” “Willard;” “Deep Red;” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (the original in November '74); and “Mr. Ricco” (w/ Dean Martin: this was the last movie to play before the theater was twinned), among countless others.
Even when the movies were less than great, it was still fun going to the Wedgewood…especially once all the cavernous downtown houses had folded. I’m pretty sure the last downtown Youngstown theater to bite the dust was the Paramount in May 1971. Their last booking was David Lean’s “Ryan’s
Daughter” (which promptly moved over to the Newport on Midlothian Blvd. for one of their rare subrun bookings).
The original, single-screen Wedgewood Cinema was Ytown showman Peter Wellman’s Quixotic attempt to bring the grandeur of the downtown “movie palace” to the suburbs. But except for a few lucky bookings—e.g., an exclusive roadshow engagement of “Oliver!” in winter 1969; a lengthy run of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” in winter ‘68—the bookings were peculiar to say the least: a lot closer to the sort of thing you’d see at neighborhood second-run houses in the late '50s/early '60s. That said, it was always a pleasure to go to this theater (before it was twinned in early 1975 anyway).
I saw lots of intriguing double-features here: “West Side Story” and “Around the World in 80 Days” in December 1968 among them. One of the oddest pairings was probably Jerry Lewis’ “Which Way to the Front?” paired with “The Wild Bunch” in summer 1970.
The screen was huge, and the theater itself seemed immense. Does anyone have an exact seat count from the original single-screen incarnation? I’m thinking it must have been at least 1,200 or something along those lines. Even after its regrettable twinning, the Wedgewood auditoriums were still pretty
darn big.
Mike- Unlike Youngstown, Cleveland used to be Loews-heavy (Loews East, Loews Richmond, Loews Yorktown, Loews Village, Loews Berea, etc.) But the last remaining Loews house (their multiplex at Richmond Mall) was sold to exhibitor powerhouse Regal a few years back.
That Richmond ‘plex currently has 20 screens. Ha!! I remember when Loews first opened it back in the late '60s with—count 'em and weep—one gigantic screen. Even after it was (sadly) twinned, the screens were still immense by today’s standards.
Jack- It would definitely be a blast to get together with fellow survivors who remember the glorious theaters of Youngstown (and Pittsburgh’s) past.
I trust that you’ve since moved out of the northeastern Ohio gulag?
Although I’ve devoted my life to movies as an art form (I make my living as a critic, and also teach a film history class at YSU), I sometimes wonder what it is that I love more: those magnificent celluloid cathedrals of my youth/adolescence, or the actual films that were projected on their noble screens.
I sometimes think it’s a toss-up at this point.
Thanks, Jack. Nat'l Amusements was the name that kept popping in my head—but I kept doubting myself because it sounded to much like Sumner Redstone’s outfit.
Bill Petrich (or “Petrych,” I’m not certain) was their major domo in the Y'town district. And yes, Cinemette is the Pitts-based chain that eventually bought the Liberty Plaza and the Uptown (the Liberty played UA product; the Uptown was a Universal baby). The original Uptown owner/operator (Steve Foster a Wellman disciple, who also ran the Schenley on Mahoning Avenue, AND the Foster at one time), sold to Cinemette in spring ‘75, eventually buying the theater back in fall '83 after they’d run it—and the Uptown Theater’s good name—into the ground.
Yes, the Foster was a grand, glorious thing during its art film heyday. And you’re right, alas, about it’s current porn theater identity superseding its illustrious arthouse past. Whenever I mention the halcyon days of the Foster (and Bergman, Fellini, et al), people think I’m crazy.
The closest Loews Theater to Youngstown was a Loews house at the Eastwood Mall in Niles (roughly a half-hour’s drive from downtown Y-town) that opened spring ‘69 (“Anne of the Thousand Days” may have been their first movie).
Loews twinned that Eastwood house in 1973, and within a few years they sold the theater to the same Youngstown chain that—at the time—owned virtually every theater in the area. Drawing a blank on the chain’s name right now: pretty ironic considering the fact that, like most Baby Boomer Ytown natives, I worked at one of their theaters while in high school.
The Uptown was the crown jewel of non-downtown Youngstown theaters in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Famous for their lengthy engagements (“The Graduate” played from February-October '68; “American Graffiti,” October '73-April '74; “The Sting,” April-Oct. '74; etc.), the Uptown had a deal with Universal MCA and played virtually all of their product—including the wretched, but hugely profitable “Airport” series; schlock like “Earthquake;” even roadshows (“Sweet Charity”).
