According to this article, the Cottage View Drive-in will close at the end of the 2012 season as the owner is declining to make the upgrade to digital projection: View link
According to this article, the theater is defintely going to close in September, 2012, at least partially due to AMC’s unwillingness to upgrade the projection to digital (though it is easy understand why, if the lease is not going to be renewed)
View link
There is an extensive gallery of photos of the restored theater here and here is a link to the Music Hall’s page at Roland Lataille’s Cinerama history site which has a considerable amount of detail about the Music Hall’s days as a Cinerama house and much memorabilia.
On Roland Lataille’s page, there is this note: “Special B prints used with 2X magnetic strips for sound.” This implies that there was some stereo effect possible, but apparently the special Cinerama sound processor was not used.
I think I remember reading somewhere that the three mobile-home like booths were each mounted on a lift mechanism that would elevate them to the appropriate height for head-on projection.
Roland Lataille’s page for this this theater confirms that a flat screen was installed and that the deeply-curved Cinerama strip screen removed, but no date is given. My guess it was sometime after the run of “2001” which ended in the fall of 1970 (which was the last Cinerama film of any kind to play at the Warner Hollywood) and probably not later than the triplexing of the theater in 1978.
BigJoe59, let me refer you to this excellent resource compiled by Michael Coate and William Kallay; it is a comprehensive listing of 70mm films exhibited in Los Angeles from 1955 through 2012. It does not include three-panel Cinerama showings (see the resource I cited in my 08-14-2012 comment for those) or reserved-seat 35mm roadshow engagements (except when a 70mm engagement could not be verified), but it will give you additional information regarding theaters in L.A. that had roadshow engagements over the last sixty years or so. There is a similar database for Orange County.
From the cited article: “An earlier renovation of the Allen in the 1990s by Playhouse Square preserved much of Crane’s design, but the organization decided this time around to sacrifice historic flavor in order to serve up the functionality desired by the Play House and CSU.
Bottom line: The new high-tech look at the Allen, which allows the original architecture to peek through here and there, was a fair price to pay for a theater that now works so well."
Appalling! Fortunately, from what I can see, much of the original look can be restored (which I hope it will be after a few money-losing seasons of the Cleveland Playhouse proves what boondoogle this was. I have lost all respect for the Playhouse Square Association.
Looking at the third picture in the set, it appears that the building that once housed the Centre Theatre is the one with olive-colored upper two stories to the right of the building on the corner in the Google street view picture above. It is a Salvation Army Services Center.
The reasons for the nonavailability of exhibition rights to “Porgy and Bess” are somewhat complex, but the crux of the matter is that exhibition rights to the film are now very strictly controlled by the Gershwin and Heyward estates; producer Samuel Goldwyn lost the rights he purchased to make the film in 1972, and prints of the film, even in 35mm, are very hard to secure. My guess is that someone at AFI jumped the gun and announced the showing before the exhibition agreement was finalized.
I have read that the Gershwin and Heyward estates make showing the film very difficult, in terms of both access to surviving prints and costs The film had a very troubled production history (you can read about this at both the IMDb and at its entry at Wikipedia). Both estates were (and apparently still are) very unhappy with film as was the distributor (Columbia); the film flopped badly when released. There was a showing some years ago at the Ziegfeld in NYC, but I would say if you ever see the film again theatrically, it will be under some very unusual circumstances.
Here are two additional pictures that show the Classic in Owen sound. Based on the daytime view, I would have to agree that the Classic opened well prior to 1935. The information accompanying the photos indicates that the Classic was located on 2nd Ave. near Eighth St.
I will add the Centre as I have found a some photos of that theatre as well; the information on those indicates that it also was on 2nd Ave but near Tenth St.
The Crowsnest Pub burned down in 2010, apparently destroying any traces of the former part of the building that housed the theatre. The rebuilt structure now on the site looks substantially different than the former structure.
A picture can be seen here.
A picture of the main entry can be seen here.
The pressure by the studios to force theaters to convert to digital projection may be placing this theater’s future in jeopardy: View article
According to this article, the Cottage View Drive-in will close at the end of the 2012 season as the owner is declining to make the upgrade to digital projection: View link
According to this article, the theater is defintely going to close in September, 2012, at least partially due to AMC’s unwillingness to upgrade the projection to digital (though it is easy understand why, if the lease is not going to be renewed) View link
There is an extensive gallery of photos of the restored theater here and here is a link to the Music Hall’s page at Roland Lataille’s Cinerama history site which has a considerable amount of detail about the Music Hall’s days as a Cinerama house and much memorabilia.
