The Broadmoor Little Theatre-this theatre’s official name dating back to the resort and theatre’s 1918 opening-is NOT closed. I cannot say it never has been (in reference to the closed in 2001 statement) but as of right now, it is alive and well screening second run and classic films (free admission) for hotel guests and members as well as being used for occasional live events.
It is listed in the FDY of 1928 as seating 300. In the mid to late 1990s, the booth equipment was “upgraded” and the pair of Simplex E7 projectors (with carbon arc lamphouses) that were being torn out and disposed of ended up being donated to The Rialto Theatre in Loveland. They sat dormant there for a few years up in the booth while the Rialto Theatre Guild raised funds for their restoration. Once these funds were raised, the carbon arc lamp houses and original pedestals were replaced with 2 fairly modern consoles which the original magazines/projector heads/sound heads were attached to. These were still in the Rialto booth as of 2012 and I’d be a bit surprised if they were not still. I ran and maintained these machines at the Rialto for many years. Some interesting trivia that any other former operators reading this will find interesting is that the upper magazines had BOTH common reel end alarms installed and active-both the centrifugal alarms at the end of the shaft that once the upper reel started spinning at a certain speed, it would sound three “dings” in rapid succession as well as the older one in which an arm rode along the top of the film on the reel and once the remaining film ran down to a certain point, the arm would drop and ring a bell on the outside of the magazine giving of one loud “plink”.
Anyway, (back to the Broadmore Little Theatre) I am almost positive that these machines were replaced with modern 35mm gear and I seem to remember a friend of mine from Tankersley Enterprises commenting about the projectionist being a very elderly man who’d been the Broadmoor projectionist for decades and that the booth was one that was tricky to access (only by ladder) but these last two tidbits may be wrong.
Also, what is the sources for information that leads CC44 to believe that it was operated by Westland and the United Artists (or any circuit/commercial operator,for that matter)? I don’t have a lot of history on this theatre to really debate this statement however it seems odd to me that the hotel would outsource the operation of one of their resort amenities and I truly can’t see how the operation of a 300 seat, single screen theatre within the main hotel building of a luxury resort (that exists in a city that has been filled with every variety of motion picture theatre imaginable since the turn of the last century) would be of any interest to any for-profit operator. Additionally, I can’t imagine any 5-star resort permitting, let alone encouraging, the general public to come to their establishment on a regular basis simply to attend a movie, nor can I imagine the public wishing to forgo all other local theatres and trek out to the resort to watch an ordinary film. Again, I have no facts to back my sentiments up; all I know on this end is that the theatre has, throughout time, opened the theatre up to the general public for a number of specific special events/shows and I also know that their website currently states: “Movies are shown in the Little Theatre. All movies are subject to change.
Movies are complimentary for Guests & Members.
Matinee Showings are 12:00pm on Saturdays & 2:00pm on Sundays.”
Does this mean that non members/guests are permitted (perhaps with paid admission)? Have regular film screenings historically been for guests/members only? This I don’t know. Assuming, however, that the general public has never been welcome to such screenings and that they have always extended these free screenings to guests, (which wouldn’t surprise me in the least), this almost certainly would make such a venue out of consideration for any commercial operator.i also would be curious to know where the stated 1960 opening year came from as the theatre was opened with the hotel in 1918.
Is there any chance that there was another regular theatre in the city called The Broadmoor?
I hope someone comes forward with some solid facts as this is an extremely interesting theatre in a number of different ways.
I only live about 2 ½ hours from the Broadmoor and certainly will try to get in there to take some photos and perhaps even gather some history, if I can locate a knowledgable source. With that said, my list of research projects is miles long, not to mention the endless amount of “things to do” in my real life/career so I can’t say how quickly I can get to this.
All rambling/guessing/reminiscing aside, here is a summary of the facts I know:
As of December 2015, this theatre is Open showing second run and classic films as well as being used for live theater/events. Status should be changed accordingly.
The theatre has existed since the resort opened in 1918-42 years prior to the 1960 opening year currently given.
Booth once contained 2 Simplex E7 projectors with 2k magazines and carbon arc lamphouses. They were retired in the mid to late 1990s at which point they were donated to the Rialto Theatre in Loveland, Co which put them back into service around 2001 and where as of 2012, they are still installed.
