Guild 45th Theatre

I worked at this theater for almost 4 years, in addition to most of the other Landmark Theaters in Seattle. The employees (myself included, I suppose) tended to be quirky and one of the ways that manifested was on the marquee. Near the end of a theatrical run we really had fun thinking up funny stuff to put on the marquee. At least in the late 1990s the manager OK’d and/or helped think up the jokes.

What goes up depends entirely on the particular manager. A few of the managers around town had no sense of humor, so only titles and times went on their marquees. I remember when The Neptune, down the street, played Das Boot: one suggestion was to put WHAT’S LONG AND HARD AND FULL OF SEAMEN? on one side of the marquee, and DAS BOOT on the other… Needless to say that was a little too vulgar ; )

Regarding putting funny comments on the movie below the actual movie title on the marquee: This has also long been an amusing policy at Landmark’s Aquarius, in Palo Alto, CA. sometimes they do it at the little Guild in nearby Menlo Park as well. They used to do it at the now-closed Park, also in Menlo Park. I’ll always remember when “Cold Comfort Farm” played at the Park, and they put “I saw something nasty in the woodshed” on the marquee. When the Guild played the Afghani film “Osama,” they wrote underneath, “No, not THAT one!”

This is a November 2008 photo.

October 2008 photo

This is an August 2008 photo.

It reminds me of the political messages on the Grand Lake Theater marquee in Oakland. Although some of those messages aren’t funny to some people.

Another recent photo can be seen here. Whoever places the description below the movie title has a good sense of humor. :)

Here is a recent night view of the Guild 45th Theater.

That is the smaller house. (seperate building) The older big house has the big marquee.

Another 2007 photo of the Guild 45th Theater can be seen here.

This is a recent photo of the Guild 45th Theater.

Here is another photo of the marquee.