File this history post under useless nostalgia. Since I obsessively search archives of revered institutions, foundations and universities on an hourly basis for anything and everything it is to be expected that I will come across photos of movie theatres from time to time. Even though I was born in the sixties and therefore wasn't around when the cinema below was showing Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharoahs in 1955 it still looks familiar. That's because the architectural look of cinemas in the fifties carried through well into the seventies and the seventies is when I started going to the movies on a regular basis.
Below is another photo of a cinema in Albany, CA in 1971. The cars have changed but the architecture has a similar feel. It's not that they're the same architecturally, because clearly they're not. It's that they have a business-like look about them, a functionality mixed with a bit of mid-century modernism. I can't pretend that these theatres look better than the palaces of the twenties and thirties, because they don't. But they're the theatres I love and the ones that bring back moviegoing memories like no other. And they just don't exist anymore.
And it's not just that they don't exist anymore. There aren't even theatres that replaced them in the same location. They got replaced and relocated. Look at the Albany cinema. Click on the photo to enlarge it. Down the street there is a silhouette of a stripper indicating that this cinema coexisted with the hardened denizens of the city, the real city, not those bullshit fantasy cities everyone has now where the downtown area is filled with chains and franchises and Ben and Jerry's and piped in music. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for my kids that Silver Spring has such a gentle, clean downtown area where they can hang out and feel safe but Lord, it's soulless.
It's nothing like the locale of the Ultravision. That's the theatre I used to go to in the seventies in the West Ashley section of Charleston, SC. I saw The Poseidon Adventure, Juggernaut and Jaws in their initial runs there and wish there were theatres like it to see movies in now. It was next to car lots and pawnshops and liquor stores. I couldn't find a picture of it online but ABC, the company that operated it, had a twin Ultravision in Deerfield, FL and that I could find a picture of, here, so you can at least see the design I'm talking about.
Later, after moving to Washington, DC in the eighties, I saw many movies at the Outer Circle on Wisconsin Avenue and was sad to see it demolished in 2007. It lasted for so long I thought for sure it would remain but alas, it couldn't survive the onslaught of the multiplexes even if I did think it was immune for a short while there. The picture below is courtesy of Rockcreek's Flickr account where I was happy to find several pics of this once great suburban cinema.
The Outer Circle was in the nowhere zone between DC and Chevy Chase, MD where you're not quite sure what city or state you're in. There were diners, banks and gas stations nearby. That doesn't mean much now I suppose but NOT being in a multiplex by a mall or a Disney-fied Downtown gave it a very different feeling that is hard to describe now. There was a feeling you could be walking down the street and suddenly happen upon a cinema next to the Phillips 66 and say to yourself or your walking companion, "Hey, want to see a movie?"
I miss the sleek lines and non-busy look of the mid-century to mid-sixties cinemas that filled my youth. They weren't as formal as the original movie palaces, not as corporate as the multiplexes that followed. They were slightly trashy and often times out of the way. They were next to fast food joints, bars and truckstops in the places that zoning forgot. I'd like someone to revive them but it's a bit like trying to make a campy film. If your intention is camp then it's not camp. For these cinemas to succeed they need a specific time, place and feel that's gone and will remain gone. But never let it be forgotten.
23 comments:
"I miss the sleek lines and non-busy look of the mid-century to mid-sixties cinemas that filled my youth"
I agree. Movie theatres just aren't the same.
I love going on Cinematour and Cinematreasures and looking at all the theatres that no longer exist.
While multiplexes may have better projection, and stadium seating allows better views of the screens, theatres just aren't the same today.
Oh how I empathize with this post. We used to have a small theater in Keizer, OR where I grew up that showed all of the films the bigger theater didn't want to show. I saw a lot of bad action films there, and even though the theater was still corporate owned, it didn't feel like it. Unlike the "nicer" theaters, Keizer Cinemas was kind of run down and dark and really just the perfect environment for the kinds of movies they showed (bad action films and horror movies). I remember seeing Jackie Brown there and then the next month they tore the place down and turned it into a car dealership.
