Also, the Street View image of this theater is about 5 blocks off. Aurora Cinema was a few steps from the corner of 130th and Linden. The back side of the building faced Linden, the entrance was on the East side and faced Aurora Avenue. Parking was to the South and East of the building. There is a large apartment complex on the site today.
I agree with what Stan has said above, especially the Coke/Pepsi comment as I did the same. I am not sure if it was in the terms of the lease for this property or perhaps this was one of the few GCC owned rather than leased buildings but cinema staff was responsible for parking lot cleaning and maintenance. I have memories of staff repainting the white lines between parking spaces during the down time when all three shows were in. It was not the quickest (or the neatest) way for sure. Paint for a few minutes and then clean up and serve customers for a bit and then back outside to paint. I’m glad I was in the booth and did not have any part of this project.
I am going to guess the date of this photo to the mid to late 1960’s. State Route 599 is still under construction in the picture and it opened in 1968. The large building across U.S. 99 from the theater was once a Holiday Inn.
I can a small amount of information. The opening projectionist in 1948 was Mr. Ashley (Ash) Bridgham. The closing projectionist in 1979 was the same Ashley Bridgham. Ash worked other theaters in the area between these dates but he did both open and close this drive in. Prior to the Duwamish, Ash had worked at the Roxy in Renton. He started his career in the late 1920’s. He retired along with the theater in 1979 and passed away about 1984 or so. Ash told me that due to the swampy wetland to the north of the site, mosquitos were a bit of an issue at this theater. The theater was never automated and remained a manual booth to it’s closing day. It had Brenkert BX-80 projectors and RCA soundheads. It is possible I can find some more information in the files of the old projectionists union local 154 in Seattle. I am an officer of IA local 15 that now represents the few remaining Union projectionists in Seattle.
At the very much smaller and less ornate theater in my small home town I also did the marquee change to “WW”. I was still in high school and working as projectionist, janitor, marquee changer, cashier, concession worker, and anything else that needed to be done.
I found, by accident, some late 1960’s 8mm footage of the Weis Drive In on Youtube. The Drive in footage starts at 1:03 and runs through 3:15 in the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGEF7C58Vs8. The comments with the video say that their father was the projectionist there.
No, it is not. It is very dark inside but I was able to see that the wall between the lobby and the auditorium has been removed and the floor leveled. It looks like the main floor interior has been subdivided into smaller rooms.
Roman-Holliday: Was your manager’s name perhaps Corrine Strello (unsure of spelling)? Mrs. Strello was a manager for SRO theaters from the late 1950’s until retiring from SRO’s Cinerama in the early 1980’s. I worked for her at the Cinerama. Such things would never be allowed today but her husband managed for a competitor, National General’s Crossroads Cinema in Bellevue.
When opened, the projectionists were: Thomas Watters, Jr, George Worst, and Jack Bostock. George and Jack passed away years ago and Tommy passed away on July 28, 2016. Tommy was the Business Agent for IATSE Projectionists Local 154 from 1968 until his retirement in 1999. He left the Aurora Cinema and went to the Oak Tree Cinema in 1986.
This theater was a near identical twin of the Factoria Cinemas in it’s original 3 screen configuration. Two 400 seat houses at either end of the building with a 200 hundred seat house between. It opened about 6 months after the Factoria. All booths were identical insofar as equipment goes. New Simplex 35 projectors with lens turrets, rebuilt RCA 9030 soundheads, Xetron 2000W lamphouses. Dolby stereo with CP 50’s and BGW amplifiers in each house. The booth did not originally have platters, SRO seemed to prefer Cinemeccanica towers as film transport devices during this time frame. I worked there in the 1981/82 time frame a few times as a relief projectionist. It was always a nice house to work, SRO took very good care of their theatres as well as their employees. SRO was a class act, they were not a cheap operator.
I drove by on my way back from Portland yesterday. The theatre remains closed but the lobby has been rented out as retail space. The exterior of the building is in perfect condition, the grounds and parking lot are well maintained.
