REMEMBERING CINERAMA
Part 34: Nanuet/Rockland County

The following is Part Thirty-Four in a series of retrospectives on Cinerama, the legendary motion picture process that kicked off the widescreen revolution. The series focuses on providing a market-by-market historical record of when and where Cinerama and its multi-panel clones were exhibited. The easy-to-reference articles serve to provide nostalgia to those who experienced the Cinerama presentations when they were new and to highlight the movie palaces in which the memorable events took place.

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
Part 32: Kansas City
Part 33: Milwaukee

And now... Part 34: Cinerama Presentations in Nanuet/Rockland County, New York!

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HOLLYWOOD, CA — The movies have ended at the 1937 theater originally known as the Admiral, later the Vine. Yet there are several screens set up in the theater just off the world-famous corner of Hollywood & Vine.

Laserium, which enjoyed a nearly 30-year run at the Griffith Observatory, has taken over the Hollywood movie house, which for years had played second-run double features to audiences that often numbered in the single digits. Will Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and Led Zep set to lasers be enough to lure a serious tourist crowd and not just nostalgic L.A. stoners? I wrote about the rebirth of Laserium, and the theater’s unusual adaptive reuse, in this L.A. Times story.

Walk into the Vine Theatre’s auditorium and you may be shocked at how much it still looks like the second-run movie house it was until late 2007. About 200 seats were removed to make way for a stage area and control panels in the rear — but the 424 that remain are the same funky orange seats that moviegoers of a few years ago will recall. They don’t recline like the Observatory’s chairs, but they don’t need to: Producers insist the days of chiropractor-friendly neck-craning have come to an end, because all the action is at panoramic eye level. Each show starts with animations projected on the former movie screen, then expands the action to three semi-transparent scrims closer to the audience, two additional screens on the side walls, mirrors, and — new to the Laserium experience, surprisingly enough — real mid-air effects.

“We weren’t allowed to put haze in the planetarium to light up laser beams,” explains Dryer, “so we really couldn’t do beam effects very well there, which always frustrated us"

Read the full post at the Los Angeles Times.

CHAPEL HILL,NC — After initially reporting the possibility, as of Friday, June 26,2009....the only movie theatre located in Downtown Chapel Hill, the Varsity Theatre, closed its doors forever.

The Varsity, whose theater marquee is the icon of Franklin Street, is closing according to its owner Bruce Stone. Despite rumors and blogs that said the theater was going to close, it wasn’t official until Stone made the announcement on Thursday, June 25, 2009.

The theater has been in business for 80 years and it is considered to be a Chapel Hill landmark serving not only the residents and patrons, but also serving the entire communities of Orange County, including nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The last two picture shows that played at the Varsity were “The Hangover”, and “The Brothers Bloom”.

More on this at the Herald Sun(reg rqr’d).

It seems that showing “classic” films in theaters today can often be a hit-or-miss project.
I’ve attended classic film programs at the great Loews Jersey, the Lafayette, Suffern, New York, Film Forum and the Cedar Lane Cinema in Teaneck, NJ....... are there any other venues in the New Jersey/New York area that show classic and independent films on a regular basis? 

NEW YORK, NY — The following is a request for a new member, Marya Pollack, looking for information regarding the Morningside Theatre, once run by her family:

My great-grandmother ran it from about 1908-1915 and I believe other family members before her. I have a copy of the theatre license but can you help me track down any paperwork they might have filed? My great aunt used to play the piano for the movies there. I have some pictures of actors but I don’t know if they were part of this theatre. 

For over a decade all I had was Amalia Steinberg’s calling card with a fragment of the theatre name. The license gives the exact address 2135-8 8th Ave as well as another theatre at 1217 Prospect Ave.

I’d love to find out who actually filled out the request for the license as there are no first names on it. Amalia’s maiden name was Weissman (Wiseman, Weisman) and she married a Bernard Steinberg, who ran several restaurants but she is listed in the NYC Directory as “theatre owner” after he died in 1908. Much of the two families were reportedly in theatre and early film in Manhattan and “amusements” in Coney Island, but it has been a huge struggle to find anything out. Another relative, Samuel Weisman is listed as working at “Philum’s Motion Picture Studio.”

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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This article discusses issues that may arise from taking a special needs child to the movies.

Do your children with special needs enjoy going to the movies? It is often a somewhat traumatic experience, yet the joys of modern day entertainment on the big screen are enough to entice you kids into the theater.

Here are common reasons a child will have trouble in a modern day movie theater.

Sound levels - With the new digital sound offered in many theaters, the film’s noise level is worthy of a good pair of ear plugs for even those of who hear normally. But, for someone with super sensitive hearing, that noise level is enough to hurt them or drive them insane in a really short amount of time.

Read the full story in the Examiner.

GLEN DALE, WV —  The Glen Dale Drive-in might close due to poor business.

The Glendale Drive-In Theater, located in Marshall County, is in jeopardy of closing unless more movie goers start showing up, 7 News learned.

The owners say they’re doing all they can to keep the drive-in open. Friday night they’re bringing in a live band to begin at 7p.m. and play up until the movie starts and then the band will begin performing again during the intermission between the two movies.

Read the full story in the State Journal.

More and more theaters are equipping themselves for RealD as the company makes huge gains.

RealD announced today that it has doubled its installation base of RealD 3D equipped cinema screens worldwide and notched 400% growth in Europe in the first half of 2009. Far and away the world’s largest 3D cinema platform, RealD’s network of theatres is expanding at a breathtaking clip, nearly doubling the number of 3D cinema installations of all other 3D providers combined. The RealD 3D platform now accounts for over 8,700 screens under contract and over 3,200 screens installed in more than 45 countries with over 200 exhibition partners.

Read more at MarketWatch.

Trying to keep up with Sony, Texas Instruments announces a deal with Cinemark along with mentioning they will be rolling out 4K projectors next year.

Current leader Texas Instruments has revealed that during 2010 it aims to incorporate 4K resolution as part of its next-gen projection technology platform, which will be offered in projectors from its licensees Barco, Christie Digital and NEC.

Meanwhile, Barco inked a significant deal with Cinemark to deploy the developing 4K technology exclusively on all Cinemark screens.

Read more at The Wrap.

KENEDY, TX — The Rialto Theater is for sale. Selling for what we have invested, $10,000. We need to sell it to help family with medical issues. It needs a complete rehab. 

The beginnings of rehab were started. The marque glass was removed and replaced with plastic. Some of the original pink tinted marque glass and holders are inside the building.

The interior has been gutted including walls. There is a balcony but the floor was stripped out and the boards are scattered in several areas.  There was water damage due to a leak along the length of the building. A temporary patch was placed to prevent further damage. There are no seats in this theater. There is some kind of speaker box on the stage. In the projector room are 3 carbon rod projectors and a power unit. Don’t know if it works. On the walls are a couple of murals made of cloth.

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