Even though the theater wasn't as cool sounding as some of the places you mentioned, Greg, it has a lot of nostalgic value for me. It was next to a fast food joint and a bowling alley, its walls were plastered with a barrage of 70's/80's movies posters, overlapping each other. When I would wait in line to get into the auditorium I would look at the walls and quiz myself to see if I could see which poster art I recognized (Shock Waves and 976-Evil were some of my favorites). That theater was wonderful. And now...ugh...yeah, car dealership, seriously. You're right about theaters being way too sleek looking, and my god, the advertisements that assault your senses once you walk into a movie theater these days...
Great post. Now I'll be in a nostalgic mood all day, hehe.
Whoah. Wait. 2 comments?
Did you somehow piss everyone off while I was away Greg?
I mean Bill is already pissed, so you didn't really have to do anything to tip him off.
Anywho, I love this post. I'm always hoping against hope that the pendulum will swing back towards the old-timey theaters, but I know that will never happen.
I used to have a theater in Omaha, NE that I always went to called The Indian Hills Theater. It had the fake trees inside and the rock gardens and it had concession stands on either side of the theater. Inside the actual theater.
The State Theater in Lincoln had blue lights as its lighting so even when the lights were down, my white socks still glowed. It was in the heart of downtown and had a great magic and gag shop next door where I always purchased a whoopie cushion, regardless of how many I had back at home.
Ah, good times.
I guess anyone idolizes the cinematic experiences of their youth. I've never really had that--- for the movies I saw when I was younger, even the ones I quite liked, I probably couldn't tell you which theater I saw them at. The age of the multiplex has made them all blend in with one another.
But nothing can beat the splendor of the architecture of the early movie theaters. There's one in Suffern, NY--- about 45 minutes away. Still a single screen! And they used to have a 'Big Screen Classics' series showing there, where I got to see North by Northwest and the original King Kong in all their 35mm splendor.
Or the great Ziegfeld in Manhattan, the only place that feels like home to me in that borough. I could live there. It's a freaking palace.
Multiplexes make the movie-going experience bland and indistinct. Which is in keeping with how films are made these days, anyway.
Moviezzz, there are still some old theatres in downtown DC that show second-run features but they're not quite the same as the Outer Circle which was a stand alone across from a Steak and Egg Diner and a gas station. And I loved the name, the Outer Circle, which is where I always felt I belonged anyway.
Keizer Cinemas was kind of run down and dark and really just the perfect environment for the kinds of movies they showed.
Kevin, that's how I feel about most of the older theatres. One I didn't mention in this post but longtime visitors here will remember me mentioning, often, is the Pinehaven in North Charleston, complete with balcony and smoking section. And man was it a dump! And in a shithole part of town. But it was home for my outings with my brother and me to see things like Christine or The Thing or Halloween. It was the perfect showcase for those movies and made the experience somehow better because it smelled like stale beer, urine and cigarette smoke most of the time.
Whoah. Wait. 2 comments?
Did you somehow piss everyone off while I was away Greg?
Pat, it's just the first time you've ever showed up within an hour of me posting. Also, it's a fairly limited topic.
and it had concession stands on either side of the theater. Inside the actual theater.
You know, the Uptown Cinema in DC has concession stands inside the theatre too. It also has rats that you can see running along the bottom of the screen so it's sometimes best practice to avoid the concessions there. It's a great old movie palace though, the kind that came before the ones I write about in this post. These ones I'd call the 'tweeners. Between the palaces and the multiplexes and all but forgotten.
Ryan, that's too bad that you'll never know these. As I said to Pat in the previous comment, these are the forgotten cinemas. The ones that you can go to in NY that you write about or that I can visit in Silver Spring, are the renovated palaces of old. No one however, will ever renovate the 'tweeners. They came, hung out for about thirty years and then disappeared. Dammit.
Thanks for the link to my flickr account - I'm glad to see someone else loved the Outer Circle as much as I did :)
Ryan (Shepard, that is) - No problem. I put up a lot of public domain photos here but when I put up a personal Flickr photo I follow the guidelines and link back to the source. I'd want folks to do the same with my photos.
