Old Movie Theaters...

[Spawn67]

Anyone hear ever drive by a spot where a movie theatre u used to go to stood that is no longer there? A theatre where you saw some amazing movies when you were a kid and even some obscure movies as well as box office hits. Kinda saddens me that most of the theatres that i went to as a kid are long gone. I remember when one theater would show 2 movies and there would be theatres all around town that would just show one or 2 movies. The mall of course had multiple theatres as well which still stands to this day. Its just something special about a place where movie theaters once stood.

[kryptosmaster]

Just last year I went "home" to find the local Drive-In theater demolished. It had been there since the 40's or 50's.
I remember going there quite often as a kid.
Rich

[toys2cool]

yeah they tore down one here in Miami called Kendall 9, what was cool was they actually had movie stars hand prints like in Hollywood that were there when they first opened like Mr.Miyagi and they destroyed it

[Mikey]

This was my hometown theatre.

Today it's a piano repair shop.

The owners kept the theater look for nostalgia - which is neat.



m

[Monsterama2000]

There used to be a theater here in Akron called The Lyn. It had one giant screen with a stage and even had a balcony. It's now a Blockbuster.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

It's sad isn't it...I guess it is the price of technology.

[kingdom warrior]

I recently went back to my old neighborhood to take some snap shots. When I was a Kid I went to the Loews Broadway theater in Brooklyn later renamed Rio Piedras. I saw both American movies and Spanish movies there. this is where I saw all My Masked Wrestler movies. Godzilla movies and other movies. It was pretty much a grindhouse where everyone came to see movies in my neighborhood.

They would also Have live shows Boxing matches and local wrestling.

It's said that Mae West once performed there....as a Kid I saw Iris Chacon a Famous Puerto Rican singer and dancer known as "La Vedette de America" (America's Showgirl) Perform there

The Theater can be seen in the movies "The French Connection" "Ghost" and "Cops and Robbers"

The Theater closed in the Late 80's and was left abandoned the wheather pretty much destroyed it over the years and it was finally torn down in the 90's today it's just a big vacant lot......

Early 1900's pic of the theater




The empty lot today where the theater use to stand

[RG]

there was an old drive in, in salem ... they tore down but is now a nice indoor theater ... but they kept the large sign to the old drive in.

now there is the palace theater in my town of silverton, built in 1935 ... it's still open and runs first run movies... just saw Iron Man 2 there on opening day. Great place, I saw my first movie there as a kid, and the place looks the same.

[LonnieFisher]

I had the unfortunate job of tearing out a lot of the seats and counters and stuff out of the Westgate theater in Beaverton, Oregon when it got demolished. The same place I saw movies like Logan's Run, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Superman, Star Trek, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Close Encounters, and so many, many others. It really sucked. Ruined a lot of great memories for me. Now if I take the public transit train (MAX) I have to go right by the pile of rubble that's still there.

[rche]

Two places come to mind for me.

First is the Highland theater. I can fondly remember waiting in a line that wrapped around the block twice to get tickets to see the Empire Strikes Back there. Also saw the first Superman movie; again a giant line.

The other was Don Pancho's theater which used to show Rocky Horror every Saturday night.

There were a few others in querqe; the Guild, and Lobo come to mind. Sat night midnight movies were pretty big with some of the folks I hung with at the time.

[kryptosmaster]

Also saw the first Superman movie; again a giant line.

You reminded of another theater I loved. It was called the Holiday Showcase. There were six screens but the two BIG screens were in a separate building up near the road (the other 4 were in a smaller building at the back of the parking lot).
The 2 big screens always showed the blockbusters. They were HUGE curved screens, floor to ceiling. I saw Superman and King Kong and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers there in the 70's. Never seen any screens like that again. These were made for Cinemascope movies I think.
They knocked that whole complex down. I think it's a strip mall/shopping center now. Was located across the street from the Galleria Mall in Buffalo/Cheektowaga, NY on Union Rd.

Rich

[cjefferys]

Most of the places where I watched movies when I was a kid are now long gone. Once in a while, my journeys take me past the places where those theatres used to be, and it makes me sad to see that they are gone.

[alex]

The small cinemas simply cant compete with the big multiplex ones, and they go under. I have a cinema literally next door to me, it was going to be closed down, but they saved it, by showing arty farty films, and lesser known titles. They sometimes have horror weekends, showing obscure 70's foreign titles, dubbed into english. All films here have subtitles(thankgod), unlike the germans where they dub everything.

[jwyblejr]

The movie theater I went to in Cooperstown as a kid is now a baseball card store.

[Goblin19]

Yep, it's always sad. My one neighborhood theatre is still around. The other one that I really went to as a kid is still there, but is no longer a theatre. A church uses it on Sundays.