They also took chances and played “arty” stuff (much of it Universal, so it may have been a contractual thing) as well. I remember a double-feature of Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” and Peter Fonda’s “The Hired Hand” in March '72, and rarefied goodies like “Isadora,” John Cassavetes’ “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “The Lion in Winter” (a roadshow), Hitchcock’s “Topaz” and “Frenzy,” Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451”….
The theater had such prestige that even second runs could be wildly successful. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” did much better at the Uptown than it did a few months earlier when it played the
Newport.
Amusing side-note: since double-features were not uncommon back then, the Uptown brought back Clint Eastwood’s directing debut, “Play Misty for Me,” countless times as the second half of d-features.
For some reason, “Misty” was HUGE! at the Uptown. Go figure, huh?
Some corrections:
“Nashville” opened—and this was unprecedented at the time—at Cinema 11 AND The Baronet in June 1975. Apparently both the Rugoff and W. Reade chains wanted the film badly enough that they were willing to share. That never happened again.
And Harvey Weinstein’s memory failed him. “Raging Bull” opened at the Sutton, not Cinema 1; “Midnight Cowboy” played the Coronet (from May 1969 until late January/early February 1970 when it was replaced by Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point”); and “Rocky” played Cinema 11, not I (I remember seeing “Rocky” at a weekday sneak preview at Cinema 11 in mid-November 1976).
I can still remember the first time I went to Cinema 1. It was Xmas week 1975 to see Truffaut’s “Story of Adele H.” As a kid growing up in Ohio, I used to gaze longingly at the movie ads in the Sunday NYT, and developed a weird kind of relationships with all of those great old theaters. Each of them seemed to have their own particular identity/personality, and you could sometimes predict which movie would open where. (The Coronet played “The Conversation,” “The Graduate,” “Chinatown” and “Paper Moon;” the Sutton premiered “American Graffiti,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore;” and Cinema 1 had exclusive first-run engagements of “A Clockwork Orange,” “Mean Streets,” “The
Exorcist” and “Days of Heaven,” among countless others.) By the time I finally got to go to some of those theaters myself, it was almost a religious experience. After “Adele H.,” I walked next door and
saw Bergmans' “Magic Flute” at the Coronet (another dizzying, momentous occasion for me!)
Sony Lincoln Square and the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas are OK, but nothing compares to the “Bloomingdales Belt” jewel boxes of my adolescence.
The Foster’s glory days, unfortunately, were mostly before I was old enough to take advantage of them.
I remember they used to show a classic film (“The Seventh Seal” or maybe “La Strada”) every Tuesday as a bonus feature with their regular attraction. Can you imagine something like that today??!!
They truly put the “art” in “arthouse.”
During the mid-‘60s “Batman” TV craze, they did weekend matinees of all the old “Batman” serials from the 1940s. And I remember seeing a reissue of “House of Wax” there (in REAL 3-D!) around 1971.
The Foster also gets bonus points for being the place where I saw my first subtitled movie: Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maude’s” in 1970. I was 12 at the time.
What a great theater—and what a proud history!
I remember seeing so many wonderful movies there as a kid (and teenager). Between “roadshows,” the Paramount was something of an arthouse, too. I remember they played Joseph Strick’s “Ulysses,” Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point,” Visconti’s “The Damned,” Kazan’s “The Arangement,” Coppola’s “The Rain People” and Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” (double-featured with “House of Dark Shadows” of all things)! Lots of “saucy” movies, too, like “The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart” and “The Best House in London,” which only added to the theater’s sophisticated mystique.
I saw everything from “The Great White Hope,” Hello,Dolly!,“ "Tora! Tora! Tora!,” “The Shoes of the Fisherman,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Gypsy Moths,” “The Maltese Bippy,” “Alfie,” “2001” to “Gone With the Wind” (during its 1967 reissue)……
It was the only downtown theater I remember that had their box-office in the lobby (a boon in cold weather months).
Some corrections to Wolfgirl’s comments about the State Theater:
It was the Paramount (not the State) that played “My Fair Lady.”
And the State remained a first-run theater until their tragic closure in 1970. Among their last films were “Woodstock” and “The Boys in the Band,” both of which played in the summer of ‘70.
The “I am Curious (Yellow)” contremps was, I believe, in the early spring of 1969 (although it might have been '70: movies were platformed back then and would sometimes take an inordinate amount of time to get to Youngstown). I think they may have shown the film once before the cops shut them down. How silly. But the theater reopened with a more “socially acceptable” movie immediately after. It’s days, however, were sadly numbered.
meant to say:
“to SEE any theater close….”
Ed Blank was right in his 2008 posting.
