The picture on top is indeed the seattle Cinerama. It has been remodeled again since the picture was taken. If the screening of 2001 that you saw was about 3 years ago, it would have been Paul Allen’s own personal 70mm print (newly struck from the negative) for this screening. If you saw it on a Saturday night, I would have been the projectionist who ran it. When running film (rare these days but it does happen) the Cinerama is a 2 projector manual changeover booth with Kinotone 35/70 machines. Theatre now has Dolby Atmos sound and 6K digital laser projection as well.
At the time of closure the Aurora DI was equipped with Brenkert BX-80 projectors, RCA 9030 soundheads, ORC 4,000 Watt Xenon lamps and it was a manually operated changeover booth. No automation ever installed. It still had in car speakers, radio sound was never installed. There had been homes built right up to the property line in the years since the Aurora opened, when the last show of the night started the field attendants had to run around the field turning down speakers where cars had left. The neighbors would be calling the police with noise complaints otherwise.
The McCeachern Auditorium located within the Museum of History and Industry has closed. The Museum has moved to a new location in Seattle and their former home will soon become a freeway.
In reference to markinthedark’s question, AMC left all booth equipment in place. The theatre had been on life support (very poor business) for some time before AMC closed it, everything throughout the theatre was in pretty rough shape. SIFF has retained 35mm capability in all 3 houses and has also installed digital on all screens and installed a second 35/70 Century projector in Booth 1 to give us 2 projector changeover capability in the large house. The smaller houses have single projectors w/platters. I work for SIFF as a projectionist.
I am biased (I work here as projectionist) but the SIFF Film Center is quite possibly the nicest small auditorium in the City. Good sightlines, wall to wall screen, stadium seating. The booth is equipped for:
16mm: Eiki model EX9120M with 1200 Watt Xenon lamp
35mm: 2,000 foot reel manual changeover booth with a pair of Century model MSA projectors w/Century analog soundheads and Dolby Digital soundheads, 2,000 Watt Strong Super Lume-X Xenon lamphouses
2K digital projection: Barco model DP2K20C digital projector w/Dolby model DSS 200 server.
Audio processor is a Datasat AP20, crossover is a QSC DCM 30D, amps are all QSC, speakers are all JBL. Dolby 7.1 sound.
I worked here a few times as a fill in projectionist in the early 1980’s. I was the relief projectionist at GCC’s King Cinema located directly across 6th Avenue from the UA. I happened to walk by the site in the early evening on the day they demolished the building. The pile of rubble had that famous “Old Movie Theatre Smell”.
I was in the Woodland about 20 years ago, the floor had been leveled and a dividing wall built splitting the auditorium into a front and back half. At the time I was inside, the back half was a print shop and used the original exit doors that would have been at the front of the house as their entrance. The back half and the former lobby area was in use as a home. The projection booth was a bedroom.
I was a fill in projectionist on several occasions between 1981 and about 1991 at the Midway. It was always a pleasure to work a drive in, most of my career was spent in the multiplexes. The screen at the Midway faced East, the screen at the Aurora Drive In in North Seattle (operated by Pacific Theatres as well) faced to the West. The two theatres often had identical bookings as they were far enough apart so as to not be in competition with one another. The show at the Midway could start 30 – 40 earlier each night as the setting sun was behind the screen rather than shining on it. In the Summer of 1981, I was working both theatres and appreciated the earlier start at the Midway.
I neglected to mention above that Lind is a near ghost town. Population is today about 450, about 1/3 of it’s peak in the 1950’s. The town’s High School closed about 2 years ago and the students are now bussed to Ritzville some 20 miles away. It is in the middle of wheat farming country, the grain elevator is the busiest place in town. Lind is a time capsule of the past, very little has changed since the departure of the Milwaukee Railroad in the early 1970’s.
I was in Lind in September, the exterior of the Empire Theatre building is in very good condition. No graffiti, no broken windows. Renovations were started in 2007 or so (new double pane windows, etc.) but have been abandoned. There is a sign in the window stating that the building has been winterized and the water shut off in the Fall of 2010. The building once housed a diner and had a hotel on the second floor. It is my understanding that the theatre closed in about 1980. It remains vacant today. A local citizen told me that the interior is in “disrepair”. The booth equipment was purchased and removed in the early-mid 1990’s by McRae Theatre Equipment in Seattle. It was a complete and intact 1950’s vintage carbon arc booth, very little had changed since it’s opening.
