UA Route 59 Theatre

This venue’s 70mm presentations history is included in the recently-published article “70mm Presentations in Rockland County: A Chronology of 70mm Large Format Exhibition, 1962-Present”.

When it was a Cinerama theatre, did it have three projection booths or were all three projectors in one large booth? Also, when Cinerama was removed from the newspaper ads, did they remove the deeply curved screen? Was the curved screen ever removed?

This opened as Skouras Route 59 theatre. Grand opening ad posted

Is this was also the Kennedy mall cinema that showed Bollywood features> if it is they twin the theater

growing up in pre-multiplex, pre-cable — black & white TV Rockland County, there was no place that compared with the “59 theater”. a beautiful SOA movie house that ran the best films as they they were released (talk about “on demand”). at eight years old I saw “Laurence” in its first run, I still have the color booklet — less the cover. three years later I embarrassed myself with buddies by welling-up during “Zhivago”… too many movies to mention, were burned into my brain at the “59 theater” that probably sharpened my view of life… thanks Ken Lehman

cd

As manager of the Route 59 Theatre from 1963 to 1965 I ran reserved seat performances of “Mutiny On The Bounty”,“Lawrence of Arabia” as well as the 3-strip showing of “How the West Was Won in "CINERAMA.” We followed “West” with the original “This Is Cinerama” and “Cinerama Holiday.” In addition to the 3 Cinerama projectors we had to install a 4th projector for the Lowell Thomas “introduction” in the old format to “This Is Cinerama.”

These special Cinerama projectors have a 6 sprocket “pull-down” as opposed to the normal 4 sprocket pull-down.

I enjoyed seeing the newspaper ad for “West” in Bill Huelbig’s comments as well as the interior photos from Kencmcintyre’s comments.

This was a Skouras Theatre at the time later to become UA Theatres.

The CINERAMA neon sign was later taken down off the front of the building and left on the lobby roof. I wonder if it’s still there?

Ken Lehman, former manager.

“This is Cinerama” closed here on 3/10/64. “Seven Wonders of the World” opened on 3/11/64:

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Followed a month later by “Cinerama Holiday” on 4/8/64:

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Less than a month after that, “South Seas Adventure” on 4/28/64:

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By July 1964, the theater was showing the movie version of “McHale’s Navy” – quite a comedown from the glories of Cinerama:

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This site has some interior photos:
http://tinyurl.com/3dlgex

Here is a 1963 ad for “How the West Was Won” in 3-strip Cinerama at the Route 59. Notice the date at the top. Most likely this big premiere never took place that night.

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Shoeshoe14 –

You must be referring to the old Rockland Drive-In — NOT the Route 59 theatre. The drive-in was/is a few miles west up the road from the former Rt.59 theatre we’re talking about.
Best, Jeff D.

I would disagree that there’s not much memorable aout this site. Yes, externally it may have been a typical 1960s cinderblock “Box”, but I always thought the interior, albeit fairly “simple”, was very nicely done, and the layout was such that the people in the theatre itself were never disturbed by anyone in the lobby (due to a wall and a “lounge” area separating the two. Most importantly is that the
PRESENTATION QUALITY at the Rt.59 theatre was always IMPECCABLE in every respect, at least back in the 60s – early 70s, no matter if they were doing a 70mm ‘Roadshow’ engagement or a normal 35mm run
(although quality was simply a matter of course even at most of the
“regular” neighborhood theatres back then).

I have many fond memories of going to see films at the Rt.59, especially their showing of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, back in ‘68. It WAS a “Cinerama’ theatre insofar as the screen was most definitely curved
but, to my recollection at least, the place was never designed or equipped to show the original true 3-Strip format. Still, the 59's
showing of "2001” was probably the single most powerful film presentation I have ever seen anywhere to this day. I saw it there 3 times and it was basically burned into my mind & senses, even now so many years later. When it was re-released in 70mm a few years later, I went to see it at the Ziegfeld in NYC. Coincidentally, the screen at the Zeigfeld was about the same size as the one at Rt.59, (50 feet) but the Zieg’s was flat and its auditorium was more than TWICE the size of the ‘59’s, so while the technial presentaion at the Ziegfeld was of its usual perfection, the experience of “2001"
(and other films) at the Rt.59 theatre just BLEW the Ziegfeld away, since one was so much more "enveloped” by the screen at the '59.

Anyway, the Rt.59 theatre retained its curved screen up until sometime in the late 70s. The theatre was never twinned (with respect to Lost Memory’s post) and remained a single screen venue up until it closed in the late 80s — although there was a noticable decline in presentation quality in ALL respects during the Rt.59 theatre’s last years.

Sorry for going on so long, but I still very much miss this theatre, at least the way it was many years ago. I do have a recent photo of the exterior back wall (basically all that remains) if anyone’s interested though. ;)

Don, you’re probably right. That ad was from the picture’s 33rd week but in this one from the first week, the Cinerama logo is there and the Cinerama lens was no doubt being used:

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Don: I wondered about that too. When “2001” played the Clairidge Theater in Montclair, some of the ads have the Cinerama logo on display and some do not. This one only says Super Panavision:

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