The Loew’s Palace was converted to 70MM projection, I believe in the late 1950s, before it was modified for Cinerama in 1961. I think they showed “Salomon and Sheba” in 70MM but did not see this film at that time. I did see both “Ben-Hur”, on a Saturday morning sceening for students at a reduced cost of 90 cents, in about October 1960 and “Exodus” on a weekend evening showing, both in 70MM.
The LS was owned by the Loew’s theater chain until 1964 when it was sold to Gulf States Theaters, who owned it for the last six years of its existence. When it was sold in 1964, the word “Loew’s” on the front of the marquee was covered over, probably with plywood and painted yellow to match the rest of the sign, so that only the word “State” still showed, obviously somewhat off-center.
The last film to play there was “WUSA” starring Paul Newman. The wife and I saw the next to last film “The Watermelon Man” starring Godrey Cambridge.
It’s too bad that someone with sufficient funds, like Elvis Presley, couldn’t have saved this theater. We always thought it was the most beautiful downtown, even though the Orpheum, called the Malco when we knew it after the local theater chain of the same name, is very nice and still exists primarily for stage productions.
The Loew’s Palace was converted to 70MM projection, I believe in the late 1950s, before it was modified for Cinerama in 1961. I think they showed “Salomon and Sheba” in 70MM but did not see this film at that time. I did see both “Ben-Hur”, on a Saturday morning sceening for students at a reduced cost of 90 cents, in about October 1960 and “Exodus” on a weekend evening showing, both in 70MM.
The LS was owned by the Loew’s theater chain until 1964 when it was sold to Gulf States Theaters, who owned it for the last six years of its existence. When it was sold in 1964, the word “Loew’s” on the front of the marquee was covered over, probably with plywood and painted yellow to match the rest of the sign, so that only the word “State” still showed, obviously somewhat off-center.
The last film to play there was “WUSA” starring Paul Newman. The wife and I saw the next to last film “The Watermelon Man” starring Godrey Cambridge.
It’s too bad that someone with sufficient funds, like Elvis Presley, couldn’t have saved this theater. We always thought it was the most beautiful downtown, even though the Orpheum, called the Malco when we knew it after the local theater chain of the same name, is very nice and still exists primarily for stage productions.