Holiday Six Theatres
3801 Union Road,
Buffalo,
NY
14225
3801 Union Road,
Buffalo,
NY
14225
2 people
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Expansion described in this 1972 trade article: Boxoffice
Opheliafl (or Karen Clark) – the Holiday Restaurant rotated only if you had enough to drink, otherwise it was pretty static!
Wow, the things that will come to mind out of the blue to search for on the net. Remember it vividly. Saw Star Wars there. Just watching Close Encounters on tv just now and saw it there too, I think. I remember we saw Jaws there and people were sitting on the floor in the aisles. The carpets were wet from people throwing up in previous showings. I remember being there and seeing the posters up for Tommy but I would have been too young to go to that one. I remember the Holiday Restaurant in the middle of the plaza too. Am I mis-remembering or did the restaurant rotate? Could be thinking of something else, so long ago. Nice to find it here :) -Karen Clark
Thanks for those really personal rememberances Holidayguy. You were truly fortunate to be so close to these huge theaters. I think I went to one of the 4 small ones they built in the back about 3 times and hated them every visit. It was the handwriting on the wall for theaters built during that approximate 25 year period. Now we have sorta a compromise between the two concepts, which was acceptable technically until the poor early digital projection systems appeared. Here’s hoping the best for the future, but retaining ultimate tribute to the days of the past.
I grew up in the apartment complexes adjacent to the Holidays from 1971 (when I was born) to 1988. My older sister and I, along with our neighborhood friends saw everything there (sometimes my Dad would take us, too)..I saw Star Wars 9 times, Grease 1 and 2, The Outsiders, Silverado,The Rocky Horror picture Show (as I got older),the list goes on and on…We would hang out there and play the video games in the lobby, because most of us weren’t allowed to cross Union Road to go to Putt Putt Golf & Games across the street…A bunch of us neighborhood kids would go talk to Al the manager, and he would give us garbage bags. We would then go around the HUGE parking lot and pick up papers and debris. For every full bag of trash we brought back, he would give us a free movie pass. The lot was huge, because before the theaters were built, the property was the 3 screen Aero Drive in. In the middle of the lot was a restaurant called the Aerohead Inn, which was the original projection booth / concession stand for the drive in. Closer to the road was (and still is) The Holiday Showcase Restaurant ( the round rstaurant alknobloch refers to), which was an incredibly cool 50’s style place, with Salmon and Turquois booths, 50’s style light fixtures, a long carport on the back for carhops. Unfortunately, it was hit by a tornado-“On July 31, 1987, an F1 tornado touched down in the Union Road and George Urban Boulevard area. It grew to an F2 before dissipating.[3] Homes and business suffered serious damage, but there were no fatalities or severe injuries. This tornado is locally memorable as the one which ripped the roof off the Holiday Showcase Restaurant.” I remember it well, having lived about 500 yards away. They remodeled it, and in my opinion, completely screwed it up. As kids we would dumpster dive, and would get all sorts of movie related items. I WISH my Mom and Dad hadn’t thrown it all away.. especially my Star Wars lobby package still in the box! They would apparently get more displays than we could use, and toss the rest. Anyway, those are MY fond memories of the Holiday Shows….
You’re right psmith102006 – the Plaza North was, I believe, the last huge ‘big box’ theater built in W.N.Y., but it was more or less hidden in the middle of suburban sprawl. I think it opened with “Goodbye Mr. Chips” with Peter O'Toole. I have no photos of it, or of the Valu 5 which someone told me became a Valu Hardware store or something equally commercial.
Here ya go telliott – it’s the only photo I have of the 1 & 2 theaters, taken during the old car rally promo for “Grease 2” (that’s my ‘58 Caddy Limo hogging up the parking lot!). As you can see, the buildings were ultra 60’s bland – just huge boxes connected by a popcorn lobby, but once inside you were in giant curved-screen heaven………..
I can’t believe there aren’t any photos of this theatre anywhere, especially of the original twin cinemas. Even movie-theatre.org which often will have the opening ads or photos doesn’t have any. Too bad since this sounds like it was once an important theatre in the Buffalo area.
Valu 5 on Clinton isn’t mentioned either
I saw Tommy and couldnt hear for a week. I saw several other movies as well. I tried to avoid the back 4, they were to small (like the Evans in Williamsville—which isnt mentioned here. The Plaza North on Niagara Falls Blvd isnt mentioned either) The curtains were closed and would open like the old shows did, but not up and down but across instead.
I saw Poltergeist, The Right Stuff, Temple of Doom, among others there. First movie I saw there was Empire Strikes Back. It is the theater I miss the most, of all that I have been to around the country. Of course, I miss the Putt-Putt that used to be across the street, too. Oh, well. “Progress”.
I can’t believe that nobody has commented on these theaters so far
To be certain, the outlying 4-screen building, put up years after the major structure, was little more that the traditional cookie-cutter multiplex of the day. But the original 2 theaters were absolutely fantastic.
Wish I knew more about them technically, but they were originally called the Holiday Showcase Theaters. They shared the land parcel with the Holiday Showcase Restaurant, a circular building which was very unusual at the time.
Each theater was an enormously plain rectangle – one slightly smaller than the other – but getting beyond that, inside you found a massive floor to ceiling curved screen and a sound system that blew all others away. A scope film in here was a true experience!
The big theater ran the local premier of Ken Russel’s “Tommy” which, I believe, was the first film to utilize the forerummer of 5.1 Dolby sound. They squeezed in gigantic speakers at each rear corner of the auditorium which forced patrons to squeeze by THEM while coming and going. The resultant auditory assult would never have made a Lucasfilm THX certified best-of list, but was perfect for the crowd of the day.
These houses would sell out on weekends, and during the showing of “Alien” that I attended, I hit the late show after a sold-out 8PM crowd came staggering out. As I entered the auditorium, a sense of ‘fear’ after the hugh crowd had seen the film on that huge screen was actually palpble – something I’ve yet to ever re-experience in any theater again.
Management was also fond of holding events in the parking lot to attract attention – like the old car show at the opening of “Grease 2”.
Let’s hear more memories of this popular cinema — anyone remember seeing “Johnathan Livingston Seagull” wall-to-wall here???
Was previously the Aero Drive-In Theatre which was demolished in the late 1960s.