UA 150
2131 Sixth Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98121
2131 Sixth Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98121
8 people
favorited this theater
This theater, which opened in 1969, was originally outfitted with the Dimension 150 process. It was well known locally as the main theater that showed "Star Wars" for a year in 1977/78. The interior of the main auditorium was a large wooden framed roof with an equally massive screen.
In the mid-1990’s it was a second run house that had revival screenings on weekend midnights. UA let the theater get very run down and ultimately closed the doors in 1998.
The theater was demolished in 2002 and the only thing remaning is the marquee. “It’s a shame Paul Allen couldn’t have also saved this theater and restored it to it’s glory. Ironically it was just a few blocks from the restored Cinerama.”
Contributed by
Shannon Laine
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Recent comments (view all 56 comments)
Love the Marquee shot,Geepers.
I always had wondered if this theater might have been a Vincent Raney design; thanks, Joe, for confirming that it was. If you look at the architect’s sketch and compare the dome’s design to just about any of the Cinedomes in California and elsewhere, it is virtually identical to those, though, as built, it looks like metal plates were used to cover it instead of using different colored shingles to create the starburst pattern as is/was the case with most of the Cinedomes. That probably was a good idea, considering how much rain Seattle gets. It also appears, looking at the marquee anyway, that this theater may also have been known as the Sixth Avenue Cinedome in its later years. Did it ever come under Syufy management?
Syufy/Century never owned or managed the UA Cinema 70-150 aka Sixth Ave Cinedome. In the early 90s after UA vacated the ‘dome’ for the first time, two Seattleites, both with film exhibition background, one of them a good friend of mine, took over the lease of the UA and the King across the street. Vowing to make going to the movies fun again, the large theaters (the 70 seated 500, the 150 about 800 and the King 900) were programmed eclectically with a mix of of first run Hollywood product, 70mm festivals, week-long salutes to directors (one such salute to Stanley Kubrick was truly memorable featuring nearly every film of his career up to that time). Two of the three cinemas (the 150 and the King) were outfitted with 70mm six-track Dolby, and all three theaters featured large screens, especially the 150. Prices at the snack bar were incredibly reasonable with just one size popcorn priced at $1 and candy costing just a bit more than the grocery stores. My friend even got a local phone company to lower the price of a phone call (remember, this was before cell phones) from 50 cents to ten cents. Although the big-studio Hollywood films shown there were for the most part lesser product (mostly from Warner Brothers or Fox), the Cindedome won a reletively small but very devoted following. Due to the varied programming, there was almost always something to see on one of the screens each week and often more than once a week. Perhaps the crowning achievement of the Dome’s history (about three years) was a week-long revival of Star Wars in glorious 70mm showing in the same theater (the 150) where it had originally played for over a year. The theater sold out all performances and, if my memory is correct, that booking may have been the first of many Star Wars revivals across the country for the benefit of local charities.
Alas, the dream didn’t last. Studios were increasingly ignoring these great theaters and my friend was finding it more difficult to book Hollywood films. At the same time, widespread use of VCRs was ruining the repertory business and in 1994 (I think), they were forced to shut down. UA took over the 70-150 again and ran it into the ground as a dollar house before finally giving up on it in 1999 (or so). The King sat vacant for several years before a local jazz club owner turned it into the King Cat Theater.
So that’s a brief history of the Sixth Avenue Cinedome. Most people today probably would draw blank stares when asked about it, but for those who knew about it, it was one of Seattle’s great cinematic treasures for three glorious years.
As for use of the term “Cinedome?” My friend asked me about using it, and I advised that Syufy marketed many of their theaters under that name and that there might be legal issues. I don’t know if he checked with his attorney, but the name was used and he never heard a peep from the boys in California.
CWalczak: It was the drawing you linked to that made me realize that this theater was probably a Vincent Raney design. That’s his drawing style. The attribution in the AIA Directory then came up immediately in a Google search. I don’t know how I missed it before.
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Interesting! thanks, neeb. I’m tired of seeing that sad empty lot with a lump in my throat over 8 years now! I wish they would hurry up and build something already! That was, after all the original plan for tearing the theater down!
I have to add my comments even if no one reads this. My first job was at the UA. The movie playing at the time was “Quest for Fire”, gotta love Ron Pearlman. I worked the 24 hour showing of ‘Jedi’. “ET” played on the 70 side, until we got the 70mm print. Mr. Shonk (spelling?) was the manager at the time. Oh and the liquer store next door. Removing those persons using the emergency back doors as urinals and or sleeping quarters. Met my husband there, he was a doorman, I worked the counter. Wish I could have gotten even one of the seats or some momento.
I grew up in Tacoma. Mom used to take my brother and I to the Pacific Science Center or the Woodland Park Zoo. We were riding the monorail one time and saw the marquee sign that said “2001” was playing. We begged her to take us. I was bored to tears; was expecting spaceships and got monkeys. (Saw the list of movies in a previous comment; this must have been ‘74.) But I never forgot it.
Twenty-odd years later, I was living in Seattle. By then I’d seen the movie on TV (uncut, no commercials, at least once) and come to appreciate it. Even read the book. I saw it was playing someplace downtown, and I hadn’t seen it on a big screen since that first time, so I went. I was amazed that it turned out to be the same theater. I sat in the same part of the theater, maybe the same seat. I noticed things about the movie I’d never seen before. Combined with the feeling of personal nostalgia, it was one of the best movie experiences of my life.
The 150 had a huge, curved and wide screen and large domed auditorium. Saw Blade Runner there and it was wow! Great sound too. A class act and historic for a modern theatre. Should have been saved.
Nice to find a site talking about the UA 150 as well as many other treasured cinemas of the past. This particular theater is forever locked into my memory by my first viewing of Star Wars. I think I saw Alien there too back in 79. I remember seeing Die Hard many a time over a summer when it was running at the discount rate. I was so saddened when it was knocked down during the dot com boom only to go unused after the crash. Finally now it’s being built into something at least but I’ll always miss it.