Back in the 1950s and early 1960s there were no cineplexes. Today we have multiple screens, movies stay for weeks or even months before transitioning on to DVD. You have a choice of cineplexes. Back then a movie would come into a single screen house, stay a week, then move on to another one in the next town. On Long Island’s north shore, movies always played the Cove before they played in Great Neck at either the Squire or the Playhouse. After a week or so they’d move on to another town. If you missed a movie in your own town you had to chase it around the island to see it.
I lived in Great Neck from 1951-1963. The Playhouse most definitely showed both types of Cinerama. I saw HOW THE WEST WAS WON there in 3-strip Cinerama (curved screen) and IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD which I THINK was in the later anamorphic dumbed down single projector format (less curve). I don’t think they ever showed ToddAO there because OKLAHOMA was in Cinemascope or some such lesser anamorphic wide screen. I never saw Cinerama in Manhattan but I did see AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS in ToddAO in Manhattan and my recollection was that it was a bigger screen there than the Playhouse had for Cinerama.
I went over the pages for the theaters on this website and found the street addresses as follows:
The Ithaca Theater was at 413 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The Strand Theater was at 310-12 E. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The State Theater was at 107 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 United
The Temple Theater was at 114-16 East Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
This means that, as I remembered, the Temple was NOT on the same street as the others and therefore I don’t think it was on the near/far spectrum, and that the Ithaca and Strand were closer together than I remember, and that the STATE was the first down the hill, not the Strand. That would make the STATE the near-near. And maybe the Strand was the near-far, not the far-near. Does that make something none of us remembers the far-near? Or somehow did the Temple get that label even though it was on a side street? Again, I remember referring to 5 theaters: near-near, far-near, near-far, far-far and armpit (Temple). This all seems such a lame exercise, but it would be great if someone remebered it all!
I remember the Playhouse. It even ran Cinerama both on the original 3 projector/3 screen system and on the later single projector anamorphic system. It was a beautiful old theater.
I remember that there were 4 theaters on state street, the near-near (Strand) the far-near (State), near-far (?) and far-far (Ithaca). The Temple was on Seneca, not State, and we called it “the armpit” and it’s description on this website confirms that. I was sure there were FOUR on State plus the Temple, which means the Temple is not the near-far. Something else was the near-far. Or is my memory of the ‘60s at Cornell tricking me and there were only 3 theaters on State Street, with the near-far being on Seneca. Anyone else remember?
Back in the 1950s and early 1960s there were no cineplexes. Today we have multiple screens, movies stay for weeks or even months before transitioning on to DVD. You have a choice of cineplexes. Back then a movie would come into a single screen house, stay a week, then move on to another one in the next town. On Long Island’s north shore, movies always played the Cove before they played in Great Neck at either the Squire or the Playhouse. After a week or so they’d move on to another town. If you missed a movie in your own town you had to chase it around the island to see it.
I lived in Great Neck from 1951-1963. The Playhouse most definitely showed both types of Cinerama. I saw HOW THE WEST WAS WON there in 3-strip Cinerama (curved screen) and IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD which I THINK was in the later anamorphic dumbed down single projector format (less curve). I don’t think they ever showed ToddAO there because OKLAHOMA was in Cinemascope or some such lesser anamorphic wide screen. I never saw Cinerama in Manhattan but I did see AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS in ToddAO in Manhattan and my recollection was that it was a bigger screen there than the Playhouse had for Cinerama.
I went over the pages for the theaters on this website and found the street addresses as follows:
The Ithaca Theater was at 413 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The Strand Theater was at 310-12 E. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
The State Theater was at 107 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 United
The Temple Theater was at 114-16 East Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
This means that, as I remembered, the Temple was NOT on the same street as the others and therefore I don’t think it was on the near/far spectrum, and that the Ithaca and Strand were closer together than I remember, and that the STATE was the first down the hill, not the Strand. That would make the STATE the near-near. And maybe the Strand was the near-far, not the far-near. Does that make something none of us remembers the far-near? Or somehow did the Temple get that label even though it was on a side street? Again, I remember referring to 5 theaters: near-near, far-near, near-far, far-far and armpit (Temple). This all seems such a lame exercise, but it would be great if someone remebered it all!
I remember the Playhouse. It even ran Cinerama both on the original 3 projector/3 screen system and on the later single projector anamorphic system. It was a beautiful old theater.
I remember that there were 4 theaters on state street, the near-near (Strand) the far-near (State), near-far (?) and far-far (Ithaca). The Temple was on Seneca, not State, and we called it “the armpit” and it’s description on this website confirms that. I was sure there were FOUR on State plus the Temple, which means the Temple is not the near-far. Something else was the near-far. Or is my memory of the ‘60s at Cornell tricking me and there were only 3 theaters on State Street, with the near-far being on Seneca. Anyone else remember?