Town & Country Theater
2980 Stevens Creek Boulevard,
San Jose,
CA
95128
2980 Stevens Creek Boulevard,
San Jose,
CA
95128
2 people
favorited this theater
This former Cinerama palace was built for 70mm Cinerama in 1966. Situated across the street from the palatial Century 21, the Town & Country was sold to AMC and renovated in 1991.
The screen was flattened and the deteriorating cinema was finally, and sadly, demolished.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
It was owned by a number of companies. I believe it opened as the Fox Town and Country under Mann Theatres, and consisted of yellow seats, yellow carpeting and yellow interior lighting.
It later briefly became the Century Town and Country when Syufy owned it, and finally AMC Town and Country at the time of its closing. I possess the two large FOX signs from its earlier days.
I saw the first screening when AMC took over (“North By Northwest” for the press), and the final screening the night before it closed. And I got in and took some pictures and footage the day after it closed. (They were already removing the seats and the concessions stand had been demolished.)
It was one of the last three big screens in San Jose. The others remain across the street at Century 21 and 22.
Ironically, the last movie which ran there was “Romeo Must Die”, starring Jet Li.
The address for the Town & Country Theatre was 2980 Stevens Creek Blvd., San Jose, Ca.
Hi Folks:
I believe that United Artists operated this theatre prior to AMC taking over in the mid 1990’s.
There was a Town and Country Cinema in Sunnyvale on Murphy Ave which showed second-run fare until 1975, when it showed hard porn until closing. Does anybody have more info on that theater?
The Town and Country Cinema in Sunnyvale opened in the 1920s as the Strand. It was later called the Sunnyvale, then Town and Country. It still stands, with a few historical details evident on its exterior, and is now a restaurant and nightclub.
I worked at the T&C for a few years in the 80’s. I remember both Top Gun and The Natural each played there for seven months. Do any theaters keep a movie for more than two weeks?
Anyway, it had a fantastic curved ‘ribbon screen’. Instead of a single curved piece of material, it was a series of hundreds of 1.5" ribbons that slightly overlapped in a curve. The depth in that screen was amazing. I saw Out of Africa there and went to see it again at another theater (why I would see that again, I can’t remember) and it looked so flat! However, if the A/C blew too hard, it caused the ribbons to shift and it looked as if there were scratches in the film.
T&C had these amazing Norelco projectors. The most forgiving and quiet projector ever. They ran reel-to-reel until Century Theatres took over. However, they left the second projector up—so we actually had a backup projector!
When AMC came in they put in this small screen that they hyped as “the largest Torus compound screen west of the Mississippi.” (Whatever that was.) It looked like crap. Across the street were two 40 x 80 screens and there answer was to put in a 20 x 40 in the same space? When Mann and Century showed films in Scope, the picture practically went ceiling to floor and wall to wall. Look at that picture at the top, it’s practically a quarter of what T&C had before AMC.
Also, AMC had no idea how to run a single-screen. It was total culture shock for them. It was a slow, sad decline for such a great theatre.
My fondest memory of this theatre is I saw “Die Hard” there shortly after I had moved to Santa Clara.
Not only did the movie blow me away, but the presentation at the Town and Country ranked among the best I had ever seen, to the point I had to inform the theatre management what a great theatre it was.
It makes me sad to even drive by the CinéArts @ Santana Row that now occupies the location.
FOX TOWN AND COUNTRY THEATRE was originally owned by National General Theatres.It was sold to CENTURY THEATRES in the early 70’s when Mann took over and sold or closed all the Bay Area theatres under the FOX/NATIONAL GENERAL banner.
1984 Photo
I WORKED WITH BILL TANNEHILL THERE TRAINING TO OPEN mANN’S FASHION ISLAND 6 IN FOSTER CITY AND I REMEMBER WHEN SCRAPPY MOVED TO THE FOX T AND C WHEN THEY SOLD THE SAN MATEO BEVERLY ALSO TRANSFERED THERE AND SLEPT IN THE JANITORS CLOSET.