Manlius Art Cinema

Advertised name is Manlius Art Cinema. It has one screen.

This is what the Manlius Cinema looks like.

This is a rare still existing example of the “shooting gallery” style of theatre construction occasionally seen in the late 1920s. The Manlius has a long narrow auditorium with a fixed size screen that is barely 1:1.85. At one time, scope films were shown thru a Magnacom and “letterboxed” on the screen, although quite often the film spilled over on the walls. I don’t know if this is still the practice.

The theatre was very popular in the mid-to-late seventies and early eighties, during the last great art film era. It was at the Manlius that I was introduced to films like The Tin Drum, Eraserhead, Wifemistress, Return of the Secaucus Seven, Tree of Wooden Clogs and many others. By the late 80’s, owner Nat Tobin sold the screen to a local grocery store owner who switched the programming to sub-run. He couldn’t make a go of it, though, and attempted to auction the theatre off in 1990. I attended the auction hoping to buy it. However, it was obvious that none of the few bids submitted would be sufficient, so he wound up buying it back himself for a bid of $90,000.

The last time I was in the theatre, which was many years ago, it was in deplorable condition with a large puddle of water covering the carpet in the first few rows of seats (but it was still open nonetheless). I believe Nat Tobin has the house back now; he also had the Westcott until a few years ago.