Comments from JimRankin

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JimRankin
JimRankin commented about AMC & Cinemark Offers Money Back Guarantee To 'Cinderella' Moviegoers on Jul 7, 2005 at 9:35 am

This is not the first film to use this gimmick to increase sales. In 1974 the flick THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE offered a refund if one was offended by the theme of incest implied in the flick. Supposedly, the refund was to come out of the pocket of George C. Scott, who both starred in, and produced the film. I don’t recall any release of figures as to number of refunds given, but I doubt any records were kept so it may be impossible at this late date to establish fact about that. It may be that the studio/releaser were too embarrassed to say how very great the number of refunds were for this flick that failed at the box office.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about NY Times: Advertisers Pour Money Into The Big Screen on Jul 6, 2005 at 11:39 am

All this advertising is, indeed, making some people rich, but it is also turning off the majority of movie goers, which is why the attendance figures they don’t mention have been dropping steadily for years now. Hollywood’s studios and distributors are keeping the vast share of the movie ticket’s revenues, forcing the exhibitors who own the cinemas to raise both ticket and concession prices in order to pay off the conglomerates who now own 90% of the screens. Hollywood is killing the goose that laid the golden egg (at least as far as your local cinema is concerned)! Many experts now say that within a decade or so there will be no cinemas aside from a few in New York and Los Angeles where people can flock to see a film on first release (and where TV cameras will be stationed to record them to serve as the premiere and anticipation drivers of their sales), before they go a week later and buy it on DVD or whatever the newest home theatre medium will prevail then. This Cinema Ad Council boasts about their huge incomes from lobby sales now, but wise people see the handwriting on the wall and know that the future is most profitable to the film makers if they sell directly to the public, as recent DVD sales volumes have proven. This means good-bye to THOUSANDS of cinemas across the nation and then in the rest of the world as the money men figure out ways to cut themselves the entire money pie, and not just the largest slice as they do now! I find these figures appalling, not encouraging, for all they portend, but at least we can rejoice that such as the Cinema Ad Council will perish along with the cinemas/theatres they helped to destroy.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about United Artists Theater Spawns Graffiti Debate on Jun 30, 2005 at 8:58 am

The point is that vandalism IS vandalism: the illegal desecration of someone else’s property without permission. It is a legal definition, NOT an artistic one. Even the Mona Lisa painted upon someone else’s property without permission would be vandalism. To this extent, man should direct his step [Jeremiah 10:23], and carefully, and would herein have full approval of his Creator in doing so. So it is not a matter of taking the ‘rafter out our eyes’ before finding the straw in the vandals' eyes [Matthew 7:3]; it is simply a matter of following Bibically-based law. Call it ‘art’ if you like, but it remains what it is: VANDALISM.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about United Artists Theater Spawns Graffiti Debate on Jun 30, 2005 at 7:04 am

“Two wrongs don’t make a ‘right,’” as the old saying goes, and Ichabod here tries to convince us that if we do anything even slightly illegal such as he mentions, then we cannot argue against anything else being wrong or illegal. Such is obvious RATIONALIZATION, the method of excusing our misconduct by trying to attach some sort of moral or aesthethic value to it. Wrong is wrong and illegal no matter how artistic it may seem. Yes, some of the perpetrators do show artistic talent, but that is as wasted as the ‘genius’ who has a bad day and walks into a store and blasts people away and then some misguided ‘bleeding hearts’ appeal for mercy on him because he is a ‘genius’ in other ways and should be rehabilitated for the ‘good of society.’ Every year we hear on the news of some talented ‘genius’ who was released from prison as being renewed for social responsibility and then this very one is found committing some henious crime yet again.

What this nation needs is MORALS, not rationalizations. As long as we say ‘he was just a misguided youth’ and sob into our handkerchiefs, we will continue to have such vandalism as graffiti —which will inevitably lead to greater crimes, if not by their author, then by those who see his works befouling just any and every structure he can, with no firm prison sentance given. The only real value in a human being is Responsibility to righteousness and the mature Discipline that goes along with it, in accord with God’s perfect Laws. At the root of this permissive behaviour is ignorance of God, and that blame falls maninly on parents, not that they are any excuse for their childrens' misbehaviour. Short of this we have only talented youths growing up with no respect for anything, and convinced that they can always use their ‘talents’ to rationalize their way around justice and have the ‘bleeding hearts’ who unwittingly bring down our society by not demanding the equivalent of “an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.” Thus does justice begin, and society (rather than selfish individuals) prosper. While there is no such thing as a perfect human society on earth today, one has but to look at China or Japan where graffiti is virtually unknown due to the sure and certain knowledge of a swift retribution by the state, to see examples of how society can expect justice = no grafiti. It is as it says in the Bible: “But if you are doing what is bad, be in fear: for it is not without purpose that it [the state] bears the sword; for it is God’s minister [here meaning ‘helper’], an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad.” (Romans 13:4)

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Wang Theatre on Jun 24, 2005 at 4:54 am

The THEATRES OF BOSTON mentioned above this post, can be obtained at a discount through the Theatre Historical Society via the link on the front page of their web site: www.historictheatres.org for a limited time, so don’t delay!

