Roosevelt Twin Theatre

Chuck1231 on January 9, 2011 at 9:40 am

Some history on this theatre from ther Vernal Press.
George H. Harrison and R. Howard Harrison opened the Roosevelt Theatre on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1942, with Shirley Temple in “Kathleen”. Construction of the $40,000 theater began in July 1941, with A. F. Brown of Salt Lake City as the supervising engineer. Harrison Enterprises also owned the Utopia Theatre and planned to continue its operation after opening the new theater.

The Roosevelt Theatre was a “modern up-to-the minute motion picture theatre,” described as “new, beautiful, and elaborately equipped.” The exterior had “fluted cement columns and brick” and a Neon marquee that was “a handsome addition to the city’s Main street.” The interior color scheme was peach, green, and beige. Carpeting in the “spacious” lobby and auditorium aisles “picks up the colors in deeper shades.”

The auditorium was 40 feet wide and 90 feet long, with 500 seats “arranged on a slight arc so that every seat directly faces the screen.” The curtains and draperies were red velour. The stage was large and had floodlights, so the theater could “accommodate many types of entertainment” and serve as “a community playhouse as well as a motion picture theatre.”

The RCA sound system was “the finest made.” The walls of the auditorium were treated with a three-inch layer of rock wool, over which was stretched a tapestry, so that the “sound waves, as they emerge from speakers behind the screen, melt into the soft walls and no harsh, metallic sounds or echoes are audible.”

The heating and air-conditioning system used air washers in the basement to clean, cool, and humidify the air. A “huge fan and an intricate system of cuts” changed the air in the building every few minutes. The building was “as fire-proof as it is possible to make.”

Between 1994 and 1996 the theater became the Roosevelt Twin Theatre.