1863 Cinema
36 Michigan Avenue,
Smithers,
WV
25186
36 Michigan Avenue,
Smithers,
WV
25186
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 16 comments
I can’t believe I forgot “Walking Tall: The Final Chapter” — it was the first movie shown in the 1863 Cinema.
A “complete” list of movies shown in the 1863 Cinema I compiled years ago. These are from memory and the projection booth wall (where we wrote the names of the movies).
The movies are listed by year of release, not necessarily the year they were shown in the 1863 Cinema. Titles with an asterisk (*) may not have been shown (again, going from memory).
MOVIES SHOWN AT THE 1863 CINEMA
[FROM 1974]
Blazing Saddles
[FROM 1976]
Car Wash
Eat My Dust! *
The Great Smokey Roadblock *
The Gumball Rallay *
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
Ode to Billy Joe
Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare
[FROM 1977]
Across the Great Divide
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training *
Buck Rogers (This was a re-release of the 1950s serial converted into a full-length feature. It was promoted as “Star Wars Owes it all to Buck Rogers.”)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Damnation Alley *
End of the World
For the Love of Benji
Freaky Friday
The Gauntlet (the 1st Cinemascope movie ever shown in the 1863)
The Goodbye Girl
Grand Theft Auto *
Heroes
High Anxiety
High Velocity
In Search of Noah’s Ark
Pete’s Dragon
Saturday Night Fever
Slap Shot *
Smokey and the Bandit
Star Wars
Which Way is Up?
You Light Up My Life
[FROM 1978]
The Amazing Captain Nemo *
American Hot Wax
The Bad News Bears Go To Japan
Beyond and Back
Born Again
The Buddy Holly Story
Casey’s Shadow
The Cat From Outer Space
Coach
Convoy
Damien: Omen II
Deathsport
Every Which Way But Loose
F.I.S.T.
Foul Play
Goin' South *
Grease
Harper Valley PTA
Hooper
Hot Lead and Cold Feat
Ice Castles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
It Lives Again
Jaws 2
Laserblast
Magic
Movie Movie *
Oliver’s Story *
The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2
Piranha
Return From Witch Mountain
Revenge of the Pink Panther
Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Stingray
Thank God It’s Friday
They Went That-A-Way and That-A-Way
Warlords of Atlantis
[FROM 1979]
Note: Most of the movies from 1979 are unconfirmed because, after the theater closed, my father and I went to the 7th Heaven theater which was owned by friends of his. I probably saw some of these at the 7th Heaven in Cheylan, WV.
Alien
The Black Stallion *
Breaking Away *
Escape from Alcatraz *
Fast Break *
A Little Romance (The last movie shown in the 1863 Cinema)
Mountain Family Robinson *
Norma Rae
North Dallas Forty *
On the Air Live with Captain Midnight *
[MISCELLANEOUS TITLES — I DIDN’T LOOK THE YEARS UP FOR THESE]
High Ballin'
Seven Blows of the Dragon
Horror of Dracula
Curse of Frankenstein
Superman: The Movie
The End
Raggedy Ann and Andy Movie
International Velvet
Death on the Nile * (may have been Murder on the Orient Express)
Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
The Shaggy D.A.
The Wiz
Young Frankenstein
Jason and the Argonauts
Simon, King of the Witches
Born Free
Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World
American Graffiti
Take This Job and Shove It
[Serials]
Captain Marvel
Batman
Thanks, Ken.
kpkilburn2: I have now added a page for Cinema 63, Ansted, WV.
On my blog, you can see a video tour of the 1863 Cinema as it was in 2000 operating as an auction house. The wallpaper was still intact and the writing in the projection booth was still legible.
http://kpkilburn.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/1863-cinema/
I was looking for a theater in Anstead, WV called the Ritz, later reopened and renamed Cinema 63 by my father. I don’t see it on the site, but maybe I’m just missing it?
Yes, “1863” was to commemorate WV and was also used for a restaurant my father owned before he opened the theater. He kept the name “1863” for the theater when he reopened it in 1977.
Clickable version of kpkilburn2’s link. Zooming in on the Google street view you can see the address, 36 Michigan Avenue, on the door of the building.
The building looks as though it could have been built in 1863, so I’m wondering if that’s how the theater got its name? Or was it named to commemorate West Virgina’s admission to the Union as a state in 1863?
I checked out the picture and I could barely make out part of “Fountain”, cool!
Here’s the short URL of the same link above:
http://goo.gl/maps/pmLuT
If you look at the upper left of the building, “Fountain” is engraved above the air conditioners. It’s not legible in the picture though (and perhaps not in real life either).
The actual location is here:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=smithers,+wv&hl=en&ll=38.180353,-81.306607&spn=0.000008,0.005284&sll=39.311576,-94.922868&sspn=0.292727,0.676346&t=h&hnear=Smithers,+Fayette+County,+West+Virginia&z=18&layer=c&cbll=38.180267,-81.306571&panoid=kQwphkqaEeum4lZAwy2EZw&cbp=12,239.1,,0,-1.46
The building still exists as an indoor archery range.
Thanks, Joe.
Boxoffice has uploaded its archive to issuu.com. The 1978 mention of the 1863 Cinema is brief, and is the only one I’ve found in the magazine. It is simply listed among a number of theaters for which Mid America Theatre Service was doing booking and buying.
The scan is here. The mention is in the “Cincinnati” column.
Wow, do you still happen to have that issue of Boxoffice (or a scan)? I’d love to see it.
Unfortunately, there are very few pictures we took while operating the theater. I was able to visit it in 2000 and would you believe that all of the graffiti we wrote on the projection booth walls was still there? Every movie shown, we wrote on the walls.
I have hardcopy pics in storage and will scan them someday.
I think I had a comment on this page, too, and it’s gone. It looks as though the comments on the page all got lost in some sort of digital disaster. Blasted computers.
Anyway.
The January 2, 1978, issue of Boxoffice mentions the 1863 Cinema at Smithers, West Virginia, operated by James Kilburn.
It appears that Bill and Al Thalhimer’s Logan Theatres operated the Fountain Theatre for a while in the late 1940s-early 1950s, according to a couple of mentions in Boxoffice. I’ve been unable to find any connection between Logan Theatres and the Fountain in later issues of Boxoffice.
In fact I’ve not found the Fountain mentioned in Boxoffice later than 1955, but it’s mentioned in the May 19, 1931, issue of Exhibitor’s Forum as one of several houses that had recently installed Photophone (or Phototone) sound equipment.
Why was my previous comments deleted?
The Fountain Theater was open in the late 70s (not early 70s as stated) and was run by my father. It was renamed The 1863 Cinema. It held 200 seats and closed in 1979.
First movie: Walking Tall – Final Chapter
Last move: A Little Romance