The NEW Granada Theatre (the one after the fire) was a stadium type theatre with no balcony. This is the theatre that was later converted to two-screen. Ken Workman, the district manager quoted in the Gazette article, was also the manager of the co-owned Majestic Theatre a few blocks away on E 2nd and Lake Street.
I worked as a part time projectionist at the Sierra from 1956 through the early 60s (also the Lassen Auto Movie). The first movie I remember running by myself was the Elvis Presley film, “Love Me Tender.” The Sierra used Super Simplex projectors, Simplex XL soundheads and Peerless Magnarc lamps. The sound amp was Western Electric. The original projectors were moved to the drive-in in the early 50s when the Sierra was equipped to show 3D movies. I think the Sierra was owned by United California Theatres at this time.
I lived in Mariposa as a small child in the early and mid 1950s. Each Saturday my mother would drop my sister and me off at the Merced Theatre while she went grocery shopping. Naturally for a seven year old, it seemed bigger and more lavish than it would as an adult, but THIS is the theatre that started my fascination with movie palace architecture so many years ago. For a city the size of Merced, this was quite a theatre.
Correction: Majestic was E FIRST Street.
The NEW Granada Theatre (the one after the fire) was a stadium type theatre with no balcony. This is the theatre that was later converted to two-screen. Ken Workman, the district manager quoted in the Gazette article, was also the manager of the co-owned Majestic Theatre a few blocks away on E 2nd and Lake Street.
I worked as a part time projectionist at the Sierra from 1956 through the early 60s (also the Lassen Auto Movie). The first movie I remember running by myself was the Elvis Presley film, “Love Me Tender.” The Sierra used Super Simplex projectors, Simplex XL soundheads and Peerless Magnarc lamps. The sound amp was Western Electric. The original projectors were moved to the drive-in in the early 50s when the Sierra was equipped to show 3D movies. I think the Sierra was owned by United California Theatres at this time.
I lived in Mariposa as a small child in the early and mid 1950s. Each Saturday my mother would drop my sister and me off at the Merced Theatre while she went grocery shopping. Naturally for a seven year old, it seemed bigger and more lavish than it would as an adult, but THIS is the theatre that started my fascination with movie palace architecture so many years ago. For a city the size of Merced, this was quite a theatre.
I saw “2001 a Space Odyssy” at the Crest for the first time in 1968. My friend, Thomas Farrell, was one of the projectionists on duty that night.