Uptown Theatre
2014 Genesee Street,
Utica,
NY
13502
2014 Genesee Street,
Utica,
NY
13502
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Opened as a single screen theatre in December 1927. It was built for the Kallet Theatre Corp. and contained 1,500 seats.
Contributed by
Dave Bonan
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Recent comments (view all 26 comments)
The article says absolutely nothing about the history of the theater or the condition of the theater. So frustrating. If the original ornamentation is still in place then it might be eligible for registry on the state register of historic places and perhaps eligible for tax breaks or grants.
The Theater is still up for sale but got some type of grant
Also the Uptown has 3 screens not 5
Here is a June 2004 photo from the opening of “Fahrenheit 9/11”:
http://tinyurl.com/8myh9n
Here is a 1983 photo.
Just thought I’d add my 2 cents' worth …
I grew up about a block away from Utica’s Uptown Theatre (the neighborhood isn’t quite as “citified” as the photos make it appear). I agree that the photo in question most assuredly is not that of Utica’s Uptown.
Sad to see that the theatre is up for sale. Typical, evidently, of big town-small city America in decline.
Everything’s up to date in Culver City (shall we sing along?) CA, my current home. Here, where filmdom’s heart beats strongly, fine old theatres are rescued, thanks to the largesse of the likes of Kirk Douglas, and put to good and continued use.
This is a working link for the Uptown Theater website. As nhman93 posted last December, screens should be three.
The Uptown became Utica’s first 70mm theater in July of 1959 with “Sleeping Beauty”. In 1957, there was an eleven day reserved seat showing of “Around the World in 80 Days”. A 46 foot screen was installed with a magnificent stereophonic sound system, but not presented in Todd-AO. I suspect the it was a Cinestage version of the film, but as far as I was concerned, Todd-AO could not have bettered it. The screen was pretty deeply curved with a beautiful new curtain. The Uptown was built as a stadium style theater and every seat was near perfect viewing. It’s still open as a first-run triplex.
jimvin… Might you have the premiere date for the Uptown’s engagement of “Sleeping Beauty”? July what?
The opening date of “Sleeping Beauty” at the Uptown was July 1,1959.
I have 6 newspaper ads and an article about this. They really went all out in advertising the fact that the Uptown was the only theater in the area that had the special equipment to show the film “as Walt Disney visualized it’s perfect presentation”.
That is a picture of the Uptown Theatre. Two the place may be shuttering its doors and only doing live acts from now on. It is a sad day and I am beyond angry the owner is keeping it very hush on what is happening to the place. She should have sold it and not backed out fo doing so. She has no clue how to run the place and has forced an 87 year old icon of Utica NY to fall. I know all this because my boyfriend works there, has for 9 plus years. He is losing his job today. No one has any respect for history or what this theatre had once meant to so many people.