Comments from sporridge

Showing 151 - 175 of 234 comments

sporridge
sporridge commented about Theatre on Nov 7, 2009 at 10:33 pm

The Theatre — as with its owner, Fantasma Productions — has been defunct since early 2008. Fantasma founder Jon Stoll, the main driving force behind The Theatre and its predecessor the Carefree, passed away at that time. With Fantasma subsequently sold to Live Nation, The Theatre was up for lease/rental last I heard. Stoll was one of the last major independent concert promoters in the country — warmly remembered, much missed.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Paragon Ridge 8 on Nov 7, 2009 at 10:46 am

New new name: Ridge Cinema 8.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Paragon Ridge 8 on Nov 4, 2009 at 7:03 pm

New name: Ridge Cinema. Grand opening set for Nov. 6.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Financing issues abort Muvico's multiplex in Chicago's Block 37 on Nov 4, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Furthermore about Paragon, founded by three former Muvico execs:

View link

This link will probably have a short shelf life…

sporridge
sporridge commented about 170th Street Cinema on Oct 9, 2009 at 6:57 pm

Based on a Google address match, the former theatre space is now Miami Beach Fitness:

http://www.miamibeachfitness.com/

sporridge
sporridge commented about 170th Street Cinema on Oct 9, 2009 at 6:43 pm

Tying into a comment I made on the Palm Aire Plaza page, the Sunny Isles Beach may have been the theatre that caught fire on reopening weekend, never to recover. It may have been refitted with four or even five screens. I’ll have to sit down with the Miami Herald microfilm at the library sometime and try to find details…

sporridge
sporridge commented about Galleria Cinemas on Oct 7, 2009 at 8:56 pm

By the 80s and until the mid 90s, the “arched windows” retail space became a McDonalds (eat-in only, no place for a drive-thru). The space to the east was a long-shuttered bank, Financial Federal. Both were vacant for many years until demolition.

Bruce, the Pompano Cinema opened as a General Cinema house (or its predecessor, since they didn’t adopt the GCC name until the mid 60s). Loews' Broward screens were in Pembroke Pines, Lauderhill, Inverrary, and Coral Springs. I recently left some background at the Cinemas 4 Pompano page here at CT.

“GCC shadowbox” — nice description, I’ve been trying to think of the most precise term.

sporridge
sporridge commented about AMC Pompano Beach 18 on Sep 27, 2009 at 3:14 pm

Muvico Pompano has now become the first South Florida megaplex to replace film with Sony 4K digital projection in all auditoriums.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas Coconut Grove on Sep 23, 2009 at 8:39 pm

A search on “Muvico” at the blog above might capture further updates there in the months ahead (including the news that the proposed bowling alley component has been scrapped, and the screen count will now be 14).

sporridge
sporridge commented about California Club 6 Theater on Sep 23, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Sad to hear about the California Club’s imminent closing. It was certainly a test lab for many of the creature comforts now expected of megaplexes. Add it to the ever-lengthening list of South Florida cinemas not surviving past a couple decades.

(And the Ocean Cinemas link has expired)

sporridge
sporridge commented about Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas Coconut Grove on Sep 19, 2009 at 10:09 pm

A local blogger reports:

View link

AMC also turned over the keys to new owners (Liebe Entertainment Group) at Davie’s Ridge Plaza 8 in July. They’ve now pared back to four locations in Dade/Broward (having left Palm Beach years ago).

sporridge
sporridge commented about Fountains Cinema 8 on Sep 14, 2009 at 6:18 pm

Per The Miami Herald article “Changes coming soon to Fountains shopping center in Plantation” (9/13/09), the Fountains Cinema 8 has been demolished. Kohl’s is part of their redevelopment, but I don’t know if they’re on the former cinema site. At least one local resident quoted in the article wished they could have convenient moviegoing again.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Northridge Cinema on Aug 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm

Old Tyme Movie has my enduring thanks for making quite a few classics available that had eluded South Florida TV at the time, particularly the MGM Marx Bros. features, Fred Astaire’s non-Ginger Rogers musicals, and what remains the strangest double bill ever: “Easter Parade” and “Freaks.” TV ultimately had the upper hand, but Old Tyme’s effort is fondly remembered here.

Northridge Shopping Center played a bit part in Jerry Lewis' 1980 feature “Hardly Working” — the parking lot melee sequence was filmed there (with some fleeing rabbits meeting their unfortunate demises in Commercial Blvd./Dixie Hwy. traffic).

sporridge
sporridge commented about Regal Boynton 8 Cinemas on Aug 18, 2009 at 6:57 pm

This site may have originally been intended for Fox Theaters in the late 1980s. Their goal to open four locations in Broward and Palm Beach counties stopped after two builds (the Fox Pompano/Fox Festival, and Fox Sunrise/Sunrise Eleven — look up the latter names at CT for further details, if interested).

sporridge
sporridge commented about Framingham Cinema Shoppers' World on Aug 15, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Some background information about the Shoppers World Cinema that (on a quick glance) has gone unlinked here (save for a couple photos):

http://generalcinematheatres.com/

Click on the “Shoppers World/Where it All Began” logo.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Plaza Twin Theater on Aug 9, 2009 at 12:03 pm

Kieran, the Hollywood Cinema (on Young Circle) is now on Cinema Treasures:

/theaters/25080/

Would be very interested in your reminiscences of your place (I was only there once in its waning days).

sporridge
sporridge commented about Bill Cosford Cinema on Aug 9, 2009 at 10:00 am

Years later, the animated Cuban feature “Vampires in Havana” went off without a hitch when it played the Beaumont (to a small audience when I was there), probably around 1990. (Less consequential than “Memories of Underdevelopment,” of course.)

sporridge
sporridge commented about Galleria Cinemas on Aug 8, 2009 at 5:18 pm

Drove past the former Galleria Cinemas site last Saturday night — no new activity yet. From Sunrise Boulevard, you can see open space all the way back to the parking garage. What a waste. By the way, the adjoining hotel’s currently known as “Gallery ONE – A Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel.”

