Can remember driving by in the fall of 1989, after I had moved to the area, and it was still open. By that point, it wasn’t a movie theater I ever considered patronizing.
In late 2010 the SFWeekly (or now defunct Bay Guardian) had an article about the impending closure of the Clay. It was saved and outlasted the Bridge by more than seven years.
What gave the Guild in Menlo Park, another Landmark single-screen theatre, staying power is that to redevelop the lot the owner would need to put in underground parking but it was too small to justify that investment.
A community group came together and formed a non-profit to develop a live-performance venue in a new building.
Saw the American movie “Love Story” dubbed into Mandarin in the winter of 1987. Having seen it when it was released in the US, I remembered it as a “chick flick” when I went to the cineplex with my mother as a sixth-grader and we both cried at the end.
In China it was a window onto the outside world and that attracted young people of both sexes in droves. Though the movie was dubbed, my Chinese roommate told me her parents would not have been able to follow it. The nickname Preppie had meaning in English but it was simply phoneticized in Mandarin. It was a cross-cultural experience for me as well and a fond memory of studying in China.
The Osio closed in March 2020 owing to the pandemic that shuttered all movie theaters in the county. In November it was announced the Osio would not reopen. It will be missed along with the adjoining Cafe Lumiere coffee bar that also closed.
Remember going to matinees in the mid-1980s for $2.25. Among the many films I saw at the Janus were “My Beautiful Laundrette” and Wayne Wong’s “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart.” Will always appreciate the opportunity to see art-house gems like these!
Came many times in the 1990s to see films screened in the annual Asian-Pacific Film Festival. Remember one Korean blockbuster where every female member of the audience was moved to tears. Enjoyed walking across the sky bridge from the parking lot across the street before descending down to the entrance. Miss ya!
I saw “Patty Hearst,” starring Natasha Richardson, and “Running on Empty,” starring River Phoenix, in September 1988 at the Mann 6 just after I moved to LA. The theatre outlived both of the stars. RIP.
Went to see movies here many times growing up in Chestnut Hill. I remember once arriving with my mother and brothers who went down to check out a Christmas tree that had been placed beside the screen. Immediately a manager came running down the aisle because he assumed two preteen boys couldn’t be trusted. It seemed like such a huge theatre and it was since that visit preceded the 1976 twinning. The last movie I remember seeing there was “Dances With Wolves” while on a Christmas visit home in 1990. My parents switched to the Regal Plymouth Meeting because the parking was much easier and it offered stadium seating.
This film might have attracted a more mainstream audience, a precursor to the subsequent film by Bernardo Bertolucci.
From WaPo 28 February 1986 Film Talk:
David Huang’s American Theater in L'Enfant Plaza offers Americans a rare look at Chinese cinema with The Last Emperor of China (Henry Pu Yi’s Latter Life). Directed by Lee Han Sheon and shot on location in China last year, the 93-minute production is said to contain certain messages that slipped past the Chinese censors. The film screens Friday at 6:30 and midnight; Saturday and Sunday at 1, 6:30 and midnight; and on Monday through Thursday at 7:45. Call 554-2111.
David Huang operates the local Chinese channel broadcast on MHzTV and, in the 1980’s, operated the old American Theater (in the basement of L'Enfant Plaza as I recall) that featured Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest releases, if anyone remembers. [More than a few remember.] And all these years later, I’m still trying to identify the gambling comedy featuring those 8-pointed throwing stars planted in the face of the gambler (could it have been Patrick Tse?) that I saw there.
Someone else’s memories of seeing Chinese-language films. The Hong Kong films did dominate the line-up, though there were some films from China and Taiwan:
In 1988 I discovered the American Theatre (which despite its name, only showed Hong Kong movies) located deep underneath L’Enfant Plaza. For six dollars you got a HK double feature and enough trailers in-between to make you feel as if you’d seen about 8 movies that night. HK trailers are notoriously long and show you everything. Like a 4-minute condensed version of the whole movie. And they offered dried cuttlefish at the snack bar instead of popcorn. That was my Sunday evening ritual. Just me, and a whole new world of cinema to discover. Apparently my friends just didn’t “get it”. That’s okay. It was something I was happy to do alone. In fact the theater was nearly empty except for a bum or two who’d come in from the rain to get dry or sleep. There might be 2 or 3 Asian teens in attendance, but they would always sit in the back row in the dark.
My love for Hong Kong cinema grew with each Sunday. But by June, the American Theatre closed it’s doors for what they called “renovation”. But as I had feared, it was indeed a permanent closure.
The Green Line wasn’t built yet or I would have had another option. I always went on Sunday afternoons when the Promenade Shopping Mall was closed. Years later, when I saw Tsai Ming-liang’s “Goodbye Dragon, Inn” at the Freer Gallery of Art (also on a Sunday), the lonely wandering of those in the theatre for its last screening reminded me of my solitary walk through the promenade. Each step echoed with emptiness.
I used to see Chinese movies there in the mid-1980s via the metro train Yellow Line. I would walk through a closed shopping mall to get to the theatre. It was a little eerie. Most of the patrons seemed to drive in from the suburbs. The movies were good.