Showcase East’s opening in 1976 marked the beginning of the end for all of the great downtown (and near downtown—e.g., King’s Court, Squirrel Hill, Chatham, etc.) Pittsburgh theaters.
As much as it pains me to so any theater close, I can’t deny a certain satisfaction is seeing Becca’s photos of the dead Showcase East.
Karma is a b***h, ain’t it?
I blame the Toronto Film Festival organization for letting the Uptown die.
With the (seemingly) gazillions of dollars they rake in each year, they could have easily spent the needed cash to make the theater handicap accessible.
But even in the early ‘00s those greedy TIFF-ers had their eyes on the prize: that absurd, museum-like monstrosity downtown they’re now calling home.
Sad, but typical of those cynical, pretentious, p.c.-to-a-fault Canucks.
Fun, funky little neighborhood house.
I remember seeing a double-feature of Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and “Midnight Cowboy” here in May 1971.
Tragically, the theater sits empty 350 days a year. What a shame.
The extensive remodeling that was done a few years back was extraordinary.
Now if only the new owner could figure out how to make it a viable, ongoing business.
I remember a single-screen movie theater in downtown Cincy that was opened in the summer of 1975. They were playing “Revenge of the Pink Panther” at the time. Does anyone know whether it was the Royal? It looked lovely all lit up at night, but I didn’t have the chance to go inside unfortunately.
Also recall a really tiny downtown Cincy twin theater inside of an office building (or small shopping center) that was in operation in November ‘75. Anybody???
I lived in New Jersey briefly back in the early ‘80s, and remember Cinema 46 with affection.
Saw “E.T.” there at a sneak preview (wow! remember those?) Memorial Day weekend 1982.
They actually passed out little metal badges that you could pin onto your shirt saying, “I saw 'E.T.’”
I still have mine, in fact.
The funny thing is, the theater was barely half-full, and I remember thinking that the movie was going to be a b.o. disappointment.
Also have fond memories of some other Jersey theaters I patronized back then on a regular basis: the Royal and Center in Bloomfield; the Bellevue, Claridge and Wellmont in Montclair; the Essex Green
triplex; the Verona and Nutley theaters; Cinema 23 (in Montclair??); the Paramus Mall single-screener and the larger Paramus ‘plex with 70 mm capabilities (saw “One from the Heart,” “Quest for Fire” and “Annie” in 70 mm there that same year).
I discovered the Clay by accident while exploring the streets of San Francisco one July afternoon a few summers back. It’s the sort of funky, friendly neighborhood theater I remember from my childhood. How nice to see that a few of them still exist today!
Back in high school I made regular Pittsburgh movie pilgrimages from Youngstown, and saw some classics at the Squirrel Hill: “Cries and Whispers” (April 1973); “Day for Night” (New Year’s Day 1974); “A Brief Vacation” (Memorial Day 1975); “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (Dec. ‘75); etc.
The theater had a very sophisticated, big city feel (similar to some NYC theaters of the time like the Coronet, Sutton and Paris), and I vaguely remember a nearby restaurant that we would go to while in Squirrel Hill (Poli’s maybe?) Great memories.
I have vivid, indelible memories of the Warner Theater from my youth. Two of my favorites are seeing Blake Edwards' “The Great Race” at a packed Sunday matinee in 1965 (boy, did that wide screen beauty look great on their huge screen!); another was the dementedly awful (but no less lovable) Mexican kidflick “Santa Claus” at a 1963 Thanksgiving weekend matinee when I was 5 years old.
How sad that Powers Auditorium is only open a handful of evenings per year, and sits empty and unloved the rest of the time. But it at least it didn’t meet the same fate as the Palace, State or Paramount…..i.e., “Wrecking Ball (or Worse) Central.”
I remember going to the Shea back when I was a kid. My family vacationed every summer at nearby Geneva-on-the-Lake, and Ashtabula wasn’t too far away. The theater was impressively grand like so many old theaters of its era (including several in downtown Youngstown).
Among the many films I saw there were “The Lion in Winter” (in 1969), and a double-feature of “Willard” and “10 Rillington Place” (in 1971).
A great old theater that’s sorely missed. Unfortunately, I only had the privilege of going there once—for “Mandingo” in May 1975.
Does anyone know what year the Daniel closed, or what their seating capacity was?
A few of the movies I recall seeing at the original Wedgewood Cinema:
double-bills of “Berserk” and “The Torture Garden” (February ‘68) and Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” and “The Lady Vanishes” (fall '71); “Soylent Green,” “The Wild Rovers,” “Don’t Worry We’ll Think of a Title” (with Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie from the old “Dick Van Dyke Show”); subruns of “Dr. Dolittle” and “Camelot;” “Me, Natalie;” “Daddy’s Gone-a-Hunting;” “Willard;” “Deep Red;” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (the original in November '74); and “Mr. Ricco” (w/ Dean Martin: this was the last movie to play before the theater was twinned), among countless others.