Anthony L. Vazquez-Hernandez on December 5, 2015 at 5:35 pm (remove)
The Film Daily Yearbook of 1928 lists both the Jazz (seating 498) and the Zazza-Jazz (no seating count listed). With that said, both these individual listings share the identical address of 1751 Larimer St.
Like Joe, I too have read and am familiar with “Denver’s Old Theatre Row: The Story of Curtis Street and its Glamorous Show Business”(well written book filled with awesome pictures and great for reference-a must have if you find a copy) and if memory serves, I would agree that these were recounted as separate theatres and the FDY listing I mentioned makes one wonder if the mistake was them being listed as two venues or if it was in the same address being listed for both of these individual houses; it appears fairly clear there was a mistake of some sort. I suppose it may be worth entertaining the idea, however, that perhaps 1751 Larimer was an extremely large building, possibly consuming the entire block, which had two theatres under one roof.
We all know the FDY, while a godsend to us historians, was often plagued with misprints and erroneous information. I have yet to find any such issues with “Denver’s Old Theatre Row” however one must kee in mind that A. Me. Johnson was, like the editors of FDY, only human (an elderly on as well at the time he wrote it) and possibly made a mistake or two himself and/or had a slip of memmory B. A common handicap it dared with the FDY was that it too was published nearly 40 years ago; long before Internet/free calling/email and other such modern accoutrements that make research today more accurate/easy and C. The history contained in this book is from the 1880s-mid 1920s- there are not many human beings from the latest er even alive anymore, let alone anyone who was an adult at the time so an error would be much less noticeable/much harder to find the true fact than one found in, let’s say, a 1945 FDY issue.
Hopefully someone can set this right before much more time slips by.
This would certainly lead one to believe that the Colorado and the New were 2 separate theatres however, the only 2 listings in the 1951 addition do make things sort of confusing:
Glen listed as seating 470
Colorado as seating 290
Canyon Drive-In (listed in the DI section)
The Colorado has a much smaller capacity than the 500 listed in ‘40, although one that more closely matches the 300 the New was listed as holding. Also, it’s no longer listed as closed.
Of course, it’s also hard to miss the 110 seat increase in the Glen which was the exact same theatre as the Orpheum of '40 but wonky seating counts seemed to be a common occurrence in the FDY.
Status should be changed to DEMOLISHED. Yes, completely wiped off the map in fall of 2013 for the construction of a hiddeous box that serves as a movie and live theatre owned by the Twin Valley Players.
It’s funny how so many of these “renovation” and sometimes even “Restoration” projects become “scrape/new construction” projects due to “structural concerns” once the said group had already milked every possible donation and grant out of the community they victimized.
Wonder how the Troutman family feels about their decision to donate grandma' s old theatre to these clowns?
Closed in 2005. Was Kitty’s South as of 1985, according to the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-1986
Kitty’s South should be added to the list of previous names
Was operating as: Kitty’s Cine Art as per of the Kitty’s chain
in 1985, according to the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-1986. This should be added to previous names
I know I’d sure love to see it, DAK. I’m guessing a good number of other folks would too!
I think whenever anyone has any sort of relic from a theatre, detailed photos or scans should ALWAYS be uploaded. I see CT as sort of a virtual museum/archive and it’s so important everyone contribute everything they can. It would be fabulous if one day, every theatre that ever existed had a listing here and every known fact and personal memory was recorded in the comments or description,every existing photo uploaded to the photos section and every surviving document/relic scanned/photographed in detail and then uploaded to photos.
I think quite a few people think that the photo section is simply for photos of the building itself and that’s absolutely not the case.
I just posted scans of a ticket (front and back) I own for the Silver.
It’s really sad how many theatres have rapidly faded away into nothing but foggy memories. I’ve run across more locations than I can count where not even the local museum was aware it ever existed and the only known vestige of its life is a painfully vague listing in Film Daily Yearbook. I always wonder if somewhere there is a photograph in a family album, a stack of show calendars buried in some grandma’s basement or even some lonely, elderly person who once owned/managed/worked at/patronized any given theatre with vivid memories of the theatre in question; this elder may be the last (or one of the last) living ties to the place and growing dangerously closer to death each day-not only of them as a person but of their unique and priceless memories as well should they go unrecorded (which is all too often the case).