As a graduate student at GWU from 1984 to 1986, I spent a fair bit of time in the Circle Theatre. I can remember one evening screening in which a homeless man was sleeping in the back. When he woke up and began to mutter loudly part way through the film, members of the audience initially didn’t know what was going on. The Circle was a bit down on its heels, but still a beloved art house and repertory fixture of the Washington arts scene.
Widows' Village was the movie I saw at Cinemaland in the summer of 1989. It had generated a lot of attention in China earlier that year because it was the first mainland-made movie to have sex scenes. The story itself featured some bizarre local customs that were probably the film’s selling points since the tale didn’t conform to the official narrative of Communist liberation from capitalist oppressors:
In 1949, a small Chinese fishing village populated almost entirely by women awaits the establishment of a government by the newly victorious communist regime. In addition to other worries, the villagers wonder how the government will react to their traditional customs, which decree that wives may only see their husbands three times a year, and the circumstances under which they are permitted to become pregant are very limited. In addition, those who are caught violating these rules are drowned. The almost exclusively female population of the village is explained by the fact that most of the male population died during an ocean storm.
The exterior remains intact as of June 2015. Didn’t appear much was going on inside as the place was securely locked and the area, as shown in the photograph, was quite deserted. I remember seeing a movie there in the summer of 1989.
The reason the trolley went the way of many movie theatres in Philadelphia is because there was no safe way to pass them. Once you got behind one, you were stuck. Other cities had them running in the middle of the street and the auto lanes on the outside. But not ours, and this sealed their fate….
I remember seeing movies here as a child—it had family friendly programming with Saturday matinees and mainstream films in the evenings. And, like the Crest in another section of the city, a trolley line passed right in front of its pinkish art deco exterior. It closed sometime in the early 1970s when Ma Bell, which was next door, expanded onto the lot. It was an early omen of what would happen to independent movie houses everywhere.
Thanks for the photo link Lost Memory, as someone who grew up in Philadelphia it sure brought back memories to see that trolley and flourishing main street business district.
I had the opportunity to catch a film at this theatre over the weekend and it was a very enjoyable experience. The seats are super comfortable and the interior vaguely reminded me of a church. Though the films screened are of the mass released variety the fact this little gem of a theatre has been able to keep going speaks well of the Morro Bay community.
Can remember driving by in the fall of 1989, after I had moved to the area, and it was still open. By that point, it wasn’t a movie theater I ever considered patronizing.
In late 2010 the SFWeekly (or now defunct Bay Guardian) had an article about the impending closure of the Clay. It was saved and outlasted the Bridge by more than seven years.
What gave the Guild in Menlo Park, another Landmark single-screen theatre, staying power is that to redevelop the lot the owner would need to put in underground parking but it was too small to justify that investment.
A community group came together and formed a non-profit to develop a live-performance venue in a new building.
Saw the American movie “Love Story” dubbed into Mandarin in the winter of 1987. Having seen it when it was released in the US, I remembered it as a “chick flick” when I went to the cineplex with my mother as a sixth-grader and we both cried at the end.
In China it was a window onto the outside world and that attracted young people of both sexes in droves. Though the movie was dubbed, my Chinese roommate told me her parents would not have been able to follow it. The nickname Preppie had meaning in English but it was simply phoneticized in Mandarin. It was a cross-cultural experience for me as well and a fond memory of studying in China.
The Osio closed in March 2020 owing to the pandemic that shuttered all movie theaters in the county. In November it was announced the Osio would not reopen. It will be missed along with the adjoining Cafe Lumiere coffee bar that also closed.
Remember going to matinees in the mid-1980s for $2.25. Among the many films I saw at the Janus were “My Beautiful Laundrette” and Wayne Wong’s “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart.” Will always appreciate the opportunity to see art-house gems like these!
Came many times in the 1990s to see films screened in the annual Asian-Pacific Film Festival. Remember one Korean blockbuster where every female member of the audience was moved to tears. Enjoyed walking across the sky bridge from the parking lot across the street before descending down to the entrance. Miss ya!
Thanks! I shopped there upon occasion in the early 1980s.
I saw “Patty Hearst,” starring Natasha Richardson, and “Running on Empty,” starring River Phoenix, in September 1988 at the Mann 6 just after I moved to LA. The theatre outlived both of the stars. RIP.
I saw Julia, starring Jane Fonda, at the Park with my mother in the summer of 1978.
Went to see movies here many times growing up in Chestnut Hill. I remember once arriving with my mother and brothers who went down to check out a Christmas tree that had been placed beside the screen. Immediately a manager came running down the aisle because he assumed two preteen boys couldn’t be trusted. It seemed like such a huge theatre and it was since that visit preceded the 1976 twinning. The last movie I remember seeing there was “Dances With Wolves” while on a Christmas visit home in 1990. My parents switched to the Regal Plymouth Meeting because the parking was much easier and it offered stadium seating.
I remember seeing “An Unmarried Woman” there with my mother in the summer of 1978.