I think that the theatre visited by PopcornNRoses may have been the Crossroads in Bellevue. Originally a large single screen operated by National General Theatres, a smaller second auditorium was added across the lobby from the original house. Many years later, the large house was poorly split into 3 small auditoriums. It was later demolished and replaced with the “New” Crossroads Cinema
I have to agree with the “pretty dreadful” comment above. I worked here from time to time as a fill in projectionist from about 1982 – 1986. The lead projectionist at the time was the Business Agent for IATSE Projectionist Local 154 and frequently had to take time off for Union duties. I last worked here as temporary replacement for about 3 months in the late Summer and early Fall of 1995. It was my last employment with General Cinema.
I installed the projection equipment and opened as lead projectionist the General Cinema Kitsap Mall 6 (now 8 screens) In Silverdale, WA in January of 1987. As I recall, the Almo’s last day of operation was our opening day, January 15th. The two theatres were less than 12 miles apart and the new shopping mall in Silverdale had stolen away much business from the surrounding area. Downtown Bremerton became a near ghost town for a few years after the mall opened.
This theatre was reopened on October 21, 2014 by SIFF. I am employed as projectionist at their Uptown Cinema. SIFF now operates three theatres, two single screen houses (Egyptian and the SIFF Film Center) and the Uptown triplex. All 5 screens are equipped for both 35mm and Digital Cinema.
This theater, known as the Whidbey Cinema at the time, was my first projectionist job in a movie theater. I was still in high school at the time. After nearly 40 years, I am still employed in the business and have many fond memories of the Tull’s and their theater. It was a well run family business and they treated their employees like family.
I’m surprised that no has mentioned the Viking Twin indoor which was build behind the screen tower of the Moonlite. The theater was open as late as December, 1978. I took a date there to see the original Superman movie. In think it was gone by about 1980 or so. I was working as a projectionist in the next town to the South (Mt. Vernon) and knew John Stanovich the chief projectionist there. He was also the Business Agent for the Projectionists Union in Bellingham. They ran all three screens in the Summer and dropped down to just the indoor screens after the DI season was over. With a cut in pay when the Moonlite closed for the season.
Drive-In 54…Sorry, the pictures I had are long gone. It was a pretty place, a grass field that had to be mowed weekly and surrounded by tall Poplar trees. Farmland on the South side, a half dozen or so houses along Andis road on the North side and the right of way for Interstate 5 on the West. The old highway (US99) and our entrance were on the East. The trees did a good job of screening us from the Interstate. The freeway was built just a few yards behind the screen tower nearly 10 years after the theater opened in 1950. The Snack Bar, Restrooms, Booth, Box Offices, and what had originally been a restaurant were all in one two story concrete building at the rear of the field. The Booth, former restaurant, and a two bedroom managers apartment were on the second floor. The restaurant space was unused by 1978 when I worked there. The booth was wall to wall and floor to ceiling glass on the front side. No privacy but great view of the pretty girls in the Summer. Everyone on the field had a good view into the booth as well.
I was a projectionist at the Skagit Drive In for one season in 1978. At the time, it was still owned by Eldon Pollack but was being leased and operated by Richard Babington who in addition leased and operated Pollack’s Lincoln Theatre in Mt. Vernon where I also worked. The Skagit was closed by the very early 1980’s. Confusion about the address is understandable, the theatre was north of the Skagit River (therefore outside Mt. Vernon City Limits) but in an area then mostly farmland and a few scattered businesses. Mt. Vernon was the closer and larger city at the time. Andis Road and Burlington Blvd. (then known as Highway 99) was the location. Strip Mall City today.
The Skagit had Ashcraft Super Cinex carbon arc lamps and Simplex E-7 projectors. It was still using speakers (no radio sound) at the time I worked there.
Sadly, the King was demolished over the weekend of April 6/7 2013. worked there as a Union projectionist from 1981 until about 2008. I started there with General Cinema and remained working for several different operators after GCC pulled out in 1992. For the first few months post-GCC, it was a discount house and then turned into an all ages concert venue that ran films on rare occasions. Norelco AAII 35/70mm projectors in the booth were great but a minimal sound system and flat (but large) screen behind a massive curved curtain were drawbacks. I also worked at the demolished UA 70/150 across the street and still do work (when they run 70mm) at the Cinerama, two blocks away.