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Cinerama Hollywood on Jun 17, 2005 at 11:54 pm

Daniel is entitled to his opinion, and no doubt Arclight is the ne plus ultra of projection, but I must stand by the conviction that if whatever is on the screen is so weak that the audience is drawn to look about at the auditorium, then it shouldn’t have been on the screen in the first place, and the audience was then well served to have had something else to look at.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Bay Theatre on Jun 17, 2005 at 8:52 am

Timothy R.’s contributions re Milwaukee theatres are appreciated, and if he would like to be added to my list of Local Theatre Buffs to whom I send occasional bulletins like the above, he only has to E-mail me to this effect by clicking on my name below in blue, and then clicking on the CONTACT information on my Profile page.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Bay Theatre on Jun 15, 2005 at 7:57 pm

FROM: JIM RANKIN, MILWAUKEE, JUNE 15, 2005

ROOF OF FORMER MOVIE PALACE BECOMES PRACTICAL JOKE

The “Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel” has this story about our former BAY theatre which later became the LAKE:
View link
about how a local eccentric owner painted huge letters on its flat, black roof saying “Welcome to Cleveland” when planes fly over it to Milwaukee’s airport a few blocks away. This has amused and startled more than a few flyers, and the story of it makes interesting reading. Click on the link above, and when there, click on the photo to enlarge it and see what all the fuss is about. The marquee still hangs on the front of the theatre which has been Mr. Gubin’s photo studio and residence for many years now, and which has had its seats removed, but its new incarnation is probably a more suiteable usage than many others. What will become of it when Mr. Gubin becomes to old to climb the steps to his balcony-home, is anyone’s guess, but maybe the roof top joke will by then have long faded away, much to the delight of both cities. Maybe the author of the forthcoming sequel to “Milwaukee Movie Palaces,” Larry Widen, can get permission to copy this photo into the appendex of his new book: “Silver Screens” to appear in a year from now. He can hardly overlook this bit of trivia about the fates of our movie palaces!

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Cinema Treasures Reaches 10,000 + Theaters!!! on Jun 14, 2005 at 12:53 pm

Congratulations, fellows; I know it has been a labor of love, but still a labor nonetheless. I only hope you do not grow tired of this much labor now that your site covers the bulk of the notable theatres here in the USA and abroad. I hope to contribute more in future and hope that more servers can be afforded to keep the site the Treasure that it is. Can I ask here what became of your plans for the ‘Add-A-Photo’ feature? You removed the ‘please wait’ link to it some time ago, and I know that I was among many who had hoped to contribute some views, and can now do so. Is it gone for good? In any case, Best Wishes for your collective futures! Jim Rankin

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Kings Theatre on Jun 13, 2005 at 4:01 am

As has been brought out in previous comments, the largest source of images of the KINGS is the 1980 movie MEMOIRS OF A MOVIE PALACE at a branch of the NY Public Library. Reportedly they will not loan it, so one must view the VHS there.

Vintage photos are seen in the 1927 book AMERICAN THEATRES OF TODAY which was issued as two volumes, and in the second volume it is pictured or mentioned on pages: 30, 37, 48, and 158-9.

An especially nice photo of it is on page 159 of THE BEST REMAINING SEATS: THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE MOVIE PALACE by the late Ben M. Hall.

Most all of these photos are available for a fee from the Theatre Historical Soc. (www.historictheatres.org) by contacting them. Offer to pay for xeroxes first, and then select which images you want them to reproduce for you. Fees are listed on their site under Archive.
It is quite possible that local libraries and historical societies and museums will also have more, along with such as the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University, where they have a collection of the THSA’s MARQUEE magazine in which they have published a few photos of the LOEW’S KINGS. One often has to dig around to find vintage photos. Best Wishes.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about State Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 1:13 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Landmark Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:56 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Morris Performing Arts Center on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:49 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about California Theatre of Performing Arts on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:47 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Providence Performing Arts Center on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:41 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Sioux City Orpheum on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:39 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Orpheum Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:37 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Orpheum Theater on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:36 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Saenger Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:33 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about State Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:31 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Adler Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:28 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Chicago Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:24 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Shea's Performing Arts Center on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:23 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Wang Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:19 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.

JimRankin
JimRankin commented about Paramount Theatre on Jun 10, 2005 at 12:15 pm

Recent color photos of this theatre can be found on the site: “America’s Stunning Theatres” by photographer and stagehand Noah Kern at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres Comments and information may be left there without registration; such can be public view or only to Mr. Kern. Scroll down the page to find the name, and then click on the sample image above it to be taken to the page of photos of it.