I’d even bet that in many cases (particularly in small, isolated communities), the theatres themselves may still stand but for nobody to recognize as their theatrical days ended too long ago for any living person to recal and no existing record of its former function.
Our theatres and drive-ins are just too important to our history for us to allow them to vanish. These venues were so much to the communities they served.
It will take all of us to bring whatever shred of the past we may have or know of to the table here to ensure this not happen.
Digital projection (a BARCO DP4K-32B) was installed on April 14th, 2015 and ran its inaugural digital program on opening night for the 2015 season on Friday, April 24th, 2015 showing a triple feature of “Home”, “Furious 7” and “The Longest Ride”. The conversion was handled by Strong of Omaha. The majority of the left 35mm projector (two projector booth) was removed to make way for the digital and moved down for use as a display in the snackbar. The projector head/soundhead from the retired left unit was put into storage in the booth as a parts unit and an (identical) Simplex XL projector head/soundhead from The Cinderella Twin Drive-In Theatre-Englewood,Colorado (formerly kept in the booth for parts) was mounted on the lobby display base/lamphouse. The remaining right projector was completely refurbished by longtime Colorado theatre tech Jimmy Seay and integrated with the new sound system and automation for screenings of classics or any other 35mm material possible making the theatre both 35mm and digital compatible. The 35mm equipment is Simplex XL projector head & Simplex sound head, Strong X-60 C lamphouse, Strong rectifier, Centry base and SPECO LO-270 platters. The left machine (that was removed) was identical.
Just to clarify, I just did some research (didn’t take me long on Google) and to clarify, the street this theatre sat on was originally called State Road 82 which was later renamed Anderson Avenue and in 01/15/1991, Anderson Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard. I though this important to note here as I was initially quite confused given the fact that the listing here has the theatre on MLK, all the other old ads on here mention State Road 82 and my old herald I just posted has it on Anderson. All the same theatre and location-just a much-renamed road.
I’m standing with John Templeton in the booth of Chem-140 on the CU Boulder campus right now (Mr. Templeton’s current venue) reading the comments and he says that sure looks like the North Star he ran (off and on from ‘73-'84-when the Norelcos were replaced with a pair of Simplex 35s from some theatre in Greeley and installed by him and Jimmy Seay) and while that is North Star Booth that is NOT John in the picture but John thinks it’s Art Lane in the picture in the link. Those were NOT the DP70s but the AA2 Norelcos with the Strong Jetarc Lamphouses. There was a third machine on the right (not pictured was a Simplex XL with a high speed intermittent and a Strong Constellation 170 lamp that was used to start the show early with cartoons and trailers).The Norelcos were split up after their removal from the North Star-one went to The Arvada Plaza 6 (west of 80th and Wadsworth) and he believes the other went to a 6-plex southeast of Denver (the name escapes him presently). He says that the Jetarcs had many issues and frequently went down.
Much of this comment was per his dictation. Mr. Templeton is, in himself, a “Cinema Treasure” as he has been a union operator since 1974, working most theatres that existed in the Denver and Boulder Metro Area in his career. I’m proud to call him my second dad and have encouraged him to get on this site and contribute his many memories.
I was told today by a longtime local tech that this theatre was NEVER a Wolfberg/Compass and my source that thought it was isn’t too sure. I cannot find anything indicating it was one of theirs with the exception of some other CT comments and a few other iffy mentions in the Internet. further info on this would be great.