The picture on top is indeed the seattle Cinerama. It has been remodeled again since the picture was taken. If the screening of 2001 that you saw was about 3 years ago, it would have been Paul Allen’s own personal 70mm print (newly struck from the negative) for this screening. If you saw it on a Saturday night, I would have been the projectionist who ran it. When running film (rare these days but it does happen) the Cinerama is a 2 projector manual changeover booth with Kinotone 35/70 machines. Theatre now has Dolby Atmos sound and 6K digital laser projection as well.
The Aurora was also the only drive in located within the actual Seattle City limits. The other nearby drive ins were all in the suburbs.
At the time of closure the Aurora DI was equipped with Brenkert BX-80 projectors, RCA 9030 soundheads, ORC 4,000 Watt Xenon lamps and it was a manually operated changeover booth. No automation ever installed. It still had in car speakers, radio sound was never installed. There had been homes built right up to the property line in the years since the Aurora opened, when the last show of the night started the field attendants had to run around the field turning down speakers where cars had left. The neighbors would be calling the police with noise complaints otherwise.
The McCeachern Auditorium located within the Museum of History and Industry has closed. The Museum has moved to a new location in Seattle and their former home will soon become a freeway.
In reference to markinthedark’s question, AMC left all booth equipment in place. The theatre had been on life support (very poor business) for some time before AMC closed it, everything throughout the theatre was in pretty rough shape. SIFF has retained 35mm capability in all 3 houses and has also installed digital on all screens and installed a second 35/70 Century projector in Booth 1 to give us 2 projector changeover capability in the large house. The smaller houses have single projectors w/platters. I work for SIFF as a projectionist.
I am biased (I work here as projectionist) but the SIFF Film Center is quite possibly the nicest small auditorium in the City. Good sightlines, wall to wall screen, stadium seating. The booth is equipped for:
16mm: Eiki model EX9120M with 1200 Watt Xenon lamp
35mm: 2,000 foot reel manual changeover booth with a pair of Century model MSA projectors w/Century analog soundheads and Dolby Digital soundheads, 2,000 Watt Strong Super Lume-X Xenon lamphouses
2K digital projection: Barco model DP2K20C digital projector w/Dolby model DSS 200 server.
Audio processor is a Datasat AP20, crossover is a QSC DCM 30D, amps are all QSC, speakers are all JBL. Dolby 7.1 sound.
I worked here a few times as a fill in projectionist in the early 1980’s. I was the relief projectionist at GCC’s King Cinema located directly across 6th Avenue from the UA. I happened to walk by the site in the early evening on the day they demolished the building. The pile of rubble had that famous “Old Movie Theatre Smell”.
A Target store now occupies the entire former Newmark Mall, including the former theatre space. The residential tower remains in use as apartments.
I was in the Woodland about 20 years ago, the floor had been leveled and a dividing wall built splitting the auditorium into a front and back half. At the time I was inside, the back half was a print shop and used the original exit doors that would have been at the front of the house as their entrance. The back half and the former lobby area was in use as a home. The projection booth was a bedroom.
I was a fill in projectionist on several occasions between 1981 and about 1991 at the Midway. It was always a pleasure to work a drive in, most of my career was spent in the multiplexes. The screen at the Midway faced East, the screen at the Aurora Drive In in North Seattle (operated by Pacific Theatres as well) faced to the West. The two theatres often had identical bookings as they were far enough apart so as to not be in competition with one another. The show at the Midway could start 30 – 40 earlier each night as the setting sun was behind the screen rather than shining on it. In the Summer of 1981, I was working both theatres and appreciated the earlier start at the Midway.
I neglected to mention above that Lind is a near ghost town. Population is today about 450, about 1/3 of it’s peak in the 1950’s. The town’s High School closed about 2 years ago and the students are now bussed to Ritzville some 20 miles away. It is in the middle of wheat farming country, the grain elevator is the busiest place in town. Lind is a time capsule of the past, very little has changed since the departure of the Milwaukee Railroad in the early 1970’s.
I was in Lind in September, the exterior of the Empire Theatre building is in very good condition. No graffiti, no broken windows. Renovations were started in 2007 or so (new double pane windows, etc.) but have been abandoned. There is a sign in the window stating that the building has been winterized and the water shut off in the Fall of 2010. The building once housed a diner and had a hotel on the second floor. It is my understanding that the theatre closed in about 1980. It remains vacant today. A local citizen told me that the interior is in “disrepair”. The booth equipment was purchased and removed in the early-mid 1990’s by McRae Theatre Equipment in Seattle. It was a complete and intact 1950’s vintage carbon arc booth, very little had changed since it’s opening.
