Where On Earth Is This Movie Theater?

posted by Teitzell on May 4, 2005 at 4:23 pm

Dear Fellow Cinema Treasurers:

I came across this image of a magnificent movie marquee at one of the internet commercial photo libraries (CORBIS.COM).

Can anyone tell me where in the world I can find this theater? Something tells me it’s in Las Vegas – but that is just a wild guess.

You can see the image by clicking this photohost link.

THANK YOU for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Jay in Hollywoodland

Comments (9)

Michael Furlinger
Michael Furlinger on May 4, 2005 at 4:37 pm

that is some marquee/ no clue were it is

kateymac01
kateymac01 on May 4, 2005 at 7:39 pm

It almost reminds me of the Senator in Baltimore, but it is definitely not. I agree with Manwithnoname about it not matching quite right. With a marquee that size, I would assume a theater name would be atop it. Hmmm. I am anxious to see if this mystery is solved.

droben
droben on May 4, 2005 at 10:17 pm

This magnificent marquee belongs to the Coliseum Theater, located at the corner of 5th Ave and Pike Street in downtown Seattle.

Alas, the theater is no longer operating and the marquee is gone. The building now houses a Bananna Republic.

The reason you can’t see the name of the theater is that it rotated on top of the marquee in large neon letters spelling out C-O-L-I-S-E-U-M. The motor broke down years before the theater was closed, and was never repaired.

As an aside, the Coliseum was opened in 1916 and was the first movie palace designed specifically for motion pictures

William
William on May 4, 2005 at 10:36 pm

D Roben is right, its the Coliseum Theatre in Seattle. That marquee was installed in the 1949 remodeling of the theatre.

kateymac01
kateymac01 on May 4, 2005 at 11:44 pm

The photo looks too new to be the Coliseum Theatre.

Teitzell
Teitzell on May 5, 2005 at 12:03 am

True, the photo looks darn right current – when could it have been taken, if before the marquee was taken down?

Incredible knowledge you all have! Allow me to post this follow-up to my original above trying to locate Where On Earth this theater is…

If this is the COLISEUM and the marquee no longer exists and I wanted to find and photograph another as close to this as possible, where should I go?

William
William on May 5, 2005 at 12:38 am

If you have the Great American Movie Theaters book by David Naylor. Look at the picture on page 237 and you will see a picture of the marquee.

br91975
br91975 on May 5, 2005 at 4:04 am

It’s a bit unrelated, but I just checked out the link Katie Mac posted and, wow, what a beautiful theatre; such a tragedy it closed…

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