Comments from JamesShertzer

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JamesShertzer
JamesShertzer commented about Warner Theatre on Jan 2, 2014 at 11:07 am

I grew up in Bethesda and remember hearing my parents talk about movies at the Earle. When the Warner converted to three-projector Cinerama, I saw “This Is Cinerama” there shortly after it opened when I was 10. I still have the original program. I saw several other Cinerama films there (“Windjammer,” “South Seas Adventure'). The Cinerama films ended at the Warner in the fall of 1959. The 3 hour and 40 minute cut of "Cleopatra” played there in an exclusive roadshow engagement for some months. Perhaps the most exciting Warner Theater moment for me was the first Saturday night screening of “My Fair Lady” there. As I walked through the lobby at intermission I almost walked in Jack Warner himself and Jack Valenti. The Ontario (which had “Lawrence of Arabia” in its roadshow run) and Uptown (which installed Todd-AO for “Oklahoma!,” “Around the World in 80 Days” and “South Pacific”) were other big-screen theater that had 70mm installations. As downtown DC ran down, and all the old movie palaces were torn down (Capitol, Palace, Columbia), the Warner lost its cache and turned into an exploitation and grind house. The Ontario was in another neighborhood that decline and went dark. That left the Uptown, which converted to three-projector Cinerama in 1961, I believe (I remember seeing “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” there and “How the West Was Won”), then single-projector Cinerama (“Mad World” through “Ice Station Zebra”). I probably was “2001” there half a dozen times or more in its year long run. The Cinerama screen was replaced but the Cinerama screen scaffold and track were still in place when I saw “2001” there in 2001. Now I understand all that gone and so has film, which all shows now in digital format.

JamesShertzer
JamesShertzer commented about Uptown Theatre on Nov 3, 2001 at 12:17 pm

I’m not sure when the Uptown first opened, probably in the 20’s or 30’s. It was a standard neighborhood theater back then. In the mid 1950s, it was transformed into a Todd-AO 70mm house, for the roadshow presentation of “Oklahoma!” The long-run hit from those days, though, was “Around the World in 80 Days,” which must have played there for 18 months or two years. The last Cinerama installation in DC at the Warner Theater in heart of downtown Washington was dismantled following the last three-projection travelogue, “South Seas Adventure,” about 1959 or 1960. When MGM teamed up to make a new series of Cinerama films, the Uptown was revamped as a three-projector Cinerama house, running the two MGM titles — “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How the West Was Won” — for several years. When the three-projector Cinerama system was abandoned, the orchestra-level Cinerama projector booths at the Uptown were removed and the theater converted to a single-projector (balcony level) Panavision 70 Cinerama installation for the first of those films — “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and the subsequent releases, the most successful of which was, of course, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which had its world premiere at the Uptown (in the 2 hour and 40 minute version) on April 1, 1968. Kubrick’s trimmed version (to 2 hours and 19 minutes plus the overture, entr'acte and intermission) was soon substituted (as it was elsewhere) and played there for 18 months or so. It would have stayed longer but MGM was eager to get its final Cinerama project, “Ice Station Zebra,” into release and “2001” was given the boot. After the demise of Cinerama, the 70mm projection equipment remained in the theater, though. Occasionally, blowups from 35mm prints were shown in 70mm there over the years, along with the prestige restoration, in 70mm, of films like “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Spartacus” and “Vertigo.” The theater was renovated in the ‘90s, but I think they left the old, deeply curved screen intact. At least that’s my impression from seeing the restored “Rear Window” there two years ago. “2001” was shown again at the Uptown for one-night only in 1993 as an American Film Institute benefit event to mark the film’s 25th anniversary, and the film returned in new 70mm prints for a brief run in late 2001. It remains a beautiful theater, one to treasure.