I think that the theatre visited by PopcornNRoses may have been the Crossroads in Bellevue. Originally a large single screen operated by National General Theatres, a smaller second auditorium was added across the lobby from the original house. Many years later, the large house was poorly split into 3 small auditoriums. It was later demolished and replaced with the “New” Crossroads Cinema
I have to agree with the “pretty dreadful” comment above. I worked here from time to time as a fill in projectionist from about 1982 – 1986. The lead projectionist at the time was the Business Agent for IATSE Projectionist Local 154 and frequently had to take time off for Union duties. I last worked here as temporary replacement for about 3 months in the late Summer and early Fall of 1995. It was my last employment with General Cinema.
I installed the projection equipment and opened as lead projectionist the General Cinema Kitsap Mall 6 (now 8 screens) In Silverdale, WA in January of 1987. As I recall, the Almo’s last day of operation was our opening day, January 15th. The two theatres were less than 12 miles apart and the new shopping mall in Silverdale had stolen away much business from the surrounding area. Downtown Bremerton became a near ghost town for a few years after the mall opened.
This theatre was reopened on October 21, 2014 by SIFF. I am employed as projectionist at their Uptown Cinema. SIFF now operates three theatres, two single screen houses (Egyptian and the SIFF Film Center) and the Uptown triplex. All 5 screens are equipped for both 35mm and Digital Cinema.
This theater, known as the Whidbey Cinema at the time, was my first projectionist job in a movie theater. I was still in high school at the time. After nearly 40 years, I am still employed in the business and have many fond memories of the Tull’s and their theater. It was a well run family business and they treated their employees like family.
I’m surprised that no has mentioned the Viking Twin indoor which was build behind the screen tower of the Moonlite. The theater was open as late as December, 1978. I took a date there to see the original Superman movie. In think it was gone by about 1980 or so. I was working as a projectionist in the next town to the South (Mt. Vernon) and knew John Stanovich the chief projectionist there. He was also the Business Agent for the Projectionists Union in Bellingham. They ran all three screens in the Summer and dropped down to just the indoor screens after the DI season was over. With a cut in pay when the Moonlite closed for the season.
Drive-In 54…Sorry, the pictures I had are long gone. It was a pretty place, a grass field that had to be mowed weekly and surrounded by tall Poplar trees. Farmland on the South side, a half dozen or so houses along Andis road on the North side and the right of way for Interstate 5 on the West. The old highway (US99) and our entrance were on the East. The trees did a good job of screening us from the Interstate. The freeway was built just a few yards behind the screen tower nearly 10 years after the theater opened in 1950. The Snack Bar, Restrooms, Booth, Box Offices, and what had originally been a restaurant were all in one two story concrete building at the rear of the field. The Booth, former restaurant, and a two bedroom managers apartment were on the second floor. The restaurant space was unused by 1978 when I worked there. The booth was wall to wall and floor to ceiling glass on the front side. No privacy but great view of the pretty girls in the Summer. Everyone on the field had a good view into the booth as well.
The screen has been removed as of August, 2014.
I was a projectionist at the Skagit Drive In for one season in 1978. At the time, it was still owned by Eldon Pollack but was being leased and operated by Richard Babington who in addition leased and operated Pollack’s Lincoln Theatre in Mt. Vernon where I also worked. The Skagit was closed by the very early 1980’s. Confusion about the address is understandable, the theatre was north of the Skagit River (therefore outside Mt. Vernon City Limits) but in an area then mostly farmland and a few scattered businesses. Mt. Vernon was the closer and larger city at the time. Andis Road and Burlington Blvd. (then known as Highway 99) was the location. Strip Mall City today.
The Skagit had Ashcraft Super Cinex carbon arc lamps and Simplex E-7 projectors. It was still using speakers (no radio sound) at the time I worked there.
Sadly, the King was demolished over the weekend of April 6/7 2013. worked there as a Union projectionist from 1981 until about 2008. I started there with General Cinema and remained working for several different operators after GCC pulled out in 1992. For the first few months post-GCC, it was a discount house and then turned into an all ages concert venue that ran films on rare occasions. Norelco AAII 35/70mm projectors in the booth were great but a minimal sound system and flat (but large) screen behind a massive curved curtain were drawbacks. I also worked at the demolished UA 70/150 across the street and still do work (when they run 70mm) at the Cinerama, two blocks away.