2005 reader comment says this theatre is running film with carbon arc projection. Still doing it today? It’s very frustrating to see theatre websites and advertising that * never * say * how * they are showing the “movie.” E-mails to theatres asking this question are never answered. Phone calls are not returned.
The geodesic dome picture here is for another theatre, not the Playhouse Cinema Southfield, later known as Cabaret Theatre. The geodesic dome theatre was part of this 1950’s shopping center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_Center. There was also live legitimate at this shopping center, which may have been held at some place other than the geodesic dome theatre. The Southfield Playhouse Cinema I & II is not related to any of these and not in the same location. The address was 25570 W. 8 Mile Rd, “1 block east of Beech Daly.” It was in a strip mall and the building can be seen on google’s roadside camera. The theatre was busted for allowing minors to see X-rated films (see article - I found the date - 1-24-73). Soon after the name was changed to Cabaret Theatre. Ads in May 77 say “under new management” and still said that in Jan. 79. Jan. 81 ads were porn, so the change to porn probably occurred in 1980. This twin theatre was originally intended to be a Jerry Lewis theatre but appears to not have used the name. There was also a “Playhouse 1 & 2” in Marysville (no listing on C. Treasures) in the early 70s which could have been the same operator. This is something to research (also see CT entry for Waterford, MI Playhouse twin l/k/a Academy 59 Twin.) CT says the opening was 10-25-72 for the Southfield Playhouse Cinema. Ads found dated Fri 10-27-72 showed the theatre playing “The Other” in a multiple wide run.
Announced to be a Jerry Lewis Cinema. (see Waterford, MI Academy 59 Theatre in Cinema Treasures). Waterford also named Playhouse and opened Dec. 72. Name of operator and corporate name listed in the article that was posted here (date?) matches up with the Waterford Playhouse operator.
This looks like a Jerry Lewis Cinema but probably didn’t open under the name. There was a brief article in Boxoffice 3-20-72:
“WESTLAND, MICH. — Attorney Frederick Nagher, general partner of Automated Cinema Enterprises and president of Pisces Exhibitor, Inc., will be the principal operator of a 350-seat Jerry Lewis Cinema to be constructed in the K-Mart Center at Eight Mile and Beech in Southfield, Mich., it was announced by Nicholas Fileccia, president of Michigan Cinema Corp., JLC representative in the southeastern Michigan area.
Nagher also will operate a 700-seat JLC twin cinema to be constructed in the Waterford Plaza Shopping Center, Waterford Township.
The theatres will be full automated, Fileccia stated, and an early summer opening of both facilities is planned."
Further comment: The opening ad that was uploaded says “Grand Opening Dec 22” - that was probably 1972 since “Pete n Tillie” was a Christmas release that year. ‘Planned to open in the summer’ - most likely there were delays and the theatre didn’t open until Christmas, and not with the JLC name. Several theatre operators waited around for JLC and finally opened themselves under their own name.
Is this the same location as a proposed 1972 United General theatre on Van Dyke that supposedly was 16mm? Here is the brief item from Boxoffice magazine of 8-7-72: “PONTIAC, MICH. — Ted Damerow’s Oakland Mini-Theatres has opened United General mini-theatres in Clarkston, Milford and Romeo, Mich. All three houses will use 16mm film and feature family-oriented films, according to Damerow.
The Clarkston Cinema is a 266-seat house located on Dixie Highway and will be operated by Damerow. John Henn is licensee of the Cinema in Milford, a 171- seat house located in the Milford Shopping Center, and the 320-seat Lantern Theatre on Van Dyke Road in Romeo is operated by licensee Gene Powers."
Update to 7-22-2024. The misidentifed theatre was actually in Fullerton, CA even though it was called Yorba Linda Cinema. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6641 It was a United General franchised theatre
This one seems to have been a United General theatre, not Jerry Lewis. The celebrities who lent their names to the UG venture were Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead.
