Stanley Warner Theatres used this basic Theatre design in many houses that it built in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The Washington DC area
contained many of the identical designs like the KB Fairfax circle, the KB Cinema 7, and KB Langley. The Cinemart in Hampden Ct. may have also been the same design.
The equipment installed in White City came from the old Warner Theatre
in downtown Worcester that White City replaced.
This drive-in was one of the few locations anywhere that installed 70MM machines. There were 4 machines in the booth. I do not know if they ever ran a 70MM print. One of the projectionists was Jerry Turtoro
who told me that at one time he had all 4 machines working but running 35MM. I was in the Springfield union and knew some the Worcester operators.
Could this theatre be the last and largest single screen house ever built in this country? I cannot think of any other movie house with that number of seats built after 1966. Anyone know?
The Cinema II screen installed was sometimes called a “Shadow Box Screen” General Cinema started using it in all of its new theatres in the sixties. Both theatres in the new Peabody Twin had them. Showcase Cinemas used it when they took over and re-modeled the Cleveland Circle when it was still a single house. It was simple to install and eliminated curtains and masking but made filing the projector aperture plates very difficult.
About 6 months before the Astor was torn down,the auditorium was left abandoned with all the doors pushed out. Crawling over the debris I could still see the wall to wall screen which was heavily torn up but still in place. I had forgotten how big that screen was. If I remember from the early sixties they had a bright red curtain with a slight curve. I remember seeing “EL CID”
on 70mm roadshow with perfect projection.
I was a projectionist here for the whole 8 years it was open. They installed a Cinerama curtain track but only put in a smaller flat screen around 55' wide. Even the projection ports were almost 3' wide. They only put in Simplex 35mm machines and no stereo.
The Theatre had such a short distance between the front and back walls that the screen was located almost at the rear of the back stage wall leaving just enough room for the 5 stereo speakers. The projection booth at the rear of the first balcony was very small making it a very cramped booth for the operators. They had about the biggest equipment at the time; Norelco 70mm machines and Peerless condenser arcs.
A correction on how the Theatre was split up. The balcony was divided down the middle. The main auditorium
was never touched other than the balcony being sealed off.
Theatres #4 and #5 were put in the backstage area on top
of one another at right angles in back of the main screen. They built a long walkway down the right hand side of the building. They may have added on to the backstage area to give the theatres a better width. If you still look at the backstage area on Church St. the added on area has a slightly different color brick.
Even with the changes, this was still a first class place
to go to.
Stanley Warner Theatres used this basic Theatre design in many houses that it built in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The Washington DC area contained many of the identical designs like the KB Fairfax circle, the KB Cinema 7, and KB Langley. The Cinemart in Hampden Ct. may have also been the same design.
The equipment installed in White City came from the old Warner Theatre in downtown Worcester that White City replaced.
This drive-in was one of the few locations anywhere that installed 70MM machines. There were 4 machines in the booth. I do not know if they ever ran a 70MM print. One of the projectionists was Jerry Turtoro who told me that at one time he had all 4 machines working but running 35MM. I was in the Springfield union and knew some the Worcester operators.
Could this theatre be the last and largest single screen house ever built in this country? I cannot think of any other movie house with that number of seats built after 1966. Anyone know?
The Cinema II screen installed was sometimes called a “Shadow Box Screen” General Cinema started using it in all of its new theatres in the sixties. Both theatres in the new Peabody Twin had them. Showcase Cinemas used it when they took over and re-modeled the Cleveland Circle when it was still a single house. It was simple to install and eliminated curtains and masking but made filing the projector aperture plates very difficult.
About 6 months before the Astor was torn down,the auditorium was left abandoned with all the doors pushed out. Crawling over the debris I could still see the wall to wall screen which was heavily torn up but still in place. I had forgotten how big that screen was. If I remember from the early sixties they had a bright red curtain with a slight curve. I remember seeing “EL CID” on 70mm roadshow with perfect projection.
I was a projectionist here for the whole 8 years it was open. They installed a Cinerama curtain track but only put in a smaller flat screen around 55' wide. Even the projection ports were almost 3' wide. They only put in Simplex 35mm machines and no stereo.
The Theatre had such a short distance between the front and back walls that the screen was located almost at the rear of the back stage wall leaving just enough room for the 5 stereo speakers. The projection booth at the rear of the first balcony was very small making it a very cramped booth for the operators. They had about the biggest equipment at the time; Norelco 70mm machines and Peerless condenser arcs.
A correction on how the Theatre was split up. The balcony was divided down the middle. The main auditorium was never touched other than the balcony being sealed off. Theatres #4 and #5 were put in the backstage area on top of one another at right angles in back of the main screen. They built a long walkway down the right hand side of the building. They may have added on to the backstage area to give the theatres a better width. If you still look at the backstage area on Church St. the added on area has a slightly different color brick.
Even with the changes, this was still a first class place to go to.