The Broadmoor Little Theatre-this theatre’s official name dating back to the resort and theatre’s 1918 opening-is NOT closed. I cannot say it never has been (in reference to the closed in 2001 statement) but as of right now, it is alive and well screening second run and classic films (free admission) for hotel guests and members as well as being used for occasional live events. It is listed in the FDY of 1928 as seating 300. In the mid to late 1990s, the booth equipment was “upgraded” and the pair of Simplex E7 projectors (with carbon arc lamphouses) that were being torn out and disposed of ended up being donated to The Rialto Theatre in Loveland. They sat dormant there for a few years up in the booth while the Rialto Theatre Guild raised funds for their restoration. Once these funds were raised, the carbon arc lamp houses and original pedestals were replaced with 2 fairly modern consoles which the original magazines/projector heads/sound heads were attached to. These were still in the Rialto booth as of 2012 and I’d be a bit surprised if they were not still. I ran and maintained these machines at the Rialto for many years. Some interesting trivia that any other former operators reading this will find interesting is that the upper magazines had BOTH common reel end alarms installed and active-both the centrifugal alarms at the end of the shaft that once the upper reel started spinning at a certain speed, it would sound three “dings” in rapid succession as well as the older one in which an arm rode along the top of the film on the reel and once the remaining film ran down to a certain point, the arm would drop and ring a bell on the outside of the magazine giving of one loud “plink”. Anyway, (back to the Broadmore Little Theatre) I am almost positive that these machines were replaced with modern 35mm gear and I seem to remember a friend of mine from Tankersley Enterprises commenting about the projectionist being a very elderly man who’d been the Broadmoor projectionist for decades and that the booth was one that was tricky to access (only by ladder) but these last two tidbits may be wrong. Also, what is the sources for information that leads CC44 to believe that it was operated by Westland and the United Artists (or any circuit/commercial operator,for that matter)? I don’t have a lot of history on this theatre to really debate this statement however it seems odd to me that the hotel would outsource the operation of one of their resort amenities and I truly can’t see how the operation of a 300 seat, single screen theatre within the main hotel building of a luxury resort (that exists in a city that has been filled with every variety of motion picture theatre imaginable since the turn of the last century) would be of any interest to any for-profit operator. Additionally, I can’t imagine any 5-star resort permitting, let alone encouraging, the general public to come to their establishment on a regular basis simply to attend a movie, nor can I imagine the public wishing to forgo all other local theatres and trek out to the resort to watch an ordinary film. Again, I have no facts to back my sentiments up; all I know on this end is that the theatre has, throughout time, opened the theatre up to the general public for a number of specific special events/shows and I also know that their website currently states: “Movies are shown in the Little Theatre. All movies are subject to change. Movies are complimentary for Guests & Members. Matinee Showings are 12:00pm on Saturdays & 2:00pm on Sundays.”
Does this mean that non members/guests are permitted (perhaps with paid admission)? Have regular film screenings historically been for guests/members only? This I don’t know. Assuming, however, that the general public has never been welcome to such screenings and that they have always extended these free screenings to guests, (which wouldn’t surprise me in the least), this almost certainly would make such a venue out of consideration for any commercial operator.i also would be curious to know where the stated 1960 opening year came from as the theatre was opened with the hotel in 1918.
Is there any chance that there was another regular theatre in the city called The Broadmoor?
I hope someone comes forward with some solid facts as this is an extremely interesting theatre in a number of different ways.
I only live about 2 ½ hours from the Broadmoor and certainly will try to get in there to take some photos and perhaps even gather some history, if I can locate a knowledgable source. With that said, my list of research projects is miles long, not to mention the endless amount of “things to do” in my real life/career so I can’t say how quickly I can get to this.
All rambling/guessing/reminiscing aside, here is a summary of the facts I know:
As of December 2015, this theatre is Open showing second run and classic films as well as being used for live theater/events. Status should be changed accordingly.
The theatre has existed since the resort opened in 1918-42 years prior to the 1960 opening year currently given.
Booth once contained 2 Simplex E7 projectors with 2k magazines and carbon arc lamphouses. They were retired in the mid to late 1990s at which point they were donated to the Rialto Theatre in Loveland, Co which put them back into service around 2001 and where as of 2012, they are still installed.
Opened July 26th, 1967. Operated by General Cinema Theatres until being sold to Mann on June 22nd, 1984.
Listed in the FDY of 1928 without seating count
Anthony L. Vazquez-Hernandez on December 5, 2015 at 5:35 pm (remove) The Film Daily Yearbook of 1928 lists both the Jazz (seating 498) and the Zazza-Jazz (no seating count listed). With that said, both these individual listings share the identical address of 1751 Larimer St.
