Westgate Cinemas
5101 Washington Avenue,
Racine,
WI
53406
5101 Washington Avenue,
Racine,
WI
53406
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp., Marcus Theatres
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Jun 18, 2010 — "Jaws"... Happy 35th!
- May 14, 2010 — Please Post Today, May 14 --- "Jaws," Happy 35th
- Sep 27, 2006 — Westgate Cinema closes
The Westgate Cinema was opened as a twin on May 29, 1968 with Lucille Ball in “Yours, Mine and Ours” & Tony Anthony in “A Stanger in Town”. It was expanded to a 5-screen theatre on February 14, 1992. It was an all stadium seat, digital sound operation. A large building with the entrance in the middle. A large bright lobby and concession area with the auditoriums spread around the lobby in a U shape. There was a large cream color portico over the entrance with glass extending up to the top of the building at the entrance. This gave the lobby a bright and airy atmosphere.
It was closed in September 24, 2006 and demolished in summer of 2017.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
The new Marcus Renaissance Theatres, 13 screens one of which is an Ultra Screen (!!) open November 17, 2006. I’ll be attending the preview party the night before, then do a remote broadcast on opening night. I’ll take pictures. Now, if I can figure out how to post ‘em, you’ll see 'em.
As a GCC house the theatre was once equipped with Sensurround (control unit #85) which was installed in their GCC Meadowdale Theatres in Carpentersville, Illinois at onetime.
The original was an outdoor theater facing to the southeast on Ohio Street, south of Washington Avenue. There were several small store fronts facing Ohio to the east, one of which was a laundromat where my Dad and I would go on Saturdays to do the laundry. I remember they had a machine known as “The Extractor”. It was a large, spinning tub dryer that extracted water from heavy items such as rugs. Directly to the north of those shops, facing Washington was Turn-Style. My Dad’s band, The Ward Allen Trio, was the house band for The Clayton House during the ‘60’s and 70’s. Great memories…
General Cinema’s Westgate Cinema was never a drive-in. The drive-in was located behind the shopping center that was anchored originally by the Turnstyle Department Store bordered by Perry Avenue, Wright Avenue and Ohio Street. When the Shopko Store was built (around 1980) the original Turnstyle store was demolished and shopping center was pushed further back to include the former drive-in property. The drive-in was single screen and separate operation that was also named Westgate.
With regard to the indoor theatre, it was built as a twin theatre and two screens were added to the original building on the east side of the property (where a hotel was demolished) and the original large 700 seat auditorium was split. The original plan was to split the second auditorium, but Ben Marcus personally liked the room and picture size and the theatre remained a 5 screen facility.
General Cinema opened Cinema I & II with “Yours, Mine and Ours” and “A Stranger in Town” on Mary 29, 1968. Ad in photos.
September 24, 2006 last day of operation with Hollywoodland, Wicker Man, Little Miss Sunshine and The Covenant.
Grand opening ad already up.
5 screens on February 14th, 1992. No special ad in the newspaper.
I worked here from 1988-91. It was so much fun, such great memories. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future are what I remember the most. Life was simpler back then. Candy, popcorn and soda! That’s it! I didn’t know it closed. What a bummer.
After sitting around abandoned for a decade, the Westgate was finally torn down this past summer. They’re going to build a bank in its place. Link: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/in-photos-former-westgate-cinema-razed/collection_509014b8-d451-5ed5-b7fe-7bb336d12724.html