It looks like this * did * open under the United General franchise name because that logo of the traffic cop in the upper left is the United General logo. There’s another United General theatre on C.T. that is misidentified as Jerry Lewis, in Yorba Linda CA. Boxoffice Magazine of Dec. 4, 1972 announced that United General had opened its 31st franchised theatre. Jerry Lewis Cinemas announced in an ad in March 1973 that it had reached 205 theatres. That figure probably included the several locations that had dropped the JLC name and were on their own. An item in Boxoffice (Aug 7, 1972) has an article about three Michigan theatres that were going to be 16mm operations under United General. In that same edition, there was a UG franchising ad. A classified ad was in the NY Times of 6/6/71, and a full page franchising ad in the Rochester, NY paper of 6/25/72. Another U.G. theatre was in Cross River, NY and teaser ads in the fall of 1972 said it was to be a U.G. theatre. It finally opened 4/11/73 but without any mention of U.G. in the ads. This frequently happened with Jerry Lewis Cinemas as well — announced, usually long delays, and finally opening without the franchise name.
There was a Jerry Lewis Cinema in Brunswick, GA according to an Atlanta Constitution article dated Jan. 28, 1972. Whether it was this Altama Village triplex (?) The article was about three Georgia Lewis theatre operators filed a federal lawsuit in Atlanta district court against Lewis and Network Cinema Corp. One of the three plantiffs was Michael Solomon, Solomon Cinemas Inc., a Georgia corporation, and the article said Solomon Cinemas operated a Lewis theatre in Brunswick. More research is needed, but any further information would be appreciated. Perhaps the Lewis theatre in Brunswick, GA is not listed at all on C. Treasures.
This appears to have been originally a Jerry Lewis Cinema. According to the Boxoffice article below, it opened in Feb. 1972, and was operating under the JLC name as of May 1972. Most likely the opening Sept. 19, 1972, per commenter 50sSNIPES, was when the name change occurred. The theatre could have been closed for a short time before Sept. 19, but we know it was operating in May ‘72.
If * the * Sidney Pink, the movie producer, operated this theatre, he may have stepped in when this name change occurred. Pink’s page on IMDB says he was a Florida resident, died in 2002 in FL., and operated theatres in FL and Puerto Rico. It’s very likely it’s the same fellow.
Here’s the Boxoffice article from 5-22-72:
Johnson Managing Winter Haven JL Cinema
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.—Richard E. Johnson, assistant manager of the Jerry Lewis Cinema in the Winter Haven Mall, has been promoted to manager, according to Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Walters, owners of the Winter Haven and Melbourne Jerry Lewis cinemas.
Johnson, a native of Rockford, Ill., came here in 1968 but has been connected with the motion picture theatre business only since the February opening of the local JLC. Al Radlein, who has been manager here since the opening, will return to Cocoa and take over as manager of the Melbourne Jerry Lewis Cinema.
Johnson said in an interview that no changes in the present staff will be made but that he is planning special features and promotions for the theatre and local charity and civic groups.
Still listed in 1988 Motion Picture Almanac, but that is only a starting point for further research. MPA not always reliable, mainly because the theatre owners would not fill out and return their postcards, “are you still in business?”
June 10, 2023: Now called “New Life Church”, says marquee. No changes to the exterior of the theatre. Looks same as in the photos shown on Cinema Treasures. The “Atlantic” name is still on the marquee– “New Life Church” takes up the space where a movie title would be.
CJ1949
commented about
Cine-4on
Jun 20, 2022 at 3:10 pm
For sale on Loopnet. Listing went up Nov. 2021, updated May 2022. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/25-Flint-New-Haven-CT/24505027/
This was probably the Jerry Lewis Cinema, which an article in the North Haven Citizen, dated 9-23-2005, said “… in 1972, Woolco [Woolworth] Department stores built a massive new store in the Dresden Plaza at the corner of Washington Avenue and the then, still uncompleted Route 22 connector. Other tenants in the plaza were a Jerry Lewis Cinema, Forest Grove Pharmacy, Thrifty’s Hardware and Food Mart supermarket…” [comment made 6-20-2022]
Re: The Ten Commandments. This played very late in many areas of the country because exhibitors refused to pay the high rental terms. If small towns played it at all, it was rarely within the first year of release. The same can be said for another Paramount release of the time, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Many small towns never played these pictures. Paramount also held these back deliberately from the smaller towns, and was judicious about awarding these pictures to only circuits that were willing to meet the rental terms. This was also the era of “pre-release” engagements where only the larger cities would get the picture for a limited time, and then the distributor would put it on the shelf for a few months before wider distribution - resulting in many theatres being starved for product.
