Grandview 1 & 2

The balcony has been converted into a small theater. Keyword small. Pretty cozy up there but still neat. It is a great theatre in a nice historic neighborhood. Me and my gal went to a movie here last summer.

This is a really nice B&W photo of the Grandview courtesy Dan Anderson.

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This is a nice 2009 photo.

1982 night photo of the Grandview Theatre.
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A final 1982 night photo of the Grandview Theatre. Really an eye catching marquee at night.
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I would say that this B&B photo was when it was a single screen theatre.
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Here is a 2007 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/5gdsph

Here is a mid-eighties view:
http://tinyurl.com/2yl6at

This is another recent photo of the Mann Grandview 2 Theater.

Here is another photo of the Grandview Theater.

The following is from an article that I read on this theater:
“Both the Grandview and the nearby Highland Theatre were designed in the 1930s by an Omaha Railroad worker named Myrtus Wright who moonlighted as an architect.
The theater was sold in 1970 to the founder of Mann Theatres, a Minneapolis-based chain. The late Marvin Mann partitioned off the Grandview’s smooching balcony to create a smaller, second theater and for a few years operated the twin screens under the name Grandview Fine Arts Theatre. Mann, who also bought and subdivided the Highland Theatre, thought that showing foreign and fine-art films would appeal to the Macalester College students and faculty who lived in the neighborhood.
According to Steve Mann, who now owns the chain with his brother Benjie, the formula worked well enough. But in 1974, Marvin dropped the "Fine Arts” portion of the name and resumed showing new, mainstream movies at the Grandview, making it the only first-run theater in St. Paul for a time".

I think the Grandview had a much classier name when referred to as the Grandview Fine Arts Theater, and of course the balcony theater referred to as The Screening Room. I first went to the Screening Room to see “Young Frankenstein”. It was a new experience at the time to view a film in such an intimate surrounding. A great comedy combined with a full house in a small theater made for probably one of my most pleasant moviegoing experience.

A couple of questions: Does anyone remember “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” playing first run there? Did it actually show for a year there? Or is that just an over-fond memory?

And does the Grandview still have the silver screen?

Great movie theater located just four blocks from Macalester College. The first floor screen was great and the atmosphere was always sophisticated and relaxed. Saw many memorable movies there, including “Raging Bull” I truly hope the Grandview remains operating as a movie theater.