Side story from my intermittent involvement with the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival. The 1991 edition closed with Mark Rydell’s “For the Boys,” and his hotel room overlooked the Galleria’s marquee. Told he was overjoyed to see one title in particular: “The Man in the Moon,” which he produced and had to fight an uphill battle to see properly released. (This “Moon” is now probably best known as Reese Witherspoon’s debut.)

sporridge
sporridge commented about Southport Cinema & Drafthouse on Aug 1, 2009 at 8:56 pm

Drove into the area tonight, and pulled over to find out thie theater’s fate. Retail space. Vacant retail space. Plenty of it.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Cinemas 4 at Pompano on Jul 26, 2009 at 2:13 pm

As awkward as it sounds, the later name under Lockwood McKinnon/Friedman was “Cinemas 4 Pompano” (with “s”).

Also, if Beverly W. happens to find this, “hi” from your old community college newspaper, Ultravision, and Cinemas 4 Pompano friend Steve!

sporridge
sporridge commented about Cinemas 4 at Pompano on Jul 26, 2009 at 1:17 pm

“Further details to follow” — almost a year later.

General Cinema Corporation made its South Florida debut with the 1200-seat Pompano Cinema, North Broward County’s first indoor theater. Designed to blend in with the new suburban surroundings (GCC’s main demographic of the time), it was originally part of the Shoppers Haven center.

While designed for economy and efficiency rather than architectural splendor, the Pompano Cinema was advertised as having the largest screen in Florida. I recall the auditorium was originally lined with undecorated walls, and corrugated metal panels along the side exits (the panels were ventilated — an air conditioning recycling consideration, perhaps?)

Programming was mainly family-oriented at first, and the Pompano always scored whatever Disney product was to be had (including the original “That Darn Cat,” my earliest memory of moviegoing). Once the ABC Florida State Ultravision opened three miles north, the Pompano started running more PG and R releases. They’d rarely venture outside of mainstream fare, but had the occasional surprise such as the Broward exclusive of Spike Lee’s first film.

It would remain a movie destination (through twinning, quadrupling, and a change in ownership) for 38 years, followed by a stint as the Club Cinema nightclub.

Probably its most noteworthy moment occurred at a reunion concert of late 1970s/early 1980s South Florida bands in January 2007, honoring the late Sheila Witkin (band promoter and nurturing presence). Johnny Depp attended to play alongside his old band The Kidz.

As of 2009, the site and its surrounding strip-shop rows are slated for redevelopment. A sign on the property mentions availability of “25,000 square feet big box retail.” It’s possible the Pompano Cinema will mark its 50th anniversary as a store.

P.S.: Thanks to whomever’s keeping the lights on at this remnant of the former offical GCC site, for some background details:

http://generalcinematheatres.com/

sporridge
sporridge commented about Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas Coconut Grove on Jul 25, 2009 at 4:22 pm

… and Muvico’s takeover date is anyone’s guess right now. AMC still operates Cocowalk at this time.

sporridge
sporridge commented about Boca Raton Theatre on Jul 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Sorry — that should be “Shadowood,” one “w.”

sporridge
sporridge commented about Paragon Ridge 8 on Jul 25, 2009 at 4:13 pm

AMC departed the Ridge Plaza 8 after 25 years in July 2009. New owners Liebe Entertainment Group are promising extensive renovations and upgrades for a Fall 2009 reopening:

http://www.liebeentertainmentgroup.com/ridgeplaza/

sporridge
sporridge commented about Boca Raton Theatre on Jul 25, 2009 at 1:37 pm

A world premiere, “Flipper’s Big Adventure,” inaugurated the Boca Raton Theatre on May 27, 1964 — with proof that Wometco was well practiced at synergy years before the term caught on. Boxoffice Magazine from that week reported:

“… Open house will be staged Tuesday (26), featuring a live TV show of Popeye’s Playhouse, emceed by Skipper Chuck Zink from Wometco’s WTVJ-TV in Miami, followed by a fashion show with commentator Jackie Pierce, also of WTVJ-TV. However, the real star of the open house and opening night activities will be Flipper, the Miami Seaquarium (also Wometco owned – sporridge) porpoise, who will be on display in a portable pool.” That would’ve been a 60-mile trek each way for Flipper.

“The new theatre has acoustically perfect sound, peripheral vision screen, a smoking loge which will be called the University lounge in honor of the new Florida Atlantic University which opens in September in Boca Raton, rocking chair seats, staggered wide-spaced seating, air conditioning and a large free parking area.”

It was still finely tuned when I made my first visit as an eight-year-old, as the BRT had the local exclusive on “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” (further synergy: WTVJ was a CBS affiliate, and Wometco had a lock on that and other CBS Cinema Center Films presentations). While twinning (in 1976) was an economic necessity, it became painfully obvious that the building was narrower in the front and wider further back. Much grumbling when the likes of “Return of the Jedi” was shoehorned onto both shrunken screens.

In its later years, the BRT often showed art films after their runs at Wometco’s Sunset Theatre, Coral Gables. The final schedule in September 1984: “Revenge of the Nerds” and “The Philadelphia Experiment.” Wometco later returned to West Boca with one of its last new builds, the Shadowwood 12 (later 16).