Pennsylvania is facing a multi billion dollar budget deficit for the fiscal year ending June 2011 and an even bigger one for the year beginning July 01, 2100 caused in large part due to large increases in legislator and teacher pensions. Governor Corbett will be laying off hundreds of state workers.
Dauphin County is facing a major fiscal crises due to Commissioner Jeff Haste’s having signed the county as guarantor on the City of Harrisburg’s failed incinerator retrofit project such that that the county is on the hook for over 100 million dollars of the City of Harrisburg’s debt. Since the City of Harrisburg is bankrupt the taxes of everyone in Dauphin County will go up to pay for that one. In a desperate attempt to buy votes before the May primary for his re-election attempt Haste gave the funds for the Millsburg Theatre to buy votes in the northern part of the Dauphin County.
Just where does Pennsylvania – currently facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2011 have three million dollars in grant money for a multi-plex theatre? I need to talk to my legistators.
When Stanley Warner closed the Warner and gave up the lease it was at that time also operating the Colonial down the street. They did not want to bother to take out the seats at the Warner, however in order to make it more difficult for someone to come and resume operations at the Warner they had a small bobcat come in and bulldoze and knock over all the seats in the auditorium so that it could not be easily reused as movie theatre. That the way business was done in those days. Gene Plank from the Embassy showed me the pictures of the bobcat plowing down the seats.
Mark this one closed as of November 28, 2010. It was ironically a victim of its own success.
When it opened in May 1991 the Central Pennsylvania theatre market consisted only of aging twins and older outdated theatres – most of which had poor presentations.
The staggering boxoffice success of the Colonial Commons over the next five years sparked a multiplex building frenzy such that between 1997 and 2007 the Central Pennsylvania market became so vastly overscreened that no one was making any money.
The first time that AMC went public it sold a lot of its shares to its employees and their retirement plans. AMC then wanted to take itself private and tried to squeeze its shareholders. The whole mess resulted in a myriad of class action lawsuits.
Be afraid. Those that don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
The Cinema North opened in December 1965 with “Do Not Disturb” with Doris Day and Rod Taylor.
It is a true testament to how cheap the Slotnicks were that they built this nice nearly 800 shopping center theatre and then put old time used E-7 projection equipment in it.
You might want to look at and perhaps contact the Lakeview Cinema in Galeton Pennsylvania which is a multi function facility and movie theatre converted from a Baptist Church
Actually in this case the land was never sold for development of a shopping center. Instead the owners of the drive-in developed the shopping center themselves and I believe those fellows still own and manage that shopping center today.
If I recall correctly the chief projectionist at the Fox was Red Gift. The Fox Theatre was built and operated by Fox Theatres of Reading PA.
At that time Fox Theatres of Reading was a weak sister in the Reading market. The Reading market was considered by the distributors at that time to be part of the Philadelphia territory and thus Fox was competing for product with the Colonial (Stanley Warner), the Embassy (Fabian), the Astor (William Goldman) and later the Eric (Sameric). All of these major chains had a large presence in Philadelphia and product was often split and pictures were often ‘blocked booked’ based upon a chain’s control of what was happening in Philadelphia. Shince Fox Theatres of Reading did not have any venues in Philadelphia they often struggled to get pictures for the Fox in Reading despite being a premium 70MM house.
I remember at one time the Fox was reduced to playing Deep Throat in 1972 for lack of product. Although the Fox did play Star Wars for over a year, it was then unable to secure “Empire Strikes Back” which played across the street on one side of the Eric bowling alley twin in mono sound while the 70MM Fox played some third rate piece of junk in 35mm. According to what we were told at the time Empire had been block booked into all of the Sameric theatres in the Philadelphia territory which is why the Fox could not get Empire.
The last time I was there several years ago one of the small sculpted marble wall decorations in the form of a fountain from the State Theatre was mounted on the entrance wall of the PA Rural Electric Building which now sits on the site.
There was also an separate indoor auditorium (not part of the Drive-in) as part of the Haars complex off the Siddonsburg Road. It has movable wooden chairs and still exists today.
At the Eckel in Syracuse NY they took out the Baker (center) Cinerama projector and installed a set of 70MM projectors which came from a theatre in Buffalo NY just for Sleeping Beauty.
This theatre was actually built and known formally as the Dover Cinema but more popularly referred to as the Dover Cinema at the Blue Hen Mall or the Blue Hen Mall Cinema.
Well I hope they did something with the HVAC. Back when it was still operating under the AMC banner one of the auditoriums had such a bad condensate leak that it became a small lake any time it was turned on. I am sure it has not helped that the place has been vacant and unheated for over a year.
The Majestic Theatre building was built by the Mt Penn fire company in 1923 and consisted of an auditorium, social hall and space for the fire company engines. In 1939 the auditorium was converted to show motion pictures.
I am not sure how this one passes the smell test.
Pennsylvania is facing a multi billion dollar budget deficit for the fiscal year ending June 2011 and an even bigger one for the year beginning July 01, 2100 caused in large part due to large increases in legislator and teacher pensions. Governor Corbett will be laying off hundreds of state workers.
