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The latest movie theater news and updates
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March 3, 2010
Thomas Lamb’s Adirondack Lodge for sale!
Looking for a summer home in the Adirondack Mountains? For a mere $487,000 you could be the proud owner of Thomas Lamb’s former summer home – designed, of course, by Mr. Lamb himself.
Check out all the photos!
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March 2, 2010
Happy 45th, “The Sound Of Music”
[This is a revised and updated version of an article published in 2005 to commemorate the film’s 40th anniversary.]
THE SOUND OF MONEY:
CELEBRATING THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF “THE SOUND OF MUSIC”By Michael Coate
So you’re impressed with the box-office performance of AVATAR, eh? Never before has a movie made so much money so quickly? Well, flash back a few decades and consider another movie that rocked the industry.
Never mind that THE GODFATHER and THE EXORCIST grossed $100 million. Never mind that JAWS grossed $200 million. Forget the umpteen times you returned to see STAR WARS, helping propel its original box-office performance close to $300 million. Forget the $350 million E.T. made. And ignore the $600 million amassed by TITANIC. Before all of those spectacular feats there was another motion picture that brought in huge sums of money from the get-go and spawned an insane amount of repeat business. The movie in question was THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the beloved film production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical which in turn was based upon the real-life adventures of the von Trapp family and the German films DIE TRAPP-FAMILIE (1956) and DIE TRAPP-FAMILIE IN AMERIKA (1958). The award-winning 1965 film performed as a blockbuster before the industry knew just what a blockbuster was.
So…whether you believe the hills are alive with the sound of music or alive with the sound of mucus, I hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy this look back at the original exhibition history of THE SOUND OF MUSIC on the occasion of its 45th anniversary. Included herein will be references to hundreds of “Cinema Treasures” from a bygone era. I predict reading this will conjure up memories of when and where you saw the film for the first time (and the second time… and the third…).
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“The African Queen” finally comes to DVD!
John Huston’s “The African Queen” (1951), starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn shall finally be released on U.S. Region 1 DVD on March 23, 2010. For many years, this was the only film on the American Film Institute’s original Top 100 List that had not been released on DVD.
This, of course, is great news for fans of the film, as well as Bogey and Kate. But as I rejoice in the news and prepare to open my wallet for the inevitable purchase, I also find myself asking, “What about the rest of them?”
The rest of them – you know, the other essential film classics that still have yet to see the light of DVD. Classic titles like “Wings” (silent), “The Crowd” (silent), “The Island of Lost Souls”, “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “A Guy Named Joe” have, to this day, still gotten no further than American-made VHS tape (that’s probably why I still own those films in that now-ancient format).
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Campus Theater in Milledgeville, GA reborn as college playhouse
MILLEDGEVILLE, CA — Possessing a varied history, and once a part of the Martin chain (later Carmike), the Campus Theater will now serve as the home of the theater department of Georgia College. Though the exterior has been restored, the interior now houses a bookstore, coffee house, and a black box theater.
The building closed as a theater in 1983, though it was still used as private offices for years after that.
Georgia College bought the building in late 2008 from owner Randall Hattaway and applied for a Georgia Higher Educational Facilities Authority grant from the state to fund its renovations. The school became one of the colleges in Georgia to receive money from the grant, receiving nearly $7 million to complete the work, Bowen said.
Here’s the full story at Macon.com.
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March 1, 2010
Recalling the movie-going history of Pueblo
PUEBLO, CO — In a recent article in the Pueblo Chieftain, reporter Amy Matthew spotlights the cinema history of this Colorado city. The article includes pictures and reminiscences, and also mentions some the promotional practices theater owners used over the years.
In “Night Lights,” Thomason described the 1,500-seat Colorado Theater, which opened in 1926. It is still located inside the Colorado Building on Main Street:
“The Colorado boasted a 35-foot high electric sign with large white letters, four chandeliers with 600 crystals, and all-leather seats. The organ chamber was (as you face the stage) in the front-left part of the theater, covered with a grille; the right-front of the theater was a mural (designed to look identical to the grille) painted by local artist J. Charles Schnorr. The stage curtain was fireproof asbestos; a Turkish scene was painted over the stage and included a prayer to Allah in Turkish.”
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Former Surf Theater (and hotel…) destroyed in fire
HAMPTON BEACH, NH — The Surf Hotel which once contained the Surf Theater has burned to the ground. The lobby of the ocean side Surf Theater was most recently operating as Bucky’s Hot Dogs. Winds over 100mph were recorded last night at Hampton Beach. It was thought that the roof blew off and hit power lines, causing the blaze which engulfed the entire block.
A fire fueled by heavy winds quickly spread from the Surf Motel to adjacent buildings and destroyed a block of businesses before it was brought under control early Friday morning.
“This is a sad day,” said Hampton Beach Area Commission Chairman John Nyhan. “These folks have worked hard all these years, struggling to make ends meet these last few years. And to have this happen. It’s just horrible.”
Vintage Picture (picture shows small marquee)
Read more in Seacoast Online.
-John Elwood
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Historic cinemas remind of int'l past of Tangier
TANGIER, MOROCCO — You would not usually expect to find the Peoples Daily of China to be often cited here as a source of cinema news, and even less likely to look there for stories about cinemas in Tangiers but this is one story about the Rif Cinema.
Yto Barrada, director cinemateque Tangier, said, “This cinema when we found it was playing Bollywood films, with people smoking inside. It was raining in the screening room. It was a 600 seat theatre and it was going to be turned in to a supermarket. It was just for sale, the lease was for sale. What we did is we worked for 8 years to create a film archive and an art-house cinema in this building.”
In the year 2000, the cinema started undergoing major renovations, before becoming home to the Cinematheque Tangier in 2007.
Read more in People’s Daily Online.
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February 26, 2010
New Fabian 8 evokes memories of original Fabian
PATERSON, NJ — The name may sound the same, but the theater is brand new. The Fabian 8 has opened after some delay on February 19. This article recalls the original Fabian and contrasts what moviegoing experience was like in an earlier era with that most patrons expect now.
“We’re back with a tip of the hat to the past,” said John Halecki, general manager of Community Theaters LLC, pointing out what he calls the “Disneyland/Main Street feel” of the bright, blinking marquee at the theater’s front entrance and a clock that declares on its face “Movie Time.”
Hearing of the theater’s opening sparked a trip down memory lane for many residents, who fondly recalled the bustling movie houses of their youth.
Read more inThe Record.
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Construction work on former Appalachian Theater reveals artifacts
BOONE, NC — Workers transforming the former Carmike Appalachian 2, which opened in 1938 as the Appalachian, have uncovered a number of artifacts and curiosities from the theater’s past. The intent of the work, currently on hold, is to convert the theater into a multi-use venue.
“When we were tearing out underneath the balcony, we found a booking sheet,” McNiel said.
In the area where they used to house film reels, he found what looked like a rolled up carpet.
“It was a giant beautiful color lithograph,” he said, for the 1956 movie, The Eddy Duchin Story.
Three-D glasses and an old glass inkwell were among the finds, as were old syrup jugs from when sodas were hand-mixed.There is more in the Mountain Times.
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England’s only back projection cinema is leaving 35 mm and going digital
WOODHALL SPA, LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND — After 88 years of 35 mm England’s last surviving back projection cinema is now turning its back on the 35 mm format and heading for the digital age. To be able to compete with the new-age technology of 3-D and digital, it seems that the way forward is to adapt, all we can hope for is that this extreme makeover will not tarnish this rustic and rural beauty that is England’s final back projection Kinema.
At 14 minutes and 50 seconds in (18/02/10): BBC Video
