Centre Theatre
216 16th Street,
Denver,
CO
80202
216 16th Street,
Denver,
CO
80202
3 people
favorited this theater
The Centre Theatre was opened on April 29, 1954, with the World Premier of “River of No Return” starring Marilyn Monroe, with Hollywood stars who appeared ‘in person’. It was built for the Fox Inter-Mountain Theatres chain. Seating was provided on a stadium plan, with a raised stepped section at the rear, rather than a conventional overhanging balcony. It was equipped with a 60 feet wide curved CinemaScope screen.
This theatre is one of some 200 that could be described as “Skouras-ized For Showmanship” which is the title of the ANNUAL of 1987 of the Theatre Historical Soc. of America. In the late-1930’s through the 1950’s, there occurred on the west coast of the United States a phenomenon known as the ‘Skouras style’ in recognition of the oversight of the Skouras brothers in their management of several cinema chains. They employed a designer by the name of Carl G. Moeller to render their cinemas/theatres in a new style best described as ‘Art Moderne meets Streamlined.’ The then new availability of aluminum sheeting at low cost was the principal material difference to this style allowing for sweeping, 3-dimensional shapes of scrolls to adorn walls and facades in an expression that would have been much more expensive and not at all the same in plaster. With the use of hand tinted and etched aluminum forms, the designers could make ornaments in mass production that allowed much greater economies of scale. The ANNUAL also show in its 44 pages how some 20 theatres were good examples of this combining of aluminum forms with sweeping draperies heavily hung with large tassels, and with box offices and facades richly treated with neon within the aluminum forms. Few of these examples survive today, but it was a glorious era while it lasted, and this collection of crisp b/w photos is a fitting epitaph by the late Preston Kaufmann.
Contributed by
Jim Rankin
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Recent comments (view all 21 comments)
Here is one of the photos that trainmaster was referring to on 2/19/08. Date is circa mid 70s:
http://tinyurl.com/2fskq4
Ken MC,
thanks for sharing the photo. Seeing it brings back lot of memories. The Centre was an elegant movie house. They don’t build them like that any more. Do you have any more photos? Monty-Denver
To Ken MC:
That is the exact photo I was referring to. There were two photos of the theater in the “Movie Palaces” (still available from Amazon.com – not a promo) book – the other was a nighttime photo of the exterior.
Does anyone have a DAYTIME photo of the exterior – I would love to see it. Referring back to the photo Ken MC posted, either that
interior shot was taken with an extreme wide-angle lens or the screen was able to show movies with an aspect ratio larger than 235:1. If there are any more photos of the theater, including the lobby, exterior, etc. I would love to see them. Too bad this theater is gone.
Trainmaster
Trainmaster,
I would love to see more pictures of the Centre. I do remember it had a beautiful box office both outside decorated in bold gold trim, lots of neon and the marquee was big, bold and beautiful. For some reason I cannot remember the lobby?
I did see a few scope movies over the years at the Centre and do remember it having a very large wide screen. Ben Hur played there a few times during an MGM revival series every few years or so and I’m sure it played in 70mm. Personally I never seen Ben Hur there or any other 70mm feature at the Centre.
I was told that when Mann theaters closed the Centre permanently, the projectors were shipped and sent to the Chinese in Hollywood.
Monty-Denver
The Centre was one of the first theatres I remember. Although it was built in the early 1950s, it was in a stylized Baroque decor. There was a balcony but it didn’t overhang the lower seats. What do they call that? Like an upper and lower shelf.
We saw There’s No Business Like Show Business in about 1954. I also remember Flower Drum Song and its fabulous opening credits with the Dong Kingman watercolors. I believe the last film I saw there was MAS*H.
Still trying to find out what year the Centre was built. It was definitely built after 1941 (the 1942 AFI theatre listing does not include the Centre), but I don’t believe it could have been built to showcase the 1952 Cinemascope process (as mentioned above); it’s design looks too early for that. Possibly right after WW II?
Does anyone remember when Jim Sutton managed this theatre in the early 70’s? He later left there to become district manager for No. Cal. division for National General. I remember working under him when he was DM, what a great guy he was. Would like to hear from anyone who would know where he is now.
Here are two 1978 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
I have a Theatre Catalog 1954-55 with a big article on the Centre. There’s a picture of the opening night marquee. The film was “River of no Return” and although there’s no date given, the movie premiered April 30, 1954 according to IMDB.
A photo of the auditorium of the Centre Theatre was featured on the frontispiece of Boxoffice magazine’s Modern Theatre section of August 6, 1955. The curved screen was 28 feet high and 60 feet wide.