Dauphin County is facing a major fiscal crises due to Commissioner Jeff Haste’s having signed the county as guarantor on the City of Harrisburg’s failed incinerator retrofit project such that that the county is on the hook for over 100 million dollars of the City of Harrisburg’s debt. Since the City of Harrisburg is bankrupt the taxes of everyone in Dauphin County will go up to pay for that one. In a desperate attempt to buy votes before the May primary for his re-election attempt Haste gave the funds for the Millsburg Theatre to buy votes in the northern part of the Dauphin County.
Sure hope the former employees get paid.
Just where does Pennsylvania – currently facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2011 have three million dollars in grant money for a multi-plex theatre? I need to talk to my legistators.
When Stanley Warner closed the Warner and gave up the lease it was at that time also operating the Colonial down the street. They did not want to bother to take out the seats at the Warner, however in order to make it more difficult for someone to come and resume operations at the Warner they had a small bobcat come in and bulldoze and knock over all the seats in the auditorium so that it could not be easily reused as movie theatre. That the way business was done in those days. Gene Plank from the Embassy showed me the pictures of the bobcat plowing down the seats.
Mark this one closed as of November 28, 2010. It was ironically a victim of its own success.
When it opened in May 1991 the Central Pennsylvania theatre market consisted only of aging twins and older outdated theatres – most of which had poor presentations.
The staggering boxoffice success of the Colonial Commons over the next five years sparked a multiplex building frenzy such that between 1997 and 2007 the Central Pennsylvania market became so vastly overscreened that no one was making any money.
The 70MM Todd-AO version of “Oklahoma” was the opening attraction at the Shoppingtown in Syracuse NY when the theatre debuted I believe in late 1957.
The first time that AMC went public it sold a lot of its shares to its employees and their retirement plans. AMC then wanted to take itself private and tried to squeeze its shareholders. The whole mess resulted in a myriad of class action lawsuits.
Be afraid. Those that don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
The Cinema North opened in December 1965 with “Do Not Disturb” with Doris Day and Rod Taylor.
It is a true testament to how cheap the Slotnicks were that they built this nice nearly 800 shopping center theatre and then put old time used E-7 projection equipment in it.
The movie that I remember as being the first really wide release with TV ad blockbuster was the Godfather in March of 1972.
The movie that I remember as being the first really wide release with TV ad blockbuster was the Godfather in March of 1972.
You might want to look at and perhaps contact the Lakeview Cinema in Galeton Pennsylvania which is a multi function facility and movie theatre converted from a Baptist Church
Looks like they have decided to put some money into the placeZ:
[url]http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/04/haars_drive-in_near_dillsburg.html[/url]
Actually in this case the land was never sold for development of a shopping center. Instead the owners of the drive-in developed the shopping center themselves and I believe those fellows still own and manage that shopping center today.
If I recall correctly the original manager of the Fox was Paul Angstadt who later became mayor of Reading.
If I recall correctly the chief projectionist at the Fox was Red Gift. The Fox Theatre was built and operated by Fox Theatres of Reading PA.
At that time Fox Theatres of Reading was a weak sister in the Reading market. The Reading market was considered by the distributors at that time to be part of the Philadelphia territory and thus Fox was competing for product with the Colonial (Stanley Warner), the Embassy (Fabian), the Astor (William Goldman) and later the Eric (Sameric). All of these major chains had a large presence in Philadelphia and product was often split and pictures were often ‘blocked booked’ based upon a chain’s control of what was happening in Philadelphia. Shince Fox Theatres of Reading did not have any venues in Philadelphia they often struggled to get pictures for the Fox in Reading despite being a premium 70MM house.
I remember at one time the Fox was reduced to playing Deep Throat in 1972 for lack of product. Although the Fox did play Star Wars for over a year, it was then unable to secure “Empire Strikes Back” which played across the street on one side of the Eric bowling alley twin in mono sound while the 70MM Fox played some third rate piece of junk in 35mm. According to what we were told at the time Empire had been block booked into all of the Sameric theatres in the Philadelphia territory which is why the Fox could not get Empire.
Despite being a premiere 70MM house the
The last time I was there several years ago one of the small sculpted marble wall decorations in the form of a fountain from the State Theatre was mounted on the entrance wall of the PA Rural Electric Building which now sits on the site.
There was also an separate indoor auditorium (not part of the Drive-in) as part of the Haars complex off the Siddonsburg Road. It has movable wooden chairs and still exists today.
They blast fax/email these press releases to just about anyone having anything to do with the Cinema.
More free advertising (spam) in the guise of press release.
More free advertising (spam) in the guise of press release.
At the Eckel in Syracuse NY they took out the Baker (center) Cinerama projector and installed a set of 70MM projectors which came from a theatre in Buffalo NY just for Sleeping Beauty.
This theatre was actually built and known formally as the Dover Cinema but more popularly referred to as the Dover Cinema at the Blue Hen Mall or the Blue Hen Mall Cinema.
Well if this actually gets built you can probably kiss the old historic theatre in Boyertown goodbye.
Well I hope they did something with the HVAC. Back when it was still operating under the AMC banner one of the auditoriums had such a bad condensate leak that it became a small lake any time it was turned on. I am sure it has not helped that the place has been vacant and unheated for over a year.
The Majestic Theatre building was built by the Mt Penn fire company in 1923 and consisted of an auditorium, social hall and space for the fire company engines. In 1939 the auditorium was converted to show motion pictures.