One of the nicest features about working at the John Danz as an IATSE projectionist was the fact that the building was partially built into a slope. At the rear of the theatre was a door that led directly into the booth with only 3 steps up. Also, a reserved projectionist parking spot next to the door.
The Lake was at first a single screen. Judging from it’s appearance, I would guess 1940’s or early 50’s construction. In 1979 or 80, the original auditorium was split and 2 new ones added alongside for a total of 4. It closed when the Fairchild Cinemas opened.
One of several new high rise office towers for Amazon now sits in the site of the KIng. One of the plastic panels from the “King Kat” sign now hangs on the wall of a coffee shop across the street.
Ericrising; I worked there as an infrequent relief projectionist from November of 1981 until October of 1982 when I went full time. When I started, Henry Cannon was the chief projectionist and Jerry Keene was the #2. I replaced Jerry when he left in October 1982. Henry is in his 80’s, still active and happy in retirement. Jerry left town shortly after he left the King.
As of June 14, this former theater is vacant and available for lease. Given the incredible construction boom in downtown Seattle that is presently underway, I don’t doubt that it will be demolished in the not too distant future to make way for yet another high rise.
As a Union projectionist, young and new to Seattle, I got very lucky and wound up running Raiders matinees in 70mm all Summer long in 1981. The booth had been automated by the time I came to the Southcenter. It had a single Century JJ II projector (it’s mate went to the John Danz Theatre in Bellevue), a Christie Autowind 3 platter, Xetron 4,000 watt Xenon lamphouse. Audio was a Dolby CP100 with BGW amps. Original “Voice of the Theater” speakers were still in place. Automation was an SRO Theaters custom made “Commander”. They installed this automation unit into all of their theaters.
The picture on top is indeed the seattle Cinerama. It has been remodeled again since the picture was taken. If the screening of 2001 that you saw was about 3 years ago, it would have been Paul Allen’s own personal 70mm print (newly struck from the negative) for this screening. If you saw it on a Saturday night, I would have been the projectionist who ran it. When running film (rare these days but it does happen) the Cinerama is a 2 projector manual changeover booth with Kinotone 35/70 machines. Theatre now has Dolby Atmos sound and 6K digital laser projection as well.
At the time of closure the Aurora DI was equipped with Brenkert BX-80 projectors, RCA 9030 soundheads, ORC 4,000 Watt Xenon lamps and it was a manually operated changeover booth. No automation ever installed. It still had in car speakers, radio sound was never installed. There had been homes built right up to the property line in the years since the Aurora opened, when the last show of the night started the field attendants had to run around the field turning down speakers where cars had left. The neighbors would be calling the police with noise complaints otherwise.
The McCeachern Auditorium located within the Museum of History and Industry has closed. The Museum has moved to a new location in Seattle and their former home will soon become a freeway.
In reference to markinthedark’s question, AMC left all booth equipment in place. The theatre had been on life support (very poor business) for some time before AMC closed it, everything throughout the theatre was in pretty rough shape. SIFF has retained 35mm capability in all 3 houses and has also installed digital on all screens and installed a second 35/70 Century projector in Booth 1 to give us 2 projector changeover capability in the large house. The smaller houses have single projectors w/platters. I work for SIFF as a projectionist.
I am biased (I work here as projectionist) but the SIFF Film Center is quite possibly the nicest small auditorium in the City. Good sightlines, wall to wall screen, stadium seating. The booth is equipped for:
16mm: Eiki model EX9120M with 1200 Watt Xenon lamp
35mm: 2,000 foot reel manual changeover booth with a pair of Century model MSA projectors w/Century analog soundheads and Dolby Digital soundheads, 2,000 Watt Strong Super Lume-X Xenon lamphouses
2K digital projection: Barco model DP2K20C digital projector w/Dolby model DSS 200 server.
Audio processor is a Datasat AP20, crossover is a QSC DCM 30D, amps are all QSC, speakers are all JBL. Dolby 7.1 sound.
Also, the Street View image of this theater is about 5 blocks off. Aurora Cinema was a few steps from the corner of 130th and Linden. The back side of the building faced Linden, the entrance was on the East side and faced Aurora Avenue. Parking was to the South and East of the building. There is a large apartment complex on the site today.