Like Joe, I too have read and am familiar with “Denver’s Old Theatre Row: The Story of Curtis Street and its Glamorous Show Business”(well written book filled with awesome pictures and great for reference-a must have if you find a copy) and if memory serves, I would agree that these were recounted as separate theatres and the FDY listing I mentioned makes one wonder if the mistake was them being listed as two venues or if it was in the same address being listed for both of these individual houses; it appears fairly clear there was a mistake of some sort. I suppose it may be worth entertaining the idea, however, that perhaps 1751 Larimer was an extremely large building, possibly consuming the entire block, which had two theatres under one roof.
We all know the FDY, while a godsend to us historians, was often plagued with misprints and erroneous information. I have yet to find any such issues with “Denver’s Old Theatre Row” however one must kee in mind that A. Me. Johnson was, like the editors of FDY, only human (an elderly on as well at the time he wrote it) and possibly made a mistake or two himself and/or had a slip of memmory B. A common handicap it dared with the FDY was that it too was published nearly 40 years ago; long before Internet/free calling/email and other such modern accoutrements that make research today more accurate/easy and C. The history contained in this book is from the 1880s-mid 1920s- there are not many human beings from the latest er even alive anymore, let alone anyone who was an adult at the time so an error would be much less noticeable/much harder to find the true fact than one found in, let’s say, a 1945 FDY issue.
Hopefully someone can set this right before much more time slips by.
Still listed as open/seating 450 in 1928
Listed in the FDY of 1928 without seating count
There are 3 listings in the FDY of 1940
The Colorado listed as seating 500 and closed
The Orpheum (Glen) listed as seating 360
The New as seating 300
This would certainly lead one to believe that the Colorado and the New were 2 separate theatres however, the only 2 listings in the 1951 addition do make things sort of confusing:
Glen listed as seating 470
Colorado as seating 290
Canyon Drive-In (listed in the DI section)
The Colorado has a much smaller capacity than the 500 listed in ‘40, although one that more closely matches the 300 the New was listed as holding. Also, it’s no longer listed as closed. Of course, it’s also hard to miss the 110 seat increase in the Glen which was the exact same theatre as the Orpheum of '40 but wonky seating counts seemed to be a common occurrence in the FDY.
Any clarification would be most helpful.
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook of 1942 as seating 650
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook of 1942 as seating 600
Status should be changed to DEMOLISHED. Yes, completely wiped off the map in fall of 2013 for the construction of a hiddeous box that serves as a movie and live theatre owned by the Twin Valley Players. It’s funny how so many of these “renovation” and sometimes even “Restoration” projects become “scrape/new construction” projects due to “structural concerns” once the said group had already milked every possible donation and grant out of the community they victimized.
Wonder how the Troutman family feels about their decision to donate grandma' s old theatre to these clowns?
Listed in the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-86 as being part of the Theatre Operators, Inc circuit of Bozeman, MT
A projector from the Echo that now lives at the local museum
Arlen Gupton listed as the owner/operator in the 1985-86 Theatre Trade Directory
Closed in 2005. Was Kitty’s South as of 1985, according to the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-1986 Kitty’s South should be added to the list of previous names
Was operating as: Kitty’s Cine Art as per of the Kitty’s chain in 1985, according to the Theatre Trade Directory of 1985-1986. This should be added to previous names
I know I’d sure love to see it, DAK. I’m guessing a good number of other folks would too!
I think whenever anyone has any sort of relic from a theatre, detailed photos or scans should ALWAYS be uploaded. I see CT as sort of a virtual museum/archive and it’s so important everyone contribute everything they can. It would be fabulous if one day, every theatre that ever existed had a listing here and every known fact and personal memory was recorded in the comments or description,every existing photo uploaded to the photos section and every surviving document/relic scanned/photographed in detail and then uploaded to photos. I think quite a few people think that the photo section is simply for photos of the building itself and that’s absolutely not the case. I just posted scans of a ticket (front and back) I own for the Silver. It’s really sad how many theatres have rapidly faded away into nothing but foggy memories. I’ve run across more locations than I can count where not even the local museum was aware it ever existed and the only known vestige of its life is a painfully vague listing in Film Daily Yearbook. I always wonder if somewhere there is a photograph in a family album, a stack of show calendars buried in some grandma’s basement or even some lonely, elderly person who once owned/managed/worked at/patronized any given theatre with vivid memories of the theatre in question; this elder may be the last (or one of the last) living ties to the place and growing dangerously closer to death each day-not only of them as a person but of their unique and priceless memories as well should they go unrecorded (which is all too often the case). I’d even bet that in many cases (particularly in small, isolated communities), the theatres themselves may still stand but for nobody to recognize as their theatrical days ended too long ago for any living person to recal and no existing record of its former function. Our theatres and drive-ins are just too important to our history for us to allow them to vanish. These venues were so much to the communities they served. It will take all of us to bring whatever shred of the past we may have or know of to the table here to ensure this not happen.
