There are two listings for this theater. This listing is unnecessary. The Maine Coast Mall Cinema was located at the Maine Coast Mall in Ellsworth. There was no Maine Coast Mall Cinema in Bangor.
Hollywood Cinemas currently has 7 screens and not 8. This seems to have occurred in 2013 when the Dinner and a Show theater opened. Ever since, only 7 screens have been advertised. The link to the website needs to be fixed, it is http://westside.bangorfunplex.com/ Adding the www makes it dead. Thank you.
Dinner and A Show Theater has been out of business for awhile. It stayed open for approximately one year. The entire complex which contained this theater and Movie City Cinema/Hollywood Cinema/Westside Cinema was sold. Except for the newly named Westside Cinema, the rest of the complex was remodeled to Playland Adventures Funplex.
If you look at the picture of the screen, you will notice there is a marquee in the front, too bad you can’t see it. At the top of the marquee is an arrow pointing toward the entrance. It said in neon “Drive In Entrance”. This has been restored and hangs in the Nicky’s Cruise-In Diner on Union Street in neighboring Bangor.
This twin cinema first opened in 1968. It added screens 3 and 4 in the 70’s. It closed on July 23, 1985, the day the theaters died in the Bangor/Brewer area because of the opening of the Bangor Mall 6. Always a first run theater, it held on to movies for months in the early 70’s.
The Westgate Cinema was never a twin. Opened in 1967, it showed mainstream fare until about 1974, when it turned into Bangor’s XXX theater. On Christmas Day in 1984, it turned into “The All New Westgate Cinema” going back to mainstream fare. It’s first feature under the new name was Disney’s “Pinocchio”. It showed mainstream fare until July 1985, the day the movies died in Bangor when all theaters in Bangor, Brewer, Orono and Old Town (with the exception of the otherwise owned Brewer Drive In) closed for the opening of the Bangor Mall 6.
NeonMichael, thank you for the plug for the video. I’m sorry if you interpreted the video to mean that the Bangor Drive In was an adult theater. In the late 50’s, they did show an “adult” (very mild in todays terms) double feature at midnight on Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July and Labor Day weekend. The rest of the time it was family fare, and lots of first run. From 1974 to 1978, the drive in would run XXX features in the spring and fall and revert back to family fare in the summer. When it was twinned in ‘78, it wasn’t uncommon to have one screen run G – R movies and the other screen to run XXX. By the close of the decade they went back to running mainstream movies on both screens.
Also a correction, the neon sign at Nicky’s Cruise In Diner in Bangor comes from the Brewer Drive In not the Bangor Drive In.
The University Cinema was actually located on Stillwater Avenue in Old Town.
There are two listings for this theater. This listing is unnecessary. The Maine Coast Mall Cinema was located at the Maine Coast Mall in Ellsworth. There was no Maine Coast Mall Cinema in Bangor.
Hollywood Cinemas currently has 7 screens and not 8. This seems to have occurred in 2013 when the Dinner and a Show theater opened. Ever since, only 7 screens have been advertised. The link to the website needs to be fixed, it is http://westside.bangorfunplex.com/ Adding the www makes it dead. Thank you.
Dinner and A Show Theater has been out of business for awhile. It stayed open for approximately one year. The entire complex which contained this theater and Movie City Cinema/Hollywood Cinema/Westside Cinema was sold. Except for the newly named Westside Cinema, the rest of the complex was remodeled to Playland Adventures Funplex.
If you look at the picture of the screen, you will notice there is a marquee in the front, too bad you can’t see it. At the top of the marquee is an arrow pointing toward the entrance. It said in neon “Drive In Entrance”. This has been restored and hangs in the Nicky’s Cruise-In Diner on Union Street in neighboring Bangor.
This twin cinema first opened in 1968. It added screens 3 and 4 in the 70’s. It closed on July 23, 1985, the day the theaters died in the Bangor/Brewer area because of the opening of the Bangor Mall 6. Always a first run theater, it held on to movies for months in the early 70’s.
The Westgate Cinema was never a twin. Opened in 1967, it showed mainstream fare until about 1974, when it turned into Bangor’s XXX theater. On Christmas Day in 1984, it turned into “The All New Westgate Cinema” going back to mainstream fare. It’s first feature under the new name was Disney’s “Pinocchio”. It showed mainstream fare until July 1985, the day the movies died in Bangor when all theaters in Bangor, Brewer, Orono and Old Town (with the exception of the otherwise owned Brewer Drive In) closed for the opening of the Bangor Mall 6.
NeonMichael, thank you for the plug for the video. I’m sorry if you interpreted the video to mean that the Bangor Drive In was an adult theater. In the late 50’s, they did show an “adult” (very mild in todays terms) double feature at midnight on Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July and Labor Day weekend. The rest of the time it was family fare, and lots of first run. From 1974 to 1978, the drive in would run XXX features in the spring and fall and revert back to family fare in the summer. When it was twinned in ‘78, it wasn’t uncommon to have one screen run G – R movies and the other screen to run XXX. By the close of the decade they went back to running mainstream movies on both screens.
Also a correction, the neon sign at Nicky’s Cruise In Diner in Bangor comes from the Brewer Drive In not the Bangor Drive In.