An aerial photo of the theatre can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheneworth/2675617640/
It is the oval building in the lower left hand corner of the mall parking lot.
The world premiere of “A Walk in The Spring Rain” was held at the Capri-70 on April 9, 1970. I have posted pictures of the event in the photos section.
The first handprints were from Ingrid Bergman from the premiere of “A Walk in The Spring Rain” in April 1970. I have posted a picture of the event in the photos section. I have also posted additional photos on the Capri Cinema III & IV thread since technically that was the former Capri-70 before it was twined.
Thanks for the correction. I have always called that section Maynardville Hwy, but it doesn’t become “Highway” until it crosses the Knox/Union County line.
The Skyway was on Maynardville Hwy which is what Broadway becomes after you leave the Knoxville city limits. The location is in the unincorporated community of Halls Crossroads. I have set the streetview to the correct location. It shows the original driveway which is now the entrance to the trailer park that sits on the spot where the drive-in was.
You can take the streetview up Mynatt Road which runs along the south side of the property, and still see the old metal fencing that was around the drive-in.
The correct address is 6517 Maynardville Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37918
The Autism Center is in the building that used to house Rush’s Music Store. There was also another building next door that had a boating and marine store. The drive-in was behind these buildings with the marquee and entrance just north of the current Hardee’s. The Mini-Storage units are now located where the north side of the drive-in was.
If you look at the photos of this theatre in Charleston,http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/27447/photos , you are looking at the Westown Theatre. Both were Identical in appearance.
The building that once housed the Dawn Theatre was demolished this week along with adjacent buildings. No announcement has been made for the future of the property.
I have positioned streetview to the location of the main entrance on Callahan Road. The street sign/marquee was approximately where the Taco Bell sign is now, on Clinton Hwy at Callahan.
My dad helped with the installation of the projection equipment and brought me along for the ride. I was only twelve at the time, and wish now that I paid more attention and had taken some pictures. It’s funny how you think that something that is new will be around forever.
On Streetview, the Broadway Theatre was in the space between the alley and the building on the left. Broadway was renumbered sometime in the past, so the current address is 3411 North Broadway.
The article in Boxoffice about the opening. Please note that the original name was Westown Ulra-Vision Theatre, not Westown Cinema. The name was changed to Westown I & II after it was twined. Also the seating capacity was 800, not 1000. View link
The gentleman that is mentioned is Walter Morris. He built both the Pike and the Tower theatres. C.H. Simpson leased both theatres from Mr. Morris in 1963 and remodeled both theatres and changed their names. The Pike became the Capri Cinema and the Tower became the Lenox. In cir.1965 the state bought the Lenox for the I-640/ Broadway interchange and in 1967 Mr. Morris used the money from the sale of the Lenox to built the Capri-70 adjoining the west side of the Capri Cinema which Mr. Simpson operated. The Capri Cinema and the Capri-70 were two separate buildings that shared a common wall. They should not be considered similar to today’s multiplexes as they each had their own lobby, boxoffice, projection booth, and heat and air systems.
After Mr. Morris’s death, Simpson Operating Company bought both theatres from Mr. Morris’s estate. In the mid seventies Simpson twined the Capri Cinema and it became the Capri Cinema I & II. In the late eighties, they also twined the Capri-70 and that became the Capri III & IV.
Regal Cinemas leased the Capri theatres form Simpson Operating Company in the early nineties and ran them for three years. Regal was unable to re-negotiate a new lease and the Capri’s were closed. In the mid nineties the Capri theatres were sold to Bennett Art Gallery. They demolished three quarters of the old Capri Cinema and completely gutted the old Capri-70 which they turned into their art gallery.
The Ace Hardware store is actually in the old Shoney’s Restaurant which was on the east side of the Capri Cinema.
Will,
The lattice showed up in the second round of photos that Jim Thompson shot in 1929
Don Pedro and his band only lasted until spring of 1929. Paramount discovered that the public accepted the shorts with sound instead of live acts. So there was no need to pay for a live band. My guess is they put up the lattice fence to hide the empty orchestra pit.
bbrown, To add to the list of indoor theatres in 1972 is the Fox Theatre. Also instead of listing just the Capri, it should be the Capri Cinema, Capri-70, and the Capri Terrace. So there was a total of 10 indoor screens.
