I managed the Hollywood Cinema at the time this theatre was proposed/built. The people who were going to build it actually toured the Hollywood to take a look at our projector that we used for the ultrascreen. From the moment I talked to them, I knew their venture would fail. They knew nothing about operating a movie theatre. They were constructing a BRAND NEW facility, lots of $$$, it wasn’t in a good location-basically behind the downtown area, and they were going to show IMAX type movies only… Hmmm, even if you get every school in the area to bring a school group every month it could never possibly make enough money to pay off its debt. Patronage from the general public to see these type of films would not be great. In the end, unfortunately, I was right. The theatre couldn’t sustain itself for even a year. Its a shame, its a very nice facility. I can’t imagine what will ever come of it.
I think it was seen on this site, where someone was selling the lights, equipment, and other fixtures of that theatre last year. I think the owner after the childrens museum did that. I remember that theatre was featured in “Boxoffice” magazine, a trade magazine of the theatre industry back somewhere in the mid 90’s. It was part of a series of stories they used to do featuring independant exhibitors. At the time I thought it was cool that someone had transformed a closed theatre into a nice business. Apparently it didn’t last.
Are you still in the area? The pictures are before the digital camera age, so you would need to copy the pictures themselves if you wanted them. We could meet up sometime if you’re in the area, or I can send you pictures if you’re not. I have pictures of the auditorium, lobby, office, projection booth, exterior, Most are from 1995ish, however I also have some older ones, probably from the 70’s and I think I have an older one with a big marquee possibly. I wish I would have saved some seats, quite honestly at the time, I never wanted to see them again, but now of couse I would like them. Same thing with the Viking theatre in Appleton, I did have 10 seats from there, but got tired of moving them around and eventually got rid of them. In fact 3 of them went down with the Neenah theatre, because I had them in my office there. Let me know if you’re interested in pictures.
I don’t have the picture anymore. There was a reason it was kept in a DARK auditorium…I do have the ushers stand. The papermaker carvings were taken out before demolition. I think they were headed to the paper hall of fame or something? Other than a nice piece of history, those seats were in pretty bad condition, love seats are cool though. I do have some pictures of the theatre, let me know if you’d like to copy them.
Its a nice thought, but donations wouldn’t work. You can’t pay for the film, pay heat, air conditioning, phone, accounting, concessions, janitor, employees, cost of goods, advertising, insurance, the list could go on, etc… Those companies won’t take donations… Its hard for some theatres to make it with paying customers, much less relying on a donation.
I managed the Neenah Theatre from 1994 till it closed in 1997. This was a Marcus Theatre. For years it had been operated as a 2nd run theatre. In its final years, it was very popular. It wouldn’t be unusual to have 200-300 people each friday and saturday. Remember the lighted picture that hung in the back of the auditorium? I remember when the theatre played The Lion King for 6 weeks, it was incredibly busy. I remember selling $6000 worth of concessions thru that tiny vending stand in a single week. That movie sold out several times, over 600 seats and even filled the balcony. However when Marcus built the Hollywood Cinema in Appleton, the Valley Fair Cinema was turned into a 2nd run theatre and took away a lot of the Neenah Theatres business, and it was closed. The property was sold to Future Neenah Inc. which said it wanted to save it for use as a “civic auditorium”. In my opinion, they didn’t try very hard to save the theatre, they spend little more than a year trying to garner interest in their project. Then they abandoned their project in favor of tearing the theatre down and building a third office tower on the site. The theatre was in nice condition, and could have continued to operate successfully with the right people.
This theatre was built in 1996 as an 8 screen complex. Half of the theatres were regular seating, the other theatres were stadium seating, new at the time. Since that time, all of the theatres have been made into stadium theatres, as well as 2 expansions, which make this a 14 screen complex. The latest addition includes an “ultrascreen”, the screen is 70 feet long, nice room to see a movie in.
