Ultravision Theatres 1 & 2
1812 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard,
Charleston,
SC
29407
1812 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard,
Charleston,
SC
29407
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Beautifully designed, the Ultravision Theatre was an astoundment and a first in Charleston. It had one of the largest auditoriums ever that had a huge widescreen, built for showing films that were presented in the Cinerama or Ultra format. It was equipped with large rocking chair seats when it opened in 1969. During the mid-1970’s or during the 1980’s the theatre was twinned.
During its life, it was operated by ABC Theatres, Plitt Theatres and finally by Cineplex Odeon. It closed somewhere during the late-1980’s or early-1990’s.
Contributed by
raymond
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Everyone, especially REndres, many thanks for the Ultravision background — these details have been scarce! The Deerfield Ultravision appears to have just adopted the name, round auditorium, and widescreen concept; they were never equipped for 70MM, and stereo wasn’t installed until 1980 (in one auditorium, certainly made the viewing experience more remarkable).
This prototype of the UltraVision theaters (that is the way it was spelled in an ad for the projection system’s developers, Wil-Kin Inc., in the September 29, 1969, issue of Boxoffice) opened in September, 1969. A small photo appeared in Boxoffice’s issue of September 15.
Various issues of the magazine say that the house was designed by Wil-Kin, a division of the Paramount-ABC affiliate Wilby-Kincey chain of theaters. In fact, the company did hire an architect who worked very closely with the developers of the innovative projection system to make sure the UltraVision Theatre would have the optimum form to show the system to full advantage.
Two Boxoffice items give the name of the architect, but with different spellings, both of which turn out to be wrong. The November 2, 1970, issue, in an item about the opening of two more UltraVision houses, says that the Charleston theater, on which their designs were based, was designed by Bill McGhee, but a September 8, 1969 item gave his name as William McGee.
Correcting the errors in Boxoffice, the AIA’s Historical Directory of American Architects lists a William Bringhurst McGehee as a member of the Asheville, N.C., firm Six Associates. A 1972 Boxoffice item notes a William B. McGee of Six Associates as having done preliminary work on the twinning of the Carolina Theatre at Hendersonville, North Carolina.
I think we can safely identify the lead architect of the UltraVision Theatre as William B. McGehee, of the firm Six Associates. His listing in the 1970 AIA Directory also lists the Phipps Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, another Wilby-Kincey house with UltraVision equipment, among his works.
The architect(s) who adapted McGehee’s original design for the later UltraVision theaters might also have worked at Six Associates, but I haven’t yet been able to confirm that.
On the subject of the UltraVision projection system itself, projectionists in particular will probably be interested in this October, 1991, Boxoffice article commemorating the 25th anniversary of this innovative development. The article mentions that UltraVision equipment was eventually installed in 60 theaters.
GASTON MALL THEATRE a ABC THEATRE was also a ULTRA-VISION theatre it is listed on CT.Gastonia,N.C. .
The Ultravision in Charleston lasted quite a long time. I believe it was the early 2000’s when it was demolished. I remember it quite well, sitting on top of a hill at the front of the Westwood Plaza shopping center parking lot at Sam Rittenberg Boulevard & Ashley River Road (SC Hwys 7 & 61). When it originally opened, this shopping center was known as “Grant City West” as it was anchored by a large W.T. Grant Department Store (a.k.a “Grant’s”).
Even with the Ashley Plaza Cinema just a few miles down Hwy. 7 in one direction and the Citadel Mall Cinema 6 opening in 1981 just a few miles down Hwy. 7 in the other direction, the Ultravision remained popular right up until the day it closed.
I believe that the only thing that doomed the Ultravision were financial troubles at its parent. This location never seemed to be without business. When it closed, it was demolished and the hill that it sat on was leveled, making room for an additional wing to be added to the adjacent shopping center.
Manager Willie Freeman had the Dream of every theatre man, AWORLD PREMEIRE of “THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE” The movie was filmed around Charleston. Gibbs Art Galery is getting the money at 25.00 a ticket.
Address:
1812 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.
Charleston, SC. 29407
Was this theatre converted to four screens? According to the movie times in the Charleston Post on Mar. 9, 1986 it listed four movies starting at either 2:00 or 2:30. “Nightmare on Elm Street 2” at 2:30, “Murphy’s Romance” at 2:30, “House” at 2:30 and “Highlander” at 2:00.
I remember seeing an ad for a “Carmike Ultravision” four-screen theatre in the Charleston newspaper in the early 1990s. Could this be the same theatre?
Yes, the Ultravision was a Carmike cinema before it closed. I thought it had 3 screens (one of the two original large cinemas being divided into two), but I don’t remember. Perhaps they divided both original cinemas.
Besides Charleston, I remember specifically that there was one in Mt. Pleasant that originally was a single screen theatre. I watched movies there before it was split into two screens. That was up until 1979 & 80 and at that point it had not yet been split into two screens. Therefore, it was split sometime after that before it was later closed but I do know that in 81 it was still single screen that year.