This URL has many of the photo collection of the Hennepin County Library in Mpls. There are 1964 and 1970 photos of the Lyric Theatre, as well as a few hundred of other theaters. The Lyric photos are street shots, no interior pictures found.
Photo taken May 2019. Theatre building used as office for Iowa Dept. of Human Services. In late March 2020 the building collapsed. The Waterloo paper and the Fayette County paper had articles, however the latter does not seem to have the article on its website. There are some photos on the Fayette County Newspapers' FB page but information is sketchy.
This theatre was made famous in the trades as the feature of a story in Fortune magazine, Aug. 1948 issue. An article about that article appeared in Boxoffice, 7-31-1948. The Fortune article was titled “What’s Playing at the Grove?"and was about the problems of a typical small town theatre. The article profiled Weldon Allen, who was the owner-operator.
Property is for sale. Building and sign still standing. There are many pictures of it on the Loopnet page. Looks like a Jerry Lewis, but no, a United General! Most intriguing is that it was 16mm, according to Boxoffice magazine of 8-7-1972: “Ted Damerow’s Oakland Mini-Theatres has opened United General mini-theatres in Clarkston, Milford and Romeo, Mich. All three houses will use 16mm film and feature family-oriented films, according to Damerow.
The Clarkston Cinema is a 266-seat house located on Dixie Highway and will be operated by Damerow. John Henn is licensee of the Cinema in Milford, a 171- seat house located in the Milford Shopping Center, and the 320-seat Lantern Theatre on Van Dyke Road in Romeo is operated by licensee Gene Powers."
2005 reader comment says this theatre is running film with carbon arc projection. Still doing it today? It’s very frustrating to see theatre websites and advertising that * never * say * how * they are showing the “movie.” E-mails to theatres asking this question are never answered. Phone calls are not returned.
Listed on Loopnet as of 9/2/2024: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/14238-Harper-Rd-Detroit-MI/30393499/
The geodesic dome picture here is for another theatre, not the Playhouse Cinema Southfield, later known as Cabaret Theatre. The geodesic dome theatre was part of this 1950’s shopping center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_Center. There was also live legitimate at this shopping center, which may have been held at some place other than the geodesic dome theatre. The Southfield Playhouse Cinema I & II is not related to any of these and not in the same location. The address was 25570 W. 8 Mile Rd, “1 block east of Beech Daly.” It was in a strip mall and the building can be seen on google’s roadside camera. The theatre was busted for allowing minors to see X-rated films (see article - I found the date - 1-24-73). Soon after the name was changed to Cabaret Theatre. Ads in May 77 say “under new management” and still said that in Jan. 79. Jan. 81 ads were porn, so the change to porn probably occurred in 1980. This twin theatre was originally intended to be a Jerry Lewis theatre but appears to not have used the name. There was also a “Playhouse 1 & 2” in Marysville (no listing on C. Treasures) in the early 70s which could have been the same operator. This is something to research (also see CT entry for Waterford, MI Playhouse twin l/k/a Academy 59 Twin.) CT says the opening was 10-25-72 for the Southfield Playhouse Cinema. Ads found dated Fri 10-27-72 showed the theatre playing “The Other” in a multiple wide run.
Announced to be a Jerry Lewis Cinema. (see Waterford, MI Academy 59 Theatre in Cinema Treasures). Waterford also named Playhouse and opened Dec. 72. Name of operator and corporate name listed in the article that was posted here (date?) matches up with the Waterford Playhouse operator.
This looks like a Jerry Lewis Cinema but probably didn’t open under the name. There was a brief article in Boxoffice 3-20-72:
“WESTLAND, MICH. — Attorney Frederick Nagher, general partner of Automated Cinema Enterprises and president of Pisces Exhibitor, Inc., will be the principal operator of a 350-seat Jerry Lewis Cinema to be constructed in the K-Mart Center at Eight Mile and Beech in Southfield, Mich., it was announced by Nicholas Fileccia, president of Michigan Cinema Corp., JLC representative in the southeastern Michigan area.
