Loews Downtown Theater
Elm Street and Griffin Street,
Dallas,
TX
75202
Elm Street and Griffin Street,
Dallas,
TX
75202
2 people
favorited this theater
This theater opened in downtown Dallas in 1969 as the first theater built since the 1930’s. The opening attraction was the re-make of "The Great Train Robbery".
From my recollection is was probably in the 1,000-1,500 seat range and had a balcony. "Myra Breckenridge" and "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" were the kind of fare that played here.
It was the same style of theater as the Astor Plaza in New York City. I saw "Papillon" here as a young boy.
It was later triplexed, and "Emmaunelle" had a long engagement. Then lots and lots of blaxploitation and kung-fu films. I would estimate it was closed around 1980. It now forms part of a hotel.
Contributed by
Mark Pruett
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
The grand opening as had the same style LOEWS sigh that was on the marquee of the LOEWS MELROSE in Nashville,Tennessee would have been around the same time as I recall.
I occasionally worked as a projectionist after this theatre was tripled. But I remember seeing The Cowboys and a return run of Ryan’s Daughter both in 70MM when it was a single. It later showed Spanish-language movies for a while. In the early-to-mid ‘80’s, they gutted the theatre and turned it into a parking garage!
Boy,James that must have been something seeing the “COWBOYS” in 70mm.Had no idea that film was ever in 70mm.
Mike – this was after the heyday of 70mm motion picture PRODUCTION, but 70mm PRESENTATION was still a good marketing gimmick, if that makes sense. I believe THE SAND PEBBLES (1966) was the first such example, at least that I know of. Panavision lenses had become so darn good that a picture could actually be shot in regular anamorphic 35mm, and enlarged to 70mm for first-run exclusives with no significant loss of image quality. THE COWBOYS was one such production. I saw it at Loew’s in 70mm/6-track stereo, and again several months later at a neighborhood venue (forget which) in standard 35mm Panavision – I guarantee you, I could not tell the difference visually. Therefore, I think by the time of THE COWBOYS' release, 70mm had been relegated to a marketing ploy.
Mike – forgot to mention in the above post – I think (could be wrong) optical superiority of Panavision optics to those produced by Bausch & Lomb was a contributing factor to the demise of CinemaScope which, if I understand correctly, is an identical optical anamorphic process to Panavision but which used lenses that produced an inferior image in close-up shots due to the use of a cylindrical focusing element in the camera lens. Somehow, engineers at Panavision overcame this drawback soon after the introduction of CinemaScope, and also came up with a way to produce NON-anamorphic wide-screen images on 35mm film, all of which made the film-makers' jobs easier/cheaper and afforded them more flexibility of image size choice.
Thanks Matt54.
This would be where I saw The Warriors.
Also, it wasn’t demolished. It was part of the same complex as the hotel. The building is still there, but you can’t tell it was once a movie theater. It’s part of the hotel, now.
Described in this 1969 trade article: Boxoffice
Boxoffice artical claims 980 seats.