I’m not a big fan of mall cinemas, but this one was fun for a long time because it had a good bar/restaurant called Barrels almost next door, and you could go there before or after a movie. It closed in the 1980s.
This was a great theatre, too. I saw “Chinatown” there a few years before it closed. In some ways, it was nicer than the Comerford around the corner. I recall the lobby being nicer. And like the Comerford and the Center not far away, it ended its days showing the occasional porno film.
In the 1960s, when I was a kid, the Comerford Theatre was still quite a place. I remember it had a clock that glowed in the dark during the movie, and it had some magnificient fixtures inside. I saw some famous movies there, and they also had a matinee during the week, during which kids could go to the movies while their mothers shopped down the street at the city’s department stores. Scranton had the remnants of a vibrant downtown back then, and when you left the theatre at night, you actually felt like you were going INTO something … i.e., a lively city. But it didn’t take long to deteriorate. By the mid-1970s, they were showing porno films (as were the “Center” and the “Strand,” two other downtown theaters), and had high school girls taking tickets for them. The girls would let you in if they knew you, even though all of us (the girls included) were underage. Still, it was a great place, and, sadly, nobody did much of anything to save it while they could.
Are you talking about the Roosevelt, or are they one in the same?
I’m not a big fan of mall cinemas, but this one was fun for a long time because it had a good bar/restaurant called Barrels almost next door, and you could go there before or after a movie. It closed in the 1980s.
This was strictly an X-rated theater in the 1970s.
This was a great theatre, too. I saw “Chinatown” there a few years before it closed. In some ways, it was nicer than the Comerford around the corner. I recall the lobby being nicer. And like the Comerford and the Center not far away, it ended its days showing the occasional porno film.
In the 1960s, when I was a kid, the Comerford Theatre was still quite a place. I remember it had a clock that glowed in the dark during the movie, and it had some magnificient fixtures inside. I saw some famous movies there, and they also had a matinee during the week, during which kids could go to the movies while their mothers shopped down the street at the city’s department stores. Scranton had the remnants of a vibrant downtown back then, and when you left the theatre at night, you actually felt like you were going INTO something … i.e., a lively city. But it didn’t take long to deteriorate. By the mid-1970s, they were showing porno films (as were the “Center” and the “Strand,” two other downtown theaters), and had high school girls taking tickets for them. The girls would let you in if they knew you, even though all of us (the girls included) were underage. Still, it was a great place, and, sadly, nobody did much of anything to save it while they could.