Cinema 70
412 N. Chelton Road,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80909
412 N. Chelton Road,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80909
2 people
favorited this theater
The New Cinema 70 was opened by Westland Theatres in November 1965, and closed in 1999. The building is now used as a motorcycle dealership.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
Cinema 70 certainly is confusing. According to records at the Colorado Springs Regional Planning Office, the original building at 412 N. Chelton, the name is the NEW CINEMA 70 and the architects were Lusk and Wallace and Associates. The theatre was owned by Westland and Arcadia Properties; the Cooper Foundation never owned the NEW CINEMA 70. The NEW CINEMA 70 opened in 1965 with My Fair Lady. Interior design, was done by Hans Tager who also did the mural inside the Peak Theatre in Colorado Springs in 1950. The creame-beige-blond draperies were done by Royale Milo. With seating for 2000 persons, NEW CINEMA 70 was the largest auditorium in Colorado at the time. Mel C. Glatz and Associates appear to have had no connection with the NEW CINEMA 70 project, although Glatz may have incorporated ideas from the NEW CINEMA 70 Theatre, in his later work on the Ute 70 Theatre. It is known that Royale Milo did assist Glatz on the draperies in the Ute 70, however. NEW CINEMA 70 was in direct competition with the COOPER CINERAMA in Denver and the UTE 70 in Colorado Springs.
Coate and orange are right. I conflated the Cinema 70 with the Cooper 70 in my earlier comment. The Cooper 70 and Ute 70 are not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.
So is the Cooper 1-2-3 a separate entity from the Cinema 70, Ute 70 and Cooper 70?
Page 20 of a history of Cooper Theatres (a pdf can be downloaded from this web page) says that the Cooper 1-2-3 was an expansion of the Cooper 70. The two new auditoriums were added in 1970.
I remember when the Cooper was opened, it was called the Cooper (without any following numbers). Later, in the 1960s, Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper advertising called it the Cooper 70, however, building signage was not changed. Joe is correct that in the 70s the name,including building signage, was changed to Cooper 1-2-3.
IMHO: Cinema 70 was the most beautiful and elegant theatre of its time. The interior was magnificent. I can remember asking my uncle, Royale Milo, why he picked the beige color for the draperies. He said that he was in love with Dorothy Dandridge who had worn a beige-blond dress in the movie, “Island in the Sun” and he wanted the auditorium be be as beautiful as she was.
A link to Dorothy Dandridge and “Island in this Sun” is here: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/864003
This page still needs to be updated to attribute the design of the Cinema 70 to Lusk & Wallace (Dietz Lusk Jr. and John J. Wallace) rather than Mel C. Glatz, and to remove the erroneous AKA of Cooper 70 Theatre.
Dietz Lusk didn’t include any of his theaters among the works listed in his entry in the 1970 edition of the AIA’s guide to American architects. By that time the firm was designing a great variety of projects, but so far I’ve found no theaters later than this one among their works.
Described in this 1965 trade article: Boxoffice
What a great site! I just discovered a couple of “My Fair Lady” flyers and a ticket envelope for the Cinema 70 in a “My Fair Lady” program book I found at a used-book store. It is so neat to understand why these moments would have been so meaningful to whoever saved them! (see photo page)