Nagher also will operate a 700-seat JLC twin cinema to be constructed in the Waterford Plaza Shopping Center, Waterford Township.
The theatres will be full automated, Fileccia stated, and an early summer opening of both facilities is planned."
Further comment: The opening ad that was uploaded says “Grand Opening Dec 22” - that was probably 1972 since “Pete n Tillie” was a Christmas release that year. ‘Planned to open in the summer’ - most likely there were delays and the theatre didn’t open until Christmas, and not with the JLC name. Several theatre operators waited around for JLC and finally opened themselves under their own name.
Is this the same location as a proposed 1972 United General theatre on Van Dyke that supposedly was 16mm? Here is the brief item from Boxoffice magazine of 8-7-72: “PONTIAC, MICH. — Ted Damerow’s Oakland Mini-Theatres has opened United General mini-theatres in Clarkston, Milford and Romeo, Mich. All three houses will use 16mm film and feature family-oriented films, according to Damerow.
The Clarkston Cinema is a 266-seat house located on Dixie Highway and will be operated by Damerow. John Henn is licensee of the Cinema in Milford, a 171- seat house located in the Milford Shopping Center, and the 320-seat Lantern Theatre on Van Dyke Road in Romeo is operated by licensee Gene Powers."
Update to 7-22-2024. The misidentifed theatre was actually in Fullerton, CA even though it was called Yorba Linda Cinema. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6641 It was a United General franchised theatre
This one seems to have been a United General theatre, not Jerry Lewis. The celebrities who lent their names to the UG venture were Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead.
It looks like this * did * open under the United General franchise name because that logo of the traffic cop in the upper left is the United General logo. There’s another United General theatre on C.T. that is misidentified as Jerry Lewis, in Yorba Linda CA. Boxoffice Magazine of Dec. 4, 1972 announced that United General had opened its 31st franchised theatre. Jerry Lewis Cinemas announced in an ad in March 1973 that it had reached 205 theatres. That figure probably included the several locations that had dropped the JLC name and were on their own. An item in Boxoffice (Aug 7, 1972) has an article about three Michigan theatres that were going to be 16mm operations under United General. In that same edition, there was a UG franchising ad. A classified ad was in the NY Times of 6/6/71, and a full page franchising ad in the Rochester, NY paper of 6/25/72. Another U.G. theatre was in Cross River, NY and teaser ads in the fall of 1972 said it was to be a U.G. theatre. It finally opened 4/11/73 but without any mention of U.G. in the ads. This frequently happened with Jerry Lewis Cinemas as well — announced, usually long delays, and finally opening without the franchise name.
There was a Jerry Lewis Cinema in Brunswick, GA according to an Atlanta Constitution article dated Jan. 28, 1972. Whether it was this Altama Village triplex (?) The article was about three Georgia Lewis theatre operators filed a federal lawsuit in Atlanta district court against Lewis and Network Cinema Corp. One of the three plantiffs was Michael Solomon, Solomon Cinemas Inc., a Georgia corporation, and the article said Solomon Cinemas operated a Lewis theatre in Brunswick. More research is needed, but any further information would be appreciated. Perhaps the Lewis theatre in Brunswick, GA is not listed at all on C. Treasures.
This appears to have been originally a Jerry Lewis Cinema. According to the Boxoffice article below, it opened in Feb. 1972, and was operating under the JLC name as of May 1972. Most likely the opening Sept. 19, 1972, per commenter 50sSNIPES, was when the name change occurred. The theatre could have been closed for a short time before Sept. 19, but we know it was operating in May ‘72.
If * the * Sidney Pink, the movie producer, operated this theatre, he may have stepped in when this name change occurred. Pink’s page on IMDB says he was a Florida resident, died in 2002 in FL., and operated theatres in FL and Puerto Rico. It’s very likely it’s the same fellow.
Here’s the Boxoffice article from 5-22-72:
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.—Richard E. Johnson, assistant manager of the Jerry Lewis Cinema in the Winter Haven Mall, has been promoted to manager, according to Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Walters, owners of the Winter Haven and Melbourne Jerry Lewis cinemas.
