Discount Cinema 150

Reopened as the 6th Avenue Cinedome on January 10th, 1992. Grand opening ad posted.

UA did the same thing in Santa Clara now a medical center. In California. Abandoned it! Same with The Egyptian in Hollywood and The Coronet in SF. Wnatever to the grand movie palaces of yesteryear?

I used to work here as the second run films and then lousy first run films were being played right up to the final couple of Film festivals before it closed as the Cinedome. ( Spike and Mike’s Twisted Animation Film Festival and the Black Film Fetival. ) 1991 or 1992? After that I think it became the UA again. We also ran Star Wars for a week and the place was packed everynight.

Since I had the keys to the place, one of the things I liked to do at night when we finished was explore the place as well. I don’t recall the square part off the dome, but I think that was a machine shop up top for repairing things. The 150 side was a pretty nice 75mm projector and screen that could have given the Cinerama a run for its money. When I was there the 70 side was a pretty sad 35mm theatre that was small and miserable. One night we offered the only two people who showed up to watch a movie on that side dinner and tickets to come back another night so we could clean it up and go home early.

I also recall that there was a gantry between the 70 and 150 projection booths so the projectionist could take a short stroll to keep them both running. Ray the projectionist said that the 70mm projector was pretty great and that there was only one other like it left in London. No idea of the truth to that. I do have a few 70mm frames of 2001 and West Side Story, but I managed to lose my one frame of Star Wars sadly.

A shame that the place was torn down and not saved.

One of many new high rise residential towers now occupies the entire block.

I worked here a few times as a fill in projectionist in the early 1980’s. I was the relief projectionist at GCC’s King Cinema located directly across 6th Avenue from the UA. I happened to walk by the site in the early evening on the day they demolished the building. The pile of rubble had that famous “Old Movie Theatre Smell”.

I (like emmyathome) also worked at this great theater in heydey of the early 80’s. I remember Mr Shonk and Nick(asst mgr). Memories of this theater come to mind while I’m watching “Sounder” on TCM, saw this movie w/my 6th grade class at the UA 150, I remember the cozy side balcony seats!

I saw 2001 at the Cinerama in Seattle in Cinerama in it’s original run. Great of course. I may have played the UA 150 too at some point later. Blade Runner played the Cinerama orginally too I think but it also played the 150 later on. Years later as I saw it there too. I also saw it years later at the Cinerama with a spacial lense that looked like Cinerama process. Wow. In the 80’s. Nice the Cinerama is still alive. UA 150 should be too. Downtown losing its soul.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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?