Every time I visit Eastport with my now 80-something father he recounts seeing “Gone with the Wind” at the Wilbor with his older brother.
This film might have attracted a more mainstream audience, a precursor to the subsequent film by Bernardo Bertolucci.
From WaPo 28 February 1986 Film Talk:
David Huang’s American Theater in L'Enfant Plaza offers Americans a rare look at Chinese cinema with The Last Emperor of China (Henry Pu Yi’s Latter Life). Directed by Lee Han Sheon and shot on location in China last year, the 93-minute production is said to contain certain messages that slipped past the Chinese censors. The film screens Friday at 6:30 and midnight; Saturday and Sunday at 1, 6:30 and midnight; and on Monday through Thursday at 7:45. Call 554-2111.
One more:
David Huang operates the local Chinese channel broadcast on MHzTV and, in the 1980’s, operated the old American Theater (in the basement of L'Enfant Plaza as I recall) that featured Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest releases, if anyone remembers. [More than a few remember.] And all these years later, I’m still trying to identify the gambling comedy featuring those 8-pointed throwing stars planted in the face of the gambler (could it have been Patrick Tse?) that I saw there.
Someone else’s memories of seeing Chinese-language films. The Hong Kong films did dominate the line-up, though there were some films from China and Taiwan:
In 1988 I discovered the American Theatre (which despite its name, only showed Hong Kong movies) located deep underneath L’Enfant Plaza. For six dollars you got a HK double feature and enough trailers in-between to make you feel as if you’d seen about 8 movies that night. HK trailers are notoriously long and show you everything. Like a 4-minute condensed version of the whole movie. And they offered dried cuttlefish at the snack bar instead of popcorn. That was my Sunday evening ritual. Just me, and a whole new world of cinema to discover. Apparently my friends just didn’t “get it”. That’s okay. It was something I was happy to do alone. In fact the theater was nearly empty except for a bum or two who’d come in from the rain to get dry or sleep. There might be 2 or 3 Asian teens in attendance, but they would always sit in the back row in the dark.
My love for Hong Kong cinema grew with each Sunday. But by June, the American Theatre closed it’s doors for what they called “renovation”. But as I had feared, it was indeed a permanent closure.
The Green Line wasn’t built yet or I would have had another option. I always went on Sunday afternoons when the Promenade Shopping Mall was closed. Years later, when I saw Tsai Ming-liang’s “Goodbye Dragon, Inn” at the Freer Gallery of Art (also on a Sunday), the lonely wandering of those in the theatre for its last screening reminded me of my solitary walk through the promenade. Each step echoed with emptiness.
I used to see Chinese movies there in the mid-1980s via the metro train Yellow Line. I would walk through a closed shopping mall to get to the theatre. It was a little eerie. Most of the patrons seemed to drive in from the suburbs. The movies were good.
As a graduate student at GWU from 1984 to 1986, I spent a fair bit of time in the Circle Theatre. I can remember one evening screening in which a homeless man was sleeping in the back. When he woke up and began to mutter loudly part way through the film, members of the audience initially didn’t know what was going on. The Circle was a bit down on its heels, but still a beloved art house and repertory fixture of the Washington arts scene.
Widows' Village was the movie I saw at Cinemaland in the summer of 1989. It had generated a lot of attention in China earlier that year because it was the first mainland-made movie to have sex scenes. The story itself featured some bizarre local customs that were probably the film’s selling points since the tale didn’t conform to the official narrative of Communist liberation from capitalist oppressors:
In 1949, a small Chinese fishing village populated almost entirely by women awaits the establishment of a government by the newly victorious communist regime. In addition to other worries, the villagers wonder how the government will react to their traditional customs, which decree that wives may only see their husbands three times a year, and the circumstances under which they are permitted to become pregant are very limited. In addition, those who are caught violating these rules are drowned. The almost exclusively female population of the village is explained by the fact that most of the male population died during an ocean storm.
The exterior remains intact as of June 2015. Didn’t appear much was going on inside as the place was securely locked and the area, as shown in the photograph, was quite deserted. I remember seeing a movie there in the summer of 1989.
The reason the trolley went the way of many movie theatres in Philadelphia is because there was no safe way to pass them. Once you got behind one, you were stuck. Other cities had them running in the middle of the street and the auto lanes on the outside. But not ours, and this sealed their fate….
I remember seeing movies here as a child—it had family friendly programming with Saturday matinees and mainstream films in the evenings. And, like the Crest in another section of the city, a trolley line passed right in front of its pinkish art deco exterior. It closed sometime in the early 1970s when Ma Bell, which was next door, expanded onto the lot. It was an early omen of what would happen to independent movie houses everywhere.
Thanks for the photo link Lost Memory, as someone who grew up in Philadelphia it sure brought back memories to see that trolley and flourishing main street business district.
I had the opportunity to catch a film at this theatre over the weekend and it was a very enjoyable experience. The seats are super comfortable and the interior vaguely reminded me of a church. Though the films screened are of the mass released variety the fact this little gem of a theatre has been able to keep going speaks well of the Morro Bay community.
Here is a link with photographs: View link