Times Theater

Here is information about the Times Theatre from a history timeline on the city’s web site: “Construction on the Savanna Times Theater was started in 1941 and has been a fixture at 222 Main Street since the showing of ‘The Wife Takes a Flyer’ on July 28, 1942.”

The Times was built by James and August Marchesi, who sold the house to Robert Shrake of Savanna and Raymond Hoy of Fulton in 1963. The new partners re-opened the house on Christmas Day with “The Thrill of It All”.

After a brief closure in August, 2012, the Times Theater has reopened under new management. See this note, posted on the Big Screen Cinema Guide site.

In 1963, the Marchesi brothers owned the Times. August Marchesi was president and film buyer. Other Marchesi theaters in Illinois were the Amboy in Amboy and the Town in Prophetstown.

The theater was renovated from a single-screen to a twin in 1979. The theater shut down in either January or February of ‘79 and reopened as a twin theater around June or July of that same year. One of the first features to play in the twin theater that summer was “The Muppet Movie”, followed a week or two later by “Apocalypse Now”, both of which my dad took me to see… since I hadn’t quite turned ten yet. Eastwood’s “Every Which Way But Loose” was one of the last movies to play on the theater’s single screen before it was shut down for the remodeling.

I think the Times is a small regional chain. I seem to recall some others from my roadtrip. The lower story appears to be covered in black plywood, and the marquee looks like it was ruined during the ‘60s or '70s.