Grandview 1 & 2

Anyone know if Mann is planning on selling the Grandview? Does anyone have experience or interest in investing in it if it is going up for sale? The Highland, the other small cinema just a few miles away, was recently sold and will become a "children's theater". That's great, but I'm very interested in making sure the Grandview remains a cinema. Anyone interested in starting some "community action" or "community investing"? Thoughts?

Great movie theater located just four blocks from Macalester College. The first floor screen was great and the atmosphere was always sophisticated and relaxed. Saw many memorable movies there, including "Raging Bull" I truly hope the Grandview remains operating as a movie theater.

I'm not sure why the Highland doesn't have it's own listing, but here's a quick update on the status of both as cinema houses. The Highland sale to the children's theatre did not go through in 2002. The city recently put forth loans and grant money to the Mann Co. stipulating that the loans will be forgiven as long as both theaters remain operating as cinemas through 2013.

Full text of article here.

I think the Grandview had a much classier name when referred to as the Grandview Fine Arts Theater, and of course the balcony theater referred to as The Screening Room. I first went to the Screening Room to see "Young Frankenstein". It was a new experience at the time to view a film in such an intimate surrounding. A great comedy combined with a full house in a small theater made for probably one of my most pleasant moviegoing experience.

A couple of questions: Does anyone remember "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" playing first run there? Did it actually show for a year there? Or is that just an over-fond memory?

And does the Grandview still have the silver screen?

I know Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid showed at the Highland because I saw it there. I don't recall it showing at the Grandview; would they have shown the same movie within that close of a distance?

The following is from an article that I read on this theater:
"Both the Grandview and the nearby Highland Theatre were designed in the 1930s by an Omaha Railroad worker named Myrtus Wright who moonlighted as an architect.
The theater was sold in 1970 to the founder of Mann Theatres, a Minneapolis-based chain. The late Marvin Mann partitioned off the Grandview's smooching balcony to create a smaller, second theater and for a few years operated the twin screens under the name Grandview Fine Arts Theatre. Mann, who also bought and subdivided the Highland Theatre, thought that showing foreign and fine-art films would appeal to the Macalester College students and faculty who lived in the neighborhood.
According to Steve Mann, who now owns the chain with his brother Benjie, the formula worked well enough. But in 1974, Marvin dropped the "Fine Arts" portion of the name and resumed showing new, mainstream movies at the Grandview, making it the only first-run theater in St. Paul for a time".

A photo of the Grandview theater can be seen here:
http://www.hollywoodframegallery.com/koehn/theater2.jpg

Here is another photo of the Grandview Theater.

Here is a night view of the Grandview theater.

This is another recent photo of the Mann Grandview 2 Theater.

A more recent photo can be seen here.

Here is a mid-eighties view:
http://tinyurl.com/2yl6at

Both movies titles on the marquee were released in June of 1984.

Here is a 2007 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/5gdsph

On the Mann Theatres website the name of this theater is Grandview 1 & 2.

I would say that this B&B photo was when it was a single screen theatre.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebridgedapper/2247027745/sizes/l/in/pool-53328547@N00/

1982 photo of the Grandview theatre. Looks like it was called the Grandview Fine Arts at the time this photo was taken and also that it had two screens.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c23%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=28858
Another 1982 photo of the Grandview Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c23%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=28860
1982 Night photo of the Grandview Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c23%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=28861

1982 night photo of the Grandview Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c23%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=28865
A final 1982 night photo of the Grandview Theatre. Really an eye catching marquee at night.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c23%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=8&catpagesize=25&ProductID=28865

As you can see in the last photo link I posted the second screen was called the screening, I am assuming that they converted the balcony into a smaller theatre.

This is a nice 2009 photo.

Another 2009 photo is here.

This is a really nice B&W photo of the Grandview courtesy Dan Anderson.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebridgedapper/2247027745/in/pool-72675154@N00/