Johnson, a native of Rockford, Ill., came here in 1968 but has been connected with the motion picture theatre business only since the February opening of the local JLC. Al Radlein, who has been manager here since the opening, will return to Cocoa and take over as manager of the Melbourne Jerry Lewis Cinema.
Johnson said in an interview that no changes in the present staff will be made but that he is planning special features and promotions for the theatre and local charity and civic groups.
Still listed in 1988 Motion Picture Almanac, but that is only a starting point for further research. MPA not always reliable, mainly because the theatre owners would not fill out and return their postcards, “are you still in business?”
June 10, 2023: Now called “New Life Church”, says marquee. No changes to the exterior of the theatre. Looks same as in the photos shown on Cinema Treasures. The “Atlantic” name is still on the marquee– “New Life Church” takes up the space where a movie title would be.
For sale on Loopnet. Listing went up Nov. 2021, updated May 2022. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/25-Flint-New-Haven-CT/24505027/
This was probably the Jerry Lewis Cinema, which an article in the North Haven Citizen, dated 9-23-2005, said “… in 1972, Woolco [Woolworth] Department stores built a massive new store in the Dresden Plaza at the corner of Washington Avenue and the then, still uncompleted Route 22 connector. Other tenants in the plaza were a Jerry Lewis Cinema, Forest Grove Pharmacy, Thrifty’s Hardware and Food Mart supermarket…” [comment made 6-20-2022]
Newspaper ads show it was still operating in July 1970; UA was the operator.
Re: The Ten Commandments. This played very late in many areas of the country because exhibitors refused to pay the high rental terms. If small towns played it at all, it was rarely within the first year of release. The same can be said for another Paramount release of the time, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Many small towns never played these pictures. Paramount also held these back deliberately from the smaller towns, and was judicious about awarding these pictures to only circuits that were willing to meet the rental terms. This was also the era of “pre-release” engagements where only the larger cities would get the picture for a limited time, and then the distributor would put it on the shelf for a few months before wider distribution - resulting in many theatres being starved for product.
https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/custom/home
This URL has many of the photo collection of the Hennepin County Library in Mpls. There are 1964 and 1970 photos of the Lyric Theatre, as well as a few hundred of other theaters. The Lyric photos are street shots, no interior pictures found.
Photo taken May 2019. Theatre building used as office for Iowa Dept. of Human Services. In late March 2020 the building collapsed. The Waterloo paper and the Fayette County paper had articles, however the latter does not seem to have the article on its website. There are some photos on the Fayette County Newspapers' FB page but information is sketchy.
This theatre was made famous in the trades as the feature of a story in Fortune magazine, Aug. 1948 issue. An article about that article appeared in Boxoffice, 7-31-1948. The Fortune article was titled “What’s Playing at the Grove?"and was about the problems of a typical small town theatre. The article profiled Weldon Allen, who was the owner-operator.
More than a dozen years later, the price has been cut in half https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/489-Broadway-Monticello-NY/11626917/
For sale https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1016-Broad-St-Sumter-SC/15442832/
It’s listed for sale: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/114-S-Cedar-St-Manistique-MI/16388445/
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/6798-Dixie-Hwy-Clarkston-MI/17432089/
Property is for sale. Building and sign still standing. There are many pictures of it on the Loopnet page. Looks like a Jerry Lewis, but no, a United General! Most intriguing is that it was 16mm, according to Boxoffice magazine of 8-7-1972: “Ted Damerow’s Oakland Mini-Theatres has opened United General mini-theatres in Clarkston, Milford and Romeo, Mich. All three houses will use 16mm film and feature family-oriented films, according to Damerow.
The Clarkston Cinema is a 266-seat house located on Dixie Highway and will be operated by Damerow. John Henn is licensee of the Cinema in Milford, a 171- seat house located in the Milford Shopping Center, and the 320-seat Lantern Theatre on Van Dyke Road in Romeo is operated by licensee Gene Powers."
Uploaded an ad from May 1976 with porno in one auditorium and “Gone With the Wind” in the other.