Mike, You are correct, it was one of the Ultra-Vision theatres that ABC was building in the 70’s. And it’s correct name was Westown Ultra-Vision. It was a single screen seating 800.
You are correct; the clouds were projections from a cloud machine known as a Brenograph Jr. Dry ice?? Just goes to show you that some reporters will write about something they know nothing about.
The Fox opened in August of 1969 and had 800 seats. The one thing that I remember about this theatre is the projection booth was only four steps above the back row of seats. They had a continual problem with people standing in the back row and playing shadow puppets in the projector’s light.
According to Boxoffice magazine, the Knoxville Drive-in opened April 2, 1949. It was designed by Park In Theatres Inc. in Camden, NJ and had a capacity of 512 cars.
The projectionist there had to be at his daytime job in the early morning, so my dad would finish at the Capri Cinema and then go to the Knoxville and cover the midnight show for him so he could go home and get some sleep.
I grew up only three blocks from the drive-in and vaguely remember them adding the “wings†to the screen tower for cinemascope. This would have been in the very early 60’s. I also remember when my dad would take me over there in the daytime to shoot off model rockets.
There was a shopping center on the other side of the RR tracks that had a bowling alley in it. When they put in the sodium vapor lights in the parking lot in the late 70’s, they would cast a shadow of a telephone pole on the screen. This was not a problem for the bright scenes, but on the dark scenes it was a big problem. I think light pollution was a big problem for the drive-ins that where built on the outskirts of town in the 50’s but found themselves in the middle of suburbia in the 70’s.
An aerial photo of the theatre can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheneworth/2675617640/ It is the oval building in the lower left hand corner of the mall parking lot.
The world premiere of “A Walk in The Spring Rain” was held at the Capri-70 on April 9, 1970. I have posted pictures of the event in the photos section.
The first handprints were from Ingrid Bergman from the premiere of “A Walk in The Spring Rain” in April 1970. I have posted a picture of the event in the photos section. I have also posted additional photos on the Capri Cinema III & IV thread since technically that was the former Capri-70 before it was twined.
Thanks for the correction. I have always called that section Maynardville Hwy, but it doesn’t become “Highway” until it crosses the Knox/Union County line.
The Skyway was on Maynardville Hwy which is what Broadway becomes after you leave the Knoxville city limits. The location is in the unincorporated community of Halls Crossroads. I have set the streetview to the correct location. It shows the original driveway which is now the entrance to the trailer park that sits on the spot where the drive-in was.
You can take the streetview up Mynatt Road which runs along the south side of the property, and still see the old metal fencing that was around the drive-in.
The correct address is 6517 Maynardville Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37918
The Autism Center is in the building that used to house Rush’s Music Store. There was also another building next door that had a boating and marine store. The drive-in was behind these buildings with the marquee and entrance just north of the current Hardee’s. The Mini-Storage units are now located where the north side of the drive-in was.
If you look at the photos of this theatre in Charleston,http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/27447/photos , you are looking at the Westown Theatre. Both were Identical in appearance.
The building that once housed the Dawn Theatre was demolished this week along with adjacent buildings. No announcement has been made for the future of the property.
The map is showing this as a downtown theatre. This theatre is located in the Westown Mall which is eight miles west of downtown.
This is the opening night audience taken March 8, 1909.
I have positioned streetview to the location of the main entrance on Callahan Road. The street sign/marquee was approximately where the Taco Bell sign is now, on Clinton Hwy at Callahan. My dad helped with the installation of the projection equipment and brought me along for the ride. I was only twelve at the time, and wish now that I paid more attention and had taken some pictures. It’s funny how you think that something that is new will be around forever.
An article about a remodeling in 1956 can be found here:http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1956-6-30&page_no=43#page_start
On Streetview, the Broadway Theatre was in the space between the alley and the building on the left. Broadway was renumbered sometime in the past, so the current address is 3411 North Broadway.