The theatre was originally built as 3 screens. One of those original screens was carved into two, and two additional screens were added later, making a total of 6. Theatres 1&2 are center aisle theatres and not very nice. Theatres 3 & 4 are nice sized houses, and theatres 5 & 6 which were the add-ons are also nice screens. The theatre operated as Marcus' premier theatre in the area, before the Hollywood Cinema was built in 1996, when the Valley Fair Cinema became the Valley Value Cinema. The theatre has operated successfully as a 2nd run theatre. The mall that this theatre used to be attached to has now been torn down. This is now a free-standing building, waiting for development around it.
This theatre operated as a 2nd run theatre in its final years. It was closed by the Marcus Corp in Oct, 1991. A local childrens theatre used the building for a few years, it has sat vacant for a long time. It lacks anything art deco, basically just a big box. The 2nd screen was located upstairs in the former balcony. As previously stated above, a group is looking to convert this space into a live show house.
I was working for Marcus at the time. I would say the theatre closed in the late 90’s, perhaps 1997. In the last 10 years of operation, the theatre did very poorly. In the end it screened more of the art/independant films, or other films that weren’t expected to do business. The theatre was very nice, with one very nice sized auditorium. However, it lacked customers. With the coming of Regal cinemas to town, the Hollywood expanded to 11 screens at the time, and the Marc finally closed. The building sat vacant(actually it was a warehouse for old theatre junk) for a few years before being converted to a banquet hall.
I started working at the Viking Theatre in 1991. The theatre closed March 22, 1992. It hadn’t shown a first run movie since 1977. It showed 2nd run films for years, and at its end did not do well. The state of downtown Appleton at the time it closed was not very good. The multiple basements and office space left much to be explored while the films were running. Interestingly enough, you could not enter the projection booth from the theatre itself, you had to exit the theatre and enter a door to the right of the main entrance, this also gave access to the offices upstairs, and the multiple basements below. It sat empty for at least a year, before Route 66 renovated the space for a niteclub.
I managed the Hollywood Cinema at the time this theatre was proposed/built. The people who were going to build it actually toured the Hollywood to take a look at our projector that we used for the ultrascreen. From the moment I talked to them, I knew their venture would fail. They knew nothing about operating a movie theatre. They were constructing a BRAND NEW facility, lots of $$$, it wasn’t in a good location-basically behind the downtown area, and they were going to show IMAX type movies only… Hmmm, even if you get every school in the area to bring a school group every month it could never possibly make enough money to pay off its debt. Patronage from the general public to see these type of films would not be great. In the end, unfortunately, I was right. The theatre couldn’t sustain itself for even a year. Its a shame, its a very nice facility. I can’t imagine what will ever come of it.
I think it was seen on this site, where someone was selling the lights, equipment, and other fixtures of that theatre last year. I think the owner after the childrens museum did that. I remember that theatre was featured in “Boxoffice” magazine, a trade magazine of the theatre industry back somewhere in the mid 90’s. It was part of a series of stories they used to do featuring independant exhibitors. At the time I thought it was cool that someone had transformed a closed theatre into a nice business. Apparently it didn’t last.
Are you still in the area? The pictures are before the digital camera age, so you would need to copy the pictures themselves if you wanted them. We could meet up sometime if you’re in the area, or I can send you pictures if you’re not. I have pictures of the auditorium, lobby, office, projection booth, exterior, Most are from 1995ish, however I also have some older ones, probably from the 70’s and I think I have an older one with a big marquee possibly. I wish I would have saved some seats, quite honestly at the time, I never wanted to see them again, but now of couse I would like them. Same thing with the Viking theatre in Appleton, I did have 10 seats from there, but got tired of moving them around and eventually got rid of them. In fact 3 of them went down with the Neenah theatre, because I had them in my office there. Let me know if you’re interested in pictures.