Herald for the Parkway with listing for the Roseland on the back
Herald for the Parkway with listing for the Roseland on the back
Marsch Theatres should be added to the list of previous operators
Tal’s Midland Theatre should be added as a previous name
Digital projection (a BARCO DP4K-32B) was installed on April 14th, 2015 and ran its inaugural digital program on opening night for the 2015 season on Friday, April 24th, 2015 showing a triple feature of “Home”, “Furious 7” and “The Longest Ride”. The conversion was handled by Strong of Omaha. The majority of the left 35mm projector (two projector booth) was removed to make way for the digital and moved down for use as a display in the snackbar. The projector head/soundhead from the retired left unit was put into storage in the booth as a parts unit and an (identical) Simplex XL projector head/soundhead from The Cinderella Twin Drive-In Theatre-Englewood,Colorado (formerly kept in the booth for parts) was mounted on the lobby display base/lamphouse. The remaining right projector was completely refurbished by longtime Colorado theatre tech Jimmy Seay and integrated with the new sound system and automation for screenings of classics or any other 35mm material possible making the theatre both 35mm and digital compatible. The 35mm equipment is Simplex XL projector head & Simplex sound head, Strong X-60 C lamphouse, Strong rectifier, Centry base and SPECO LO-270 platters. The left machine (that was removed) was identical.
Just to clarify, I just did some research (didn’t take me long on Google) and to clarify, the street this theatre sat on was originally called State Road 82 which was later renamed Anderson Avenue and in 01/15/1991, Anderson Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard. I though this important to note here as I was initially quite confused given the fact that the listing here has the theatre on MLK, all the other old ads on here mention State Road 82 and my old herald I just posted has it on Anderson. All the same theatre and location-just a much-renamed road.
I’m standing with John Templeton in the booth of Chem-140 on the CU Boulder campus right now (Mr. Templeton’s current venue) reading the comments and he says that sure looks like the North Star he ran (off and on from ‘73-'84-when the Norelcos were replaced with a pair of Simplex 35s from some theatre in Greeley and installed by him and Jimmy Seay) and while that is North Star Booth that is NOT John in the picture but John thinks it’s Art Lane in the picture in the link. Those were NOT the DP70s but the AA2 Norelcos with the Strong Jetarc Lamphouses. There was a third machine on the right (not pictured was a Simplex XL with a high speed intermittent and a Strong Constellation 170 lamp that was used to start the show early with cartoons and trailers).The Norelcos were split up after their removal from the North Star-one went to The Arvada Plaza 6 (west of 80th and Wadsworth) and he believes the other went to a 6-plex southeast of Denver (the name escapes him presently). He says that the Jetarcs had many issues and frequently went down. Much of this comment was per his dictation. Mr. Templeton is, in himself, a “Cinema Treasure” as he has been a union operator since 1974, working most theatres that existed in the Denver and Boulder Metro Area in his career. I’m proud to call him my second dad and have encouraged him to get on this site and contribute his many memories.
I’m pretty sure it is a twin, trolleyguy. See the Boxoffoce Magazine article o posted about its twinning in the photos section.
It was also part of the Evergreen Theatres chain and this should be added to the list of past operators.
I was told today by a longtime local tech that this theatre was NEVER a Wolfberg/Compass and my source that thought it was isn’t too sure. I cannot find anything indicating it was one of theirs with the exception of some other CT comments and a few other iffy mentions in the Internet. further info on this would be great.