On Roland Lataille’s page, there is this note: “Special B prints used with 2X magnetic strips for sound.” This implies that there was some stereo effect possible, but apparently the special Cinerama sound processor was not used.
I think I remember reading somewhere that the three mobile-home like booths were each mounted on a lift mechanism that would elevate them to the appropriate height for head-on projection.
This theater has added a second screen: View article
Roland Lataille’s page for this this theater confirms that a flat screen was installed and that the deeply-curved Cinerama strip screen removed, but no date is given. My guess it was sometime after the run of “2001” which ended in the fall of 1970 (which was the last Cinerama film of any kind to play at the Warner Hollywood) and probably not later than the triplexing of the theater in 1978.
Not so beautiful: undated photo from the Milwaukee Public Library, but probably taken after final closing: View link
There is a picture of the entrance to the Northfield Star Drive-in on this webpage; scroll down about two-thirds of the way to see it.
Here is an article about the 2009 sale of the property which includes a picture of the theater which will enlarge if clicked upon.
BigJoe59, let me refer you to this excellent resource compiled by Michael Coate and William Kallay; it is a comprehensive listing of 70mm films exhibited in Los Angeles from 1955 through 2012. It does not include three-panel Cinerama showings (see the resource I cited in my 08-14-2012 comment for those) or reserved-seat 35mm roadshow engagements (except when a 70mm engagement could not be verified), but it will give you additional information regarding theaters in L.A. that had roadshow engagements over the last sixty years or so. There is a similar database for Orange County.
The City of Aurora is soliciting citizen input about what should be done with regard to this theater: View link
From the cited article: “An earlier renovation of the Allen in the 1990s by Playhouse Square preserved much of Crane’s design, but the organization decided this time around to sacrifice historic flavor in order to serve up the functionality desired by the Play House and CSU.
Bottom line: The new high-tech look at the Allen, which allows the original architecture to peek through here and there, was a fair price to pay for a theater that now works so well."
Appalling! Fortunately, from what I can see, much of the original look can be restored (which I hope it will be after a few money-losing seasons of the Cleveland Playhouse proves what boondoogle this was. I have lost all respect for the Playhouse Square Association.
The former Tyseley Cinemas in its current use as car parts company (click on Street View to see a larger picture): View link
It is too bad that so much of the cinema’s once classic entry has been lost.
Exterior views of the theater can be seen here.
This page from the Buxton Opera House site, shows the interior of what was formerly the Playhouse.
The theater was showing X-rated fare as of 1985 and was targeted for closure by an area church: View article
Looking at the third picture in the set, it appears that the building that once housed the Centre Theatre is the one with olive-colored upper two stories to the right of the building on the corner in the Google street view picture above. It is a Salvation Army Services Center.
Here can be seen a contemporary view of the building as well as some interior photos.
A picture from 2001 can be seen here.
The reasons for the nonavailability of exhibition rights to “Porgy and Bess” are somewhat complex, but the crux of the matter is that exhibition rights to the film are now very strictly controlled by the Gershwin and Heyward estates; producer Samuel Goldwyn lost the rights he purchased to make the film in 1972, and prints of the film, even in 35mm, are very hard to secure. My guess is that someone at AFI jumped the gun and announced the showing before the exhibition agreement was finalized.
I have read that the Gershwin and Heyward estates make showing the film very difficult, in terms of both access to surviving prints and costs The film had a very troubled production history (you can read about this at both the IMDb and at its entry at Wikipedia). Both estates were (and apparently still are) very unhappy with film as was the distributor (Columbia); the film flopped badly when released. There was a showing some years ago at the Ziegfeld in NYC, but I would say if you ever see the film again theatrically, it will be under some very unusual circumstances.
Here are two additional pictures that show the Classic in Owen sound. Based on the daytime view, I would have to agree that the Classic opened well prior to 1935. The information accompanying the photos indicates that the Classic was located on 2nd Ave. near Eighth St.
I will add the Centre as I have found a some photos of that theatre as well; the information on those indicates that it also was on 2nd Ave but near Tenth St.
The Crowsnest Pub burned down in 2010, apparently destroying any traces of the former part of the building that housed the theatre. The rebuilt structure now on the site looks substantially different than the former structure.