Cine Cortes
Avenida Fernandez Juncos,
San Juan
Avenida Fernandez Juncos,
San Juan
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Built in the 1940’s, this was the local neighborhood theater for the upscale Miramar section of San Juan.
A pretty small movie theater, this was a great place to watch double features. I remember watching so many movies there. from "Airport" to "Carry On" comedies to "Journey to the far side of the Sun"
Every Sunday morning the Cortes would feature a kiddie matinee in which clowns and local TV kid shows hosts would do sketches. Then it was time for a movie. And the movies were quite a diverse lot. From Tarzan movies to Disney comedies to truly wacko Mexican movies such as "Little Red riding Hood". These matinees were well attended. I distintly remember that the owners would let people sit in the aisles, breaking quite a few Fire Safety Laws in the process.
The Cortes ran the same fate as all second run features and it closed down in the early 1980’s. It was demolished and a Banco Popular branch was built in its place
Contributed by
Jose Mendez
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Miguel Angel Cortes was one of the most decent persons I ever met. He was the brother of Fernando Cortes, the Puerto Rican film director who became famous in Mexico and married Mapy Cortes (Maria del Pilar Cordero) a famous PR vedette who made several films in Hollywood and was my neighbor when I was a child; and the aunt of Mapita Cortes (born Maria de Pilar Mercado) who married Chilean singer Lucho Gatica and is the mother of Luis Gatica a Mexican TV soap opera star.
When TV came to PR, Telemundo, the first TV station in PR, hired Fernando as program director. So much for antique hstory.
Miguel Angel Cortes distributed Mexican and Spanish films and in the 60’s bought or leased the Encanto theater on Fernandez Juncos Ave. in the Miramar section of San Juan, renovated it and renamed it the Cortes Cinema. It was a charming little theater with 70mm equipment but the screen was small, so he lost all the bids for spectaculats like Lawrence of Arabia and Cleopatra to Cobian’s Metropolitan, a bigger theater with a big screen and a very good track record for spectacular films. He eventually played them in second run after they premiered at the Metropolitan. The rest of the story is above posted by Jose Mendez. Miguel Angel, you were a good competior and a good friend. Rest in peace my friend. Andres.
After posting the above comment I went into the web and there was an item aboout Mapita Cortes, that she passed away last Sunday in Mexico. I have not seen anything about her death on the PR papers. She was beautiful. Rest in peace, Mapita. God Bless. Andres.
PS: Sorry for the bad news.