Renton Village Cinemas

This should be Renton Village Cinema I & II (guess I made a BIG typo!)....

The address for the Renton Village Cinemas is 25 S. Grady Way, Renton, Wa. and it is till open under the AMC banner.

The original Renton Village Cinemas I & II
was divided into a 3 screen house while I was
working there in 1977 - 1978. It was under
the management of General Cinema Corp which I
believe was headquartered in Boston. Sometime in the
80's the original building was demolished and
a new one constructed at the same location that
is now in use with 8 screens under AMC management.

Does anyone have photos of the Old Renton Village I, II, III, inside or out? I would love to see one of those old General Cinema sunken screens (or one of their divided ones for thst matter!)

I worked at Renton Village Cinema I & II 1972-1975. The sunken screen effect was due to a structure called a "shadow box", which was white and had to be continully repainted because kids loved to climb on it. Because it eliminated black masking, there were no sharp edges on a picture, which looked bad. It also reflected white light back to the screen which tended to wash out deep black in a scene. It also eliminated curtains and motors, making it another General Cinema Corporation cheap innovation. During intermissions, the screen and shadow box were bright blue from sixty 150 watt lamps with blue filters mounted above the first row - I know because I changed them out on a borrowed scaffold - and calculates out to a ridiculous waste of power. I always heard their theaters in Boston were much nicer.

While I was working at Renton Cinema, 1974-1976, Charles Osgood was the manager. I remember popping corn back in Cinema II, we got to be good at it and quick! "The Way We Were" played for many months. I remember when "Earthquake" came out. Those huge woofers actually moved the building so much, that I remember seeing cracks in the plaster. I think DavyDuck would know if there was any real damage done to the structure. I think I remember working with DavyDuck and possibly working with him at Overlake Cinema.