Westcott Cinema

Sadly, the Westcott must now be listed as closed. Nat finally thru in the towel on the 18th of this month, the last feature was In The Shadow Of The Moon. It was hard for the theatre to get films protected from the Carousel Mall screens, even arthouse programming. Also, the building is getting pretty old, needed new HVAC and other improvements.

The theatre first opened in 1928 as the Harvard, then changed its name to the Studio sometime in the seventies, and was part of the CinemaNational chain for a while. After they pulled out, it ran porn as an independent for much of the late seventies, then sub-run fare in the early eighties after changing its name to the Westcott. They finally switched to art/alternative sometime in the nineties under leaseholder Nat Tobin, who also runs the Manlius Cinema. Russ Percival was Nat’s manager/operator here for much of this era, he was the only union projectionist left in Syracuse after the closing of the city’s older single screens and multi’s.

Sad to see this one go after so long.

From that picture above, I wouldn’t even have recognized it. I recall more of a classic marquee when I was there in the ‘70s and '80s; unfortunately, for all the times that I saw “Rocky Horror Picture Show” there, I haven’t a single picture of the building.

The name should be changed to Westcott TheatER or Westcott Theater & Performing Arts Center. Here is their website.

This article says the Westcott was once known as the Kallett:
http://tinyurl.com/5pztwa

Went through a number of name changes . . unfortunately Kallet, as sited in the Syracuse.com article, was not one of them.

During 50’s and 60’s (and possibly earlier) operated as the Westcott and owned by the Gilbert family. Played the French film A Man and a Woman (1966) for well over a year … hyped as audience demand but supposedly distribs would not book the theater because they could not recover their percentage of the gross. Fact or urban legend?

At some point (after worn out print of A Man and a Woman could no longer run through the projector?) theater changed hands and operated as The Studio (late 60’s/early 70’s). But once again (another change of hands?) returned to operation as the Westcott.