And the Outer Circle had such a great design. I always loved seeing it pass by the window as I took one of the 30, 32, 34 or 36 buses to work in Chevy Chase every day. It also allowed me to always know what was playing there so I could decide if I wanted to get off the bus halfway back after work and see a movie.
what is that arthouse theater on the edge of d.c.? maybe near georgetown? I went there once years ago...
Larry, there were two in Georgetown: The Key Theatre and The Biograph. Both are now closed. The Key space is now a furniture store and the Biograph space now houses a drugstore. I saw Citizen Kane on the big screen for the first time at the Biograph and every year my friends and I would attend the animated filmfest where in three or so hours you would see practically every animated short from around the world including an assortment of previous Oscar winners. I loved attending those. I'm still a little peeved that they both closed.
Piper, I'm always pissed off at Greg, but I comment anyway. Sigh.
The "Outer Limits" looks architecturally like it belongs in the "nowhere zone" you describe. It's top-heavy, for God's sake.
My favorite neighborhood cinema was Crest, which is still a neighborhood theater. Come to think of it, I think I'll write something about it.
Greg, forget what I said about being pissed off, you the man!
When I lived in NYC, I sometimes saw films because they also happened to be at favorite theaters, like the Criterion which maybe had the biggest screen ever.
My favorite theater when I was younger was the Valencia in Evanston, IL. For a while, I was young enough to spend a quarter for admission, plus another quarter for popcorn and soda. It was mostly a second run house. Biggest regret was not being cinematically savvy at the age of 11 to catch the double feature of Trapeze and The Naked Spur back in 1962.
The Outer Circle Olson, the Outer Circle . So anyway, it was an awesome tweener of a theater. Seriously, all you ever hear about these days are the old time palaces or the multiplexes. No one ever talks about the tweeners. So yeah, write it up, I'll read it!
Biggest regret was not being cinematically savvy at the age of 11 to catch the double feature of Trapeze and The Naked Spur back in 1962.
And yet you remember. I still remember movies I didn't see from decades back too. There was a great sci-fi/horror/exploitation festival in Charleston back in the seventies. I had the poster listing all the movies on my bedroom wall for years. Anyway, I saw the Creature from the Black Lagoon/It Came From Outer Space 3-D Double feature but always wondered, looking back on the poster why I missed the Dementia 13/Night of the Living Dead double feature. Boy, what a moron I was.
Peter - I think I went to the Valencia once, and not for a movie. They turned it into a performing arts stage before they closed it. The one I liked was the Evanston, which was still open in the mid 90s, gone now.
In my youth, I went to a modern movie palace called the Golf Mill, a standalone in the vast parking lot of a mall. It still stands but as a fitness center.
I don't have a lot of nostalgia for these theatres; we still have a few of them around in the 'burbs and the city (though the city ones are not of the modern style you're longing for). I'm not a very nostalgic person when it comes to movie theatres (or much of anything, truth to tell).
Marilyn, why are you so hardened to the futile delights of pining for something that will never return? Must you live in the present, the here and now, never longing for something pointless, hopeless and impossible to return to?
Oh wait I think I just answered my own question.
I sometimes wish I could watch "Garfield Goose" with Frasier Thomas again, or "Hardrock, Coco, and Jo" and some other kids stuff I used to watch from the old days of WGN-TV.
Oh wait, I can go back to those; I have them on tape. So, nope, no nostalgia - they exist in the here and now.
You've foiled me... again! I'm your fool.
(twists hands with triumphant glee)
I was well into my 20s and steeped in cinephilia, so I did see Creature from the Black Lagoon (impressive) and It Came from Outer Space (not as good) in 3D at the Paramount Theater in NYC.
So it was the same double feature that I saw? I thought it was just for the festival I attended but I guess those two always played together. And yes, Creature is better than Outer Space but seeing the Professor controlled by aliens is always worth the price of admission. And seeing those hilarious looking aliens too come to think of it.
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