Teatro Cinerama
1650 Avenida Fernadez Juncos,
San Juan
00907
1650 Avenida Fernadez Juncos,
San Juan
00907
3 people
favorited this theater
This was a fine Cinerama theater. Most of the truly epic films of the 1960’s and 1970’s were shown here. Between epics, they would also show many B-horror movies. For a time Wometco was the owner of this magnificent theater.
One of the last epic films shown there was "Reds". It closed down a year later (1984).
The building became a carpet store, but this was closed by July 2009.
Contributed by
josem Jose Mendez
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Recent comments (view all 35 comments)
While on vacation at PR, this last weekend, I took a late night drive on the Fernandez Juncos Ave., and was shocked to see how much it has changed. The Cinerama is still somewhat recognizable from the outside, but it looks like it’s all boarded up and no longer functioning as a carpet store. Very depressing. And don’t get me going on the Metropolitan…
JSA
widescreenman-
Teatro CINERAMA ran 3-strip CINERAMA from, Tuesday, May 4, 1965 till Sunday, December 12, 1965.
70mm CINERAMA started Saturday, December 25, 1965.
It had a LOUVERED Screen 75 ft by 35 ft.
I know for sure that I saw CIRCUS WORLD in the theater in 1966. I may have seen other CINEARAMA Movies in San Juan, but I’m not always positve what CINERAMA Films I saw in what cities.
I am sure I saw CIRCUS WORLD with an English soundtrack.
Is anyone able to add anything about CINERAMA Movies that played in Puerto Rico with Spanish soundtracks?
Bob,
Interesting topic!
“2001: A Space Odyssey” was shown in English at the Metro in Ponce De Leon Avenue.
I never saw a film in Puerto Rico with a Spanish soundtrack, unless it was from Latin America or Spain. All the English-speaking films I saw there (from the mid-60’s to mid 80’s) were sub-titled. That’s not saying it didn’t happen, I just did not see or remember any. However, some of the coming attraction trailers had a Spanish speaking narrator.
Someone told me that these days some theaters show movies dubbed in Spanish, particularly family friendly fare.
JSA
JSA,
This is a quote I found concerning CINERAMA in San Juan.
“Ran both English and Spanish sound versions at different performances”
That’s all I know.
It seems to me that I remember from a long time ago that 3-strip CINERAMA would change the language on the 4th strip/sound track “film” sometimes. This might have been easier than adding subtitles?
I hope someone can add some light to this.
Please help me out, here in Illinois. I am trying to find my way around Santurce using the CINERAMA as a starting point. It would help to have the exact address of this theater so I can find the building on the satellite photo and see what it looks like from the air.
I think the cross street is Cll Bolivar and it would have an address something like 1647 Avenida Fernadez Juncos. If you type 1647 before the street on the map—-is that the theater on the northwest corner? If that’s the building it looks like it has ramps on the roof, did it have parking on the roof?
It would nice to find the exact address so it could be added to this site.
Bob,
Sorry for the somewhat delayed response.
I don’t have an exact address, but my guess is 1650. The theater would have been be on the southeast corner. And no elevated parking. I would park on side streets, usually Bolivar, or San Jorge. Or take the bus ( #42, if I remember correctly).
JSA
Bob, as some contributor here know, I was in the film business in PR in the 60’s. ALL films in the English language were shown in English with Spanish subtitles, including Cinerama films of course. Maybe animated films for children alternated English and Spanish or used the Spanish version in “la isla”, but I am not sure because Commonwealth did not book many animated films. Disney’s Sword and the Stone was shown with subtitles at the Plaza 2. The cost of booking a film did not have anything to do with the language or if it had subtitles. It had to do with quality, star power, etc. Foreign films were in English most of the time if not all the time, because they were booked through their US distributors' offices in PR (MGM, Columbia, Fox, etc.). In the case of The Longest Day, the soundtrack was in English. French and German and had both Spanish and English subtitles. Originally the film had Spanish subtitles only but we requested Fox to add English subtitles for non Spanish speaking customers, at no extra cost for us. The only ones who had to pay for subtitling a film were independent distributors like World Films. Subtitling cost about $1,500 and did not affect the booking/rental cost. Subtitling was easy, print the titles on the negative and then print the copies of the film.
The Cinerama even played the soft-porn science-fiction spoof “Flesh Gordon” back in the 1970s.
The Cinerama opened on a week day with How The West… Films opened in San Juan on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Saturday openings were for Easter openings because in the 60’s, during Holy Week, most theaters showed reissues of religious films like The 10 Commandments.
PS: Also, in the 60’s, attendance during Holy Week was poor since many people stayed at home or went to religious services, that is why they opened on Easter Saturday, then known as Glorious Saturday, end of Lent.