I don’t have the picture anymore. There was a reason it was kept in a DARK auditorium…I do have the ushers stand. The papermaker carvings were taken out before demolition. I think they were headed to the paper hall of fame or something? Other than a nice piece of history, those seats were in pretty bad condition, love seats are cool though. I do have some pictures of the theatre, let me know if you’d like to copy them.
Its a nice thought, but donations wouldn’t work. You can’t pay for the film, pay heat, air conditioning, phone, accounting, concessions, janitor, employees, cost of goods, advertising, insurance, the list could go on, etc… Those companies won’t take donations… Its hard for some theatres to make it with paying customers, much less relying on a donation.
I managed the Neenah Theatre from 1994 till it closed in 1997. This was a Marcus Theatre. For years it had been operated as a 2nd run theatre. In its final years, it was very popular. It wouldn’t be unusual to have 200-300 people each friday and saturday. Remember the lighted picture that hung in the back of the auditorium? I remember when the theatre played The Lion King for 6 weeks, it was incredibly busy. I remember selling $6000 worth of concessions thru that tiny vending stand in a single week. That movie sold out several times, over 600 seats and even filled the balcony. However when Marcus built the Hollywood Cinema in Appleton, the Valley Fair Cinema was turned into a 2nd run theatre and took away a lot of the Neenah Theatres business, and it was closed. The property was sold to Future Neenah Inc. which said it wanted to save it for use as a “civic auditorium”. In my opinion, they didn’t try very hard to save the theatre, they spend little more than a year trying to garner interest in their project. Then they abandoned their project in favor of tearing the theatre down and building a third office tower on the site. The theatre was in nice condition, and could have continued to operate successfully with the right people.
This theatre was built in 1996 as an 8 screen complex. Half of the theatres were regular seating, the other theatres were stadium seating, new at the time. Since that time, all of the theatres have been made into stadium theatres, as well as 2 expansions, which make this a 14 screen complex. The latest addition includes an “ultrascreen”, the screen is 70 feet long, nice room to see a movie in.
The theatre was originally built as 3 screens. One of those original screens was carved into two, and two additional screens were added later, making a total of 6. Theatres 1&2 are center aisle theatres and not very nice. Theatres 3 & 4 are nice sized houses, and theatres 5 & 6 which were the add-ons are also nice screens. The theatre operated as Marcus' premier theatre in the area, before the Hollywood Cinema was built in 1996, when the Valley Fair Cinema became the Valley Value Cinema. The theatre has operated successfully as a 2nd run theatre. The mall that this theatre used to be attached to has now been torn down. This is now a free-standing building, waiting for development around it.
This theatre operated as a 2nd run theatre in its final years. It was closed by the Marcus Corp in Oct, 1991. A local childrens theatre used the building for a few years, it has sat vacant for a long time. It lacks anything art deco, basically just a big box. The 2nd screen was located upstairs in the former balcony. As previously stated above, a group is looking to convert this space into a live show house.
I was working for Marcus at the time. I would say the theatre closed in the late 90’s, perhaps 1997. In the last 10 years of operation, the theatre did very poorly. In the end it screened more of the art/independant films, or other films that weren’t expected to do business. The theatre was very nice, with one very nice sized auditorium. However, it lacked customers. With the coming of Regal cinemas to town, the Hollywood expanded to 11 screens at the time, and the Marc finally closed. The building sat vacant(actually it was a warehouse for old theatre junk) for a few years before being converted to a banquet hall.
I started working at the Viking Theatre in 1991. The theatre closed March 22, 1992. It hadn’t shown a first run movie since 1977. It showed 2nd run films for years, and at its end did not do well. The state of downtown Appleton at the time it closed was not very good. The multiple basements and office space left much to be explored while the films were running. Interestingly enough, you could not enter the projection booth from the theatre itself, you had to exit the theatre and enter a door to the right of the main entrance, this also gave access to the offices upstairs, and the multiple basements below. It sat empty for at least a year, before Route 66 renovated the space for a niteclub.