West Springfield 15
864 Riverdale Road,
West Springfield,
MA
01089
864 Riverdale Road,
West Springfield,
MA
01089
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Here’s a new 4-page 50th anniversary FIDDLER ON THE ROOF retrospective featuring a roadshow playdate chronology and historian Q&A. Showcase Cinemas’ lengthy run is mentioned in the piece.
Currently undergoing renovations of its hallways, lobby, and concession area.
As a correction; all of the auditoriums have Luxury Lounger seating, including both XD rooms.
This multiplex has finished its major renovation. Among the significant changes:
-The “Rave Motion Pictures” signage has been removed and replaced with standard Cinemark signage. -All auditoriums have been renovated with new paint, carpet, wall coverings, etc. to bring them in line with the standard “Cinemark look.” -All auditoriums now feature reserved seating for all showtimes. -Eight of the fifteen auditoriums have been converted to “Luxury Lounger” power recliner seating (at an additional ticket surcharge). -New 4K projectors have been installed in at least some auditoriums – not sure if it’s all of them. -The two largest auditoriums, #8 and #9, have been converted to Cinemark XD premium large format.
Frankly the screens here in many of the standard auditoriums are already very large, so the size increase (if any) of the XD screens isn’t terribly impressive. The two XD screens are both the same size (approximately 56 feet wide by 23 and a half feet high, going by counting ceiling tiles and the screen ratio). One XD auditorium has Luxury Loungers and thus reduced seating capacity, while the other has standard seats. Both are equipped for Auro 11.1 audio as part of the XD conversion. They’re in Scope format and have curtains on the sides, so they may use masking for Flat shows. The single Cinemark XD auditorium in the Hadley location seems to be roughly the same width but is significantly taller, it’s an unmasked, no-curtain Flat screen.
As someone who spent their youth at this theater complex, most of the detail in this article is spot on. However there was no “Glass covered walkway” between Cinemas 1-2 and Cinema 3 (I use the original screen numbers) – there was a concrete walkway, but it was outdoors, with an awning covering the walkway from the west parking lot (between the two buildings) but stopping once Cinema 3 was entered. The last eighty feet were entirely unprotected as you made your way to the Cinema 1-2 entrance.
One thing which has not been mentioned is the sheer scale of the parking lots to the west of all three buildings required for over 5,000 seats. During the peak Christmas weeks, the traffic on Riverdale Road southbound (which was two lanes in each direction) could back up over one mile onto the Interstate 91 exit ramps. End up with a movie at the wrong time and you could end up in the far west lot, on a bitter cold evening, and a trudge that made you think of Dr. Zhivago.
Direct link to the cinema official website:
http://www.cinemark.com/theatre-detail.aspx?node_id=83845
The building for original Cinemas 4-5 was a completely separate building just north of the original two buildings. They’re only separated by about 50 feet. The original two buildings (original cinemas 1-3) were connected by a glass-enclosed walkway. I just posted a photo with a map of the buildings (also showing the Palace and Riverdale drive-ins across the street) showing how they all relate to each other. I’ve also just submitted a new description for this theatre on 1/18/2016 (should be up in a couple days,) which incorporates the very helpful corrections posted above, and some info from the Box Office article, and recommended that the people providing the additional information above be credited as co-contributers to the description.
Showcase Cinemas 4 & 5 were featured in this single-page article from Boxoffice of August 30, 1971. There are photos of the box office and concession stand. The article doesn’t specifically say if the new twin was a separate building unconnected to the earlier three screens, but I get the impression that it was. For one thing, the concession stand looked just about big enough to serve the 1,424 seats of the twin, and no more.
Judging by the grand opening ads for screens four and five, it looks like it was a separate out building that was not actually attached to the other three. Can anybody confirm?
Additional screens: 3rd screen opening took place on April 19th, 1967, Ad posted in photo section 4th screen in new building took place on June 30th, 1971. ad posted in the photo section 5th screen opened in new building on July 7th, 1971. 6 cinemas in 1973 8 cinemas in 1976
This opened on December 31st, 1964. Grand opening ad in the photo section of this theatre’s page.
William, thank you for making all the necessary corrections to the initial post. The complex opened in late 1964 with Cinema 1 with a Cinerama curtain but a smaller flat screen behind it.The Cinerama screen was put in about 6 months later. Cinema 2 had a flat “Shadowbox” screen with no curtain or masking. Cinema 3 opened in early Spring 1967 with D-150 and “The Bible”. A seperate building was put up in the parking lot next to Cinema 3 several years later opening as the first automated twin. Eventually every house was split down the middle except Cinema 3 which was split front / back. I was a projectionist there for 21 years.
The original Complex seated. Cinema 1 700 (Cinerama house) Cinema 2 1100 Cinema 3 1012 (D-150 house)
Finally got to see the place. Large wide main concourse down the middle of the building with a main coordior extending north and one south, and cinemas going off on either side of these two corridors. Except for the big screens – 8 and 9, they open off the main concourse.
They have both a concession area in the center of the concourse, as well as a food court with several fast food chains represented.
auditoriums are all stadium seating plain walls with heavy soundproofing and minimal decoration. the main auditoria have impressive screens.
Seating capacity totals 3,765 arranged as follows: 1-285, 2-285, 3-240, 4-240, 5-210, 6-210, 7-220, 8-410, 9-355, 10-165, 11-210, 12-220, 13-220, 14-220, 15-220.
1: 285
2:
The 2003 rebuilding of the Showcase Cinemas in West Springfield was one of more than 70 cinema projects which have been designed for National Amusements by the Boston-based architectural firm Beacon Architectural Associates. I haven’t been able to discover the architect of the original buildings.
To see Beacon’s description of the project on their website, click on “portfolio”, then “commercial”, then “Showcase and Multiplex Cinemas”, and click through the various projects until you reach the page for this one.