I have moved the Street View to the old East Vine address which is now E. Summit Hill Drive.
The theatre was built over First Creek.
The article in Boxoffice about the opening. Please note that the original name was Westown Ulra-Vision Theatre, not Westown Cinema. The name was changed to Westown I & II after it was twined. Also the seating capacity was 800, not 1000.
View link
Here is a new link for the Boxoffice article.
View link
The gentleman that is mentioned is Walter Morris. He built both the Pike and the Tower theatres. C.H. Simpson leased both theatres from Mr. Morris in 1963 and remodeled both theatres and changed their names. The Pike became the Capri Cinema and the Tower became the Lenox. In cir.1965 the state bought the Lenox for the I-640/ Broadway interchange and in 1967 Mr. Morris used the money from the sale of the Lenox to built the Capri-70 adjoining the west side of the Capri Cinema which Mr. Simpson operated. The Capri Cinema and the Capri-70 were two separate buildings that shared a common wall. They should not be considered similar to today’s multiplexes as they each had their own lobby, boxoffice, projection booth, and heat and air systems.
After Mr. Morris’s death, Simpson Operating Company bought both theatres from Mr. Morris’s estate. In the mid seventies Simpson twined the Capri Cinema and it became the Capri Cinema I & II. In the late eighties, they also twined the Capri-70 and that became the Capri III & IV.
Regal Cinemas leased the Capri theatres form Simpson Operating Company in the early nineties and ran them for three years. Regal was unable to re-negotiate a new lease and the Capri’s were closed. In the mid nineties the Capri theatres were sold to Bennett Art Gallery. They demolished three quarters of the old Capri Cinema and completely gutted the old Capri-70 which they turned into their art gallery.
The Ace Hardware store is actually in the old Shoney’s Restaurant which was on the east side of the Capri Cinema.
Here it is from the front.
View link
Will,
The lattice showed up in the second round of photos that Jim Thompson shot in 1929
Don Pedro and his band only lasted until spring of 1929. Paramount discovered that the public accepted the shorts with sound instead of live acts. So there was no need to pay for a live band. My guess is they put up the lattice fence to hide the empty orchestra pit.
I am not sure, but was the name of the indoor theatres the Clinton Twin or Clinton Cinemas?
bbrown, To add to the list of indoor theatres in 1972 is the Fox Theatre. Also instead of listing just the Capri, it should be the Capri Cinema, Capri-70, and the Capri Terrace. So there was a total of 10 indoor screens.
Mike, You are correct, it was one of the Ultra-Vision theatres that ABC was building in the 70’s. And it’s correct name was Westown Ultra-Vision. It was a single screen seating 800.
Don’t look for the footprint now. A large “Rooms to Go” store now sits on this location.
You are correct; the clouds were projections from a cloud machine known as a Brenograph Jr. Dry ice?? Just goes to show you that some reporters will write about something they know nothing about.
The Fox opened in August of 1969 and had 800 seats. The one thing that I remember about this theatre is the projection booth was only four steps above the back row of seats. They had a continual problem with people standing in the back row and playing shadow puppets in the projector’s light.
The theatre closed in 1979.
According to Boxoffice magazine, the Knoxville Drive-in opened April 2, 1949. It was designed by Park In Theatres Inc. in Camden, NJ and had a capacity of 512 cars.
The projectionist there had to be at his daytime job in the early morning, so my dad would finish at the Capri Cinema and then go to the Knoxville and cover the midnight show for him so he could go home and get some sleep.
I grew up only three blocks from the drive-in and vaguely remember them adding the “wings†to the screen tower for cinemascope. This would have been in the very early 60’s. I also remember when my dad would take me over there in the daytime to shoot off model rockets.
There was a shopping center on the other side of the RR tracks that had a bowling alley in it. When they put in the sodium vapor lights in the parking lot in the late 70’s, they would cast a shadow of a telephone pole on the screen. This was not a problem for the bright scenes, but on the dark scenes it was a big problem. I think light pollution was a big problem for the drive-ins that where built on the outskirts of town in the 50’s but found themselves in the middle of suburbia in the 70’s.