Even when the movies were less than great, it was still fun going to the Wedgewood…especially once all the cavernous downtown houses had folded. I’m pretty sure the last downtown Youngstown theater to bite the dust was the Paramount in May 1971. Their last booking was David Lean’s “Ryan’s
Daughter” (which promptly moved over to the Newport on Midlothian Blvd. for one of their rare subrun bookings).
The original, single-screen Wedgewood Cinema was Ytown showman Peter Wellman’s Quixotic attempt to bring the grandeur of the downtown “movie palace” to the suburbs. But except for a few lucky bookings—e.g., an exclusive roadshow engagement of “Oliver!” in winter 1969; a lengthy run of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” in winter ‘68—the bookings were peculiar to say the least: a lot closer to the sort of thing you’d see at neighborhood second-run houses in the late '50s/early '60s. That said, it was always a pleasure to go to this theater (before it was twinned in early 1975 anyway).
I saw lots of intriguing double-features here: “West Side Story” and “Around the World in 80 Days” in December 1968 among them. One of the oddest pairings was probably Jerry Lewis’ “Which Way to the Front?” paired with “The Wild Bunch” in summer 1970.
The screen was huge, and the theater itself seemed immense. Does anyone have an exact seat count from the original single-screen incarnation? I’m thinking it must have been at least 1,200 or something along those lines. Even after its regrettable twinning, the Wedgewood auditoriums were still pretty
darn big.
Mike- Unlike Youngstown, Cleveland used to be Loews-heavy (Loews East, Loews Richmond, Loews Yorktown, Loews Village, Loews Berea, etc.) But the last remaining Loews house (their multiplex at Richmond Mall) was sold to exhibitor powerhouse Regal a few years back.
That Richmond ‘plex currently has 20 screens. Ha!! I remember when Loews first opened it back in the late '60s with—count 'em and weep—one gigantic screen. Even after it was (sadly) twinned, the screens were still immense by today’s standards.
Jack- It would definitely be a blast to get together with fellow survivors who remember the glorious theaters of Youngstown (and Pittsburgh’s) past.
I trust that you’ve since moved out of the northeastern Ohio gulag?
Although I’ve devoted my life to movies as an art form (I make my living as a critic, and also teach a film history class at YSU), I sometimes wonder what it is that I love more: those magnificent celluloid cathedrals of my youth/adolescence, or the actual films that were projected on their noble screens.
I sometimes think it’s a toss-up at this point.
Thanks, Jack. Nat'l Amusements was the name that kept popping in my head—but I kept doubting myself because it sounded to much like Sumner Redstone’s outfit.
Bill Petrich (or “Petrych,” I’m not certain) was their major domo in the Y'town district. And yes, Cinemette is the Pitts-based chain that eventually bought the Liberty Plaza and the Uptown (the Liberty played UA product; the Uptown was a Universal baby). The original Uptown owner/operator (Steve Foster a Wellman disciple, who also ran the Schenley on Mahoning Avenue, AND the Foster at one time), sold to Cinemette in spring ‘75, eventually buying the theater back in fall '83 after they’d run it—and the Uptown Theater’s good name—into the ground.
Yes, the Foster was a grand, glorious thing during its art film heyday. And you’re right, alas, about it’s current porn theater identity superseding its illustrious arthouse past. Whenever I mention the halcyon days of the Foster (and Bergman, Fellini, et al), people think I’m crazy.
Nope; that wasn’t it, Chuck.
It’s on the tip of my tongue—or computer keyboard—but I’m stumped.
The closest Loews Theater to Youngstown was a Loews house at the Eastwood Mall in Niles (roughly a half-hour’s drive from downtown Y-town) that opened spring ‘69 (“Anne of the Thousand Days” may have been their first movie).
Loews twinned that Eastwood house in 1973, and within a few years they sold the theater to the same Youngstown chain that—at the time—owned virtually every theater in the area. Drawing a blank on the chain’s name right now: pretty ironic considering the fact that, like most Baby Boomer Ytown natives, I worked at one of their theaters while in high school.
The Uptown was the crown jewel of non-downtown Youngstown theaters in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Famous for their lengthy engagements (“The Graduate” played from February-October '68; “American Graffiti,” October '73-April '74; “The Sting,” April-Oct. '74; etc.), the Uptown had a deal with Universal MCA and played virtually all of their product—including the wretched, but hugely profitable “Airport” series; schlock like “Earthquake;” even roadshows (“Sweet Charity”).