I agree with what Stan has said above, especially the Coke/Pepsi comment as I did the same. I am not sure if it was in the terms of the lease for this property or perhaps this was one of the few GCC owned rather than leased buildings but cinema staff was responsible for parking lot cleaning and maintenance. I have memories of staff repainting the white lines between parking spaces during the down time when all three shows were in. It was not the quickest (or the neatest) way for sure. Paint for a few minutes and then clean up and serve customers for a bit and then back outside to paint. I’m glad I was in the booth and did not have any part of this project.
I am going to guess the date of this photo to the mid to late 1960’s. State Route 599 is still under construction in the picture and it opened in 1968. The large building across U.S. 99 from the theater was once a Holiday Inn.
I can a small amount of information. The opening projectionist in 1948 was Mr. Ashley (Ash) Bridgham. The closing projectionist in 1979 was the same Ashley Bridgham. Ash worked other theaters in the area between these dates but he did both open and close this drive in. Prior to the Duwamish, Ash had worked at the Roxy in Renton. He started his career in the late 1920’s. He retired along with the theater in 1979 and passed away about 1984 or so. Ash told me that due to the swampy wetland to the north of the site, mosquitos were a bit of an issue at this theater. The theater was never automated and remained a manual booth to it’s closing day. It had Brenkert BX-80 projectors and RCA soundheads. It is possible I can find some more information in the files of the old projectionists union local 154 in Seattle. I am an officer of IA local 15 that now represents the few remaining Union projectionists in Seattle.
At the very much smaller and less ornate theater in my small home town I also did the marquee change to “WW”. I was still in high school and working as projectionist, janitor, marquee changer, cashier, concession worker, and anything else that needed to be done.
I found, by accident, some late 1960’s 8mm footage of the Weis Drive In on Youtube. The Drive in footage starts at 1:03 and runs through 3:15 in the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGEF7C58Vs8. The comments with the video say that their father was the projectionist there.
No, it is not. It is very dark inside but I was able to see that the wall between the lobby and the auditorium has been removed and the floor leveled. It looks like the main floor interior has been subdivided into smaller rooms.
I found an recent but expired real estate listing for the MarJo, $99,900 asking price.
Roman-Holliday: Was your manager’s name perhaps Corrine Strello (unsure of spelling)? Mrs. Strello was a manager for SRO theaters from the late 1950’s until retiring from SRO’s Cinerama in the early 1980’s. I worked for her at the Cinerama. Such things would never be allowed today but her husband managed for a competitor, National General’s Crossroads Cinema in Bellevue.
When opened, the projectionists were: Thomas Watters, Jr, George Worst, and Jack Bostock. George and Jack passed away years ago and Tommy passed away on July 28, 2016. Tommy was the Business Agent for IATSE Projectionists Local 154 from 1968 until his retirement in 1999. He left the Aurora Cinema and went to the Oak Tree Cinema in 1986.
To clarify what I just wrote above, there were a total of two 400 seat houses, one on either end of the building. Not two on each end.
This theater was a near identical twin of the Factoria Cinemas in it’s original 3 screen configuration. Two 400 seat houses at either end of the building with a 200 hundred seat house between. It opened about 6 months after the Factoria. All booths were identical insofar as equipment goes. New Simplex 35 projectors with lens turrets, rebuilt RCA 9030 soundheads, Xetron 2000W lamphouses. Dolby stereo with CP 50’s and BGW amplifiers in each house. The booth did not originally have platters, SRO seemed to prefer Cinemeccanica towers as film transport devices during this time frame. I worked there in the 1981/82 time frame a few times as a relief projectionist. It was always a nice house to work, SRO took very good care of their theatres as well as their employees. SRO was a class act, they were not a cheap operator.
I drove by on my way back from Portland yesterday. The theatre remains closed but the lobby has been rented out as retail space. The exterior of the building is in perfect condition, the grounds and parking lot are well maintained.