They also took chances and played “arty” stuff (much of it Universal, so it may have been a contractual thing) as well. I remember a double-feature of Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” and Peter Fonda’s “The Hired Hand” in March '72, and rarefied goodies like “Isadora,” John Cassavetes’ “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “The Lion in Winter” (a roadshow), Hitchcock’s “Topaz” and “Frenzy,” Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451”….
The theater had such prestige that even second runs could be wildly successful. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” did much better at the Uptown than it did a few months earlier when it played the
Newport.
Amusing side-note: since double-features were not uncommon back then, the Uptown brought back Clint Eastwood’s directing debut, “Play Misty for Me,” countless times as the second half of d-features.
For some reason, “Misty” was HUGE! at the Uptown. Go figure, huh?
Some corrections:
“Nashville” opened—and this was unprecedented at the time—at Cinema 11 AND The Baronet in June 1975. Apparently both the Rugoff and W. Reade chains wanted the film badly enough that they were willing to share. That never happened again.
And Harvey Weinstein’s memory failed him. “Raging Bull” opened at the Sutton, not Cinema 1; “Midnight Cowboy” played the Coronet (from May 1969 until late January/early February 1970 when it was replaced by Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point”); and “Rocky” played Cinema 11, not I (I remember seeing “Rocky” at a weekday sneak preview at Cinema 11 in mid-November 1976).
I can still remember the first time I went to Cinema 1. It was Xmas week 1975 to see Truffaut’s “Story of Adele H.” As a kid growing up in Ohio, I used to gaze longingly at the movie ads in the Sunday NYT, and developed a weird kind of relationships with all of those great old theaters. Each of them seemed to have their own particular identity/personality, and you could sometimes predict which movie would open where. (The Coronet played “The Conversation,” “The Graduate,” “Chinatown” and “Paper Moon;” the Sutton premiered “American Graffiti,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore;” and Cinema 1 had exclusive first-run engagements of “A Clockwork Orange,” “Mean Streets,” “The
Exorcist” and “Days of Heaven,” among countless others.) By the time I finally got to go to some of those theaters myself, it was almost a religious experience. After “Adele H.,” I walked next door and
saw Bergmans' “Magic Flute” at the Coronet (another dizzying, momentous occasion for me!)
Sony Lincoln Square and the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas are OK, but nothing compares to the “Bloomingdales Belt” jewel boxes of my adolescence.
The Foster’s glory days, unfortunately, were mostly before I was old enough to take advantage of them.
I remember they used to show a classic film (“The Seventh Seal” or maybe “La Strada”) every Tuesday as a bonus feature with their regular attraction. Can you imagine something like that today??!!
They truly put the “art” in “arthouse.”
During the mid-‘60s “Batman” TV craze, they did weekend matinees of all the old “Batman” serials from the 1940s. And I remember seeing a reissue of “House of Wax” there (in REAL 3-D!) around 1971.
The Foster also gets bonus points for being the place where I saw my first subtitled movie: Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maude’s” in 1970. I was 12 at the time.
What a great theater—and what a proud history!
I remember seeing so many wonderful movies there as a kid (and teenager). Between “roadshows,” the Paramount was something of an arthouse, too. I remember they played Joseph Strick’s “Ulysses,” Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point,” Visconti’s “The Damned,” Kazan’s “The Arangement,” Coppola’s “The Rain People” and Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” (double-featured with “House of Dark Shadows” of all things)! Lots of “saucy” movies, too, like “The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart” and “The Best House in London,” which only added to the theater’s sophisticated mystique.
I saw everything from “The Great White Hope,” Hello,Dolly!,“ "Tora! Tora! Tora!,” “The Shoes of the Fisherman,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Gypsy Moths,” “The Maltese Bippy,” “Alfie,” “2001” to “Gone With the Wind” (during its 1967 reissue)……
It was the only downtown theater I remember that had their box-office in the lobby (a boon in cold weather months).
Some corrections to Wolfgirl’s comments about the State Theater:
It was the Paramount (not the State) that played “My Fair Lady.”
And the State remained a first-run theater until their tragic closure in 1970. Among their last films were “Woodstock” and “The Boys in the Band,” both of which played in the summer of ‘70.
The “I am Curious (Yellow)” contremps was, I believe, in the early spring of 1969 (although it might have been '70: movies were platformed back then and would sometimes take an inordinate amount of time to get to Youngstown). I think they may have shown the film once before the cops shut them down. How silly. But the theater reopened with a more “socially acceptable” movie immediately after. It’s days, however, were sadly numbered.