One of the nicest features about working at the John Danz as an IATSE projectionist was the fact that the building was partially built into a slope. At the rear of the theatre was a door that led directly into the booth with only 3 steps up. Also, a reserved projectionist parking spot next to the door.
The Lake was at first a single screen. Judging from it’s appearance, I would guess 1940’s or early 50’s construction. In 1979 or 80, the original auditorium was split and 2 new ones added alongside for a total of 4. It closed when the Fairchild Cinemas opened.
One of many new high rise residential towers now occupies the entire block.
One of several new high rise office towers for Amazon now sits in the site of the KIng. One of the plastic panels from the “King Kat” sign now hangs on the wall of a coffee shop across the street.
Ericrising; I worked there as an infrequent relief projectionist from November of 1981 until October of 1982 when I went full time. When I started, Henry Cannon was the chief projectionist and Jerry Keene was the #2. I replaced Jerry when he left in October 1982. Henry is in his 80’s, still active and happy in retirement. Jerry left town shortly after he left the King.
As of June 14, this former theater is vacant and available for lease. Given the incredible construction boom in downtown Seattle that is presently underway, I don’t doubt that it will be demolished in the not too distant future to make way for yet another high rise.
As a Union projectionist, young and new to Seattle, I got very lucky and wound up running Raiders matinees in 70mm all Summer long in 1981. The booth had been automated by the time I came to the Southcenter. It had a single Century JJ II projector (it’s mate went to the John Danz Theatre in Bellevue), a Christie Autowind 3 platter, Xetron 4,000 watt Xenon lamphouse. Audio was a Dolby CP100 with BGW amps. Original “Voice of the Theater” speakers were still in place. Automation was an SRO Theaters custom made “Commander”. They installed this automation unit into all of their theaters.
The picture on top is indeed the seattle Cinerama. It has been remodeled again since the picture was taken. If the screening of 2001 that you saw was about 3 years ago, it would have been Paul Allen’s own personal 70mm print (newly struck from the negative) for this screening. If you saw it on a Saturday night, I would have been the projectionist who ran it. When running film (rare these days but it does happen) the Cinerama is a 2 projector manual changeover booth with Kinotone 35/70 machines. Theatre now has Dolby Atmos sound and 6K digital laser projection as well.
The Aurora was also the only drive in located within the actual Seattle City limits. The other nearby drive ins were all in the suburbs.
At the time of closure the Aurora DI was equipped with Brenkert BX-80 projectors, RCA 9030 soundheads, ORC 4,000 Watt Xenon lamps and it was a manually operated changeover booth. No automation ever installed. It still had in car speakers, radio sound was never installed. There had been homes built right up to the property line in the years since the Aurora opened, when the last show of the night started the field attendants had to run around the field turning down speakers where cars had left. The neighbors would be calling the police with noise complaints otherwise.
The McCeachern Auditorium located within the Museum of History and Industry has closed. The Museum has moved to a new location in Seattle and their former home will soon become a freeway.
In reference to markinthedark’s question, AMC left all booth equipment in place. The theatre had been on life support (very poor business) for some time before AMC closed it, everything throughout the theatre was in pretty rough shape. SIFF has retained 35mm capability in all 3 houses and has also installed digital on all screens and installed a second 35/70 Century projector in Booth 1 to give us 2 projector changeover capability in the large house. The smaller houses have single projectors w/platters. I work for SIFF as a projectionist.
I am biased (I work here as projectionist) but the SIFF Film Center is quite possibly the nicest small auditorium in the City. Good sightlines, wall to wall screen, stadium seating. The booth is equipped for:
16mm: Eiki model EX9120M with 1200 Watt Xenon lamp
35mm: 2,000 foot reel manual changeover booth with a pair of Century model MSA projectors w/Century analog soundheads and Dolby Digital soundheads, 2,000 Watt Strong Super Lume-X Xenon lamphouses
2K digital projection: Barco model DP2K20C digital projector w/Dolby model DSS 200 server.
Audio processor is a Datasat AP20, crossover is a QSC DCM 30D, amps are all QSC, speakers are all JBL. Dolby 7.1 sound.