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.
From its opening in 1950 until about 1965 the Genesee was a double feature second run venue. It only started playing first run about 1965 and then managed to get Dr. Zhinvago in February 1966 because the Shoppingtown was tied up with Sound of Music.
The biggest negative of the Genesee was its low proceenium arch and narrow stage area which resulted in a relatively small screen. As a result both the flat and scope pictures were the same size.
Sadly Wattsontown was done in by the multiplex mania which has swept so many other areas of our country. With the opening of three nearby competing complexes totaling 34 screens in the past couple of years, single screen Wattsontown (which is not in an area for art or inde product) was effectively doomed. I was there this summer when the Watson played Disney’s “UP” on national break and the place was empty.
Typically after such a theatre such as Wattsontown closes the local community moans how much it misses their beloved theatre but where were these people when the theatre was operating?
Sadly Wattsontown was done in by the multiplex mania which has swept so many other areas of our country. With the opening of three nearby competing complexes totaling 34 screens in the past couple of years, single screen Wattsontown (which is not in an area for art or inde product) was effectively doomed. I was there this summer when the Watson played Disney’s “UP” on national break and the place was empty.
Typically after such a theatre such as Wattsontown closes the local community moans how much it misses their beloved theatre but where were these people when the theatre was operating?
The San Toy in Reading was located adjacent to the busy railroad tracks in Reading. This proved a problem once sound was introduced as the trains going by not only made it difficult to hear the sound. This in one reason the theatre did not survive long.
For those who would like to see a gorgeous color slide of the Boyd in Philadelphia in her Cinerama days there one for sale (mislabled) currently on Fleecebay: ClickHere.
Yes Lost Memory it is the same building with the Trinity name superimposed.
After the Astor quit showing films and closed, the theatre at some point was acquired by a group that sought to present Christian programs and religious themed films. This effort at religious fare did not last very long.
Also at some time in the era between the being Astor and the Allen the theatres was also used briefly for concerts by local rock bands. The concert thing was sporadic and also did not last very long.
Like everything else it takes money …….. See attached from the London Financial Times
Theaters Halting Switch To Digital, Says IMAX Chief
3 February 2009 1:41 AM, PST
The conversion of movie theaters from film to digital projection “has virtually come to a halt,” IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond has told the London Financial Times. While studios and exhibitors have reached an agreement under which the theater owners would receive a “virtual print fee” for every film they run from digital media to cover the costs of the equipment, the economic slowdown has made it difficult for the exhibitors to borrow money. Gelfond, however, said IMAX plans to open 100 digital 3-D screens worldwide in 2009. The FT said that by next month, there will only be a total of 1,500 digital 3-D screens in the U.S., far fewer than the 5,000 that DreamWorks Animation had counted on for the release of Monsters vs. Aliens. Gelfond said that the movie will appear on 200 IMAX screens.
The AMC Tilghman 8 opened in 1988. It was originally started as a Budco build but finished by AMC when it acquired Budco. It is standard 8 screen plex with four theatres on each side with the concession stand in the middle of the lobby.
The Tilghman 8 and its twin sister the Hampden 8 on the west shore of Harrisburg PA are identical theatres with the same layout, color scheme, and auditorium sizes. Both Tilghman and Hampden were built from the same set of plans and opened within a couple of weeks of each other in July 1988. The Hampden 8 closed in July 2008 when its lease was up due to the overscreening in the Harrisburg PA market. Tilghman is currently on a lease extension but its days appear numbered as well.
Saturday November 29th, 2008 will be the final showings at the Diamond State. With the death of Mrs. Steel the lease was not renewed. The heirs felt the property could be better marketed to developers if the drive-in was not operating.
The reason that “Mad World” and “Hallelujah Trail” did not play at the Eckel was the product split that then existed in downtown Syracuse. The UA product was divided 50% between Shine’s (who had the Eckel and the Paramount) with the other 50% to Lowes which had the State (now the Landmark) and the Capitol (which had closed in 1958). “Mad World” and “Trail” went to Lowes on the split.
It wasn’t too long after “Krakatoa” that the Eckel degenerated into running blaxploitation such as “Up Tight” and others of that era which hastened its demise.
Lionsgate recently announced they are starting production on a remake that 1980’s chestnut “My Bloody Valentine” to be filmed in Digital 3-D and which will be called (surprise, surprise) “My Bloody Valentine 3-D”.
It is truly sad to see the articles section of Cinema Treasures becoming clogged with this sort of ADVERTISING SPAM. I had thought the operators of this website had more class than to allow this sort of thing but after they started accepting paid advertising I have seen the whole website go downhill. It is one of the reasons I have stopped posting.
The Strand was last operated by Loew’s before its demise in 1958. I remember seeing both “Bridge On The River Kwai” (1957) and “Tom Thumb” (1958) there.
Another picture may be found here:
[url]http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enyononda/PHOTOS/061905_StrandTheatre2.jpg[/url]
Just double checked my information about Springsteen at the Roxy in Northampton PA. It was April 29, 1974 that he played there. I don’t know why I said November 29.
Bruce Springsteen played the Roxy Theatre in Northampton Pennsylvania on November 29, 1974. At that time the Roxy featured a series of concerts by then relatively unknown artists including Springsteen, Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac.
The Roxy still hosts the occasional concert in addition to live plays and daily film showings. They just had a concert a couple of months ago featuring Leon Redbone.
I take issue with your comment that post 9/11 the studios displayed anything what could remotely be construed as a “sensitvity to violence”. In the weeks following 9/11 all the studios seemed to release were nihilistic violent filled crap such as “Training Day” and “From Hell”. You could not give tickets away to family movie at that time. The families seemed ‘hunkered down’ and to have completely disappeared from the moviegoing scene. The only people that seemed willing to venture out to the movies were those who delighed in the gore. The families did not return until release of Harry Potter & the Socerer’s Stone in mid November 2001.
This issue has already been decided in favor of the studios and against the theatres several years ago. In Orcon, II vs Miramax Films, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Federal Copyright Act preempted a 1986 Pennsylvania law which required the studios to license a film to any Pennsylvania exhibitor after the film had been in release for 6 weeks. The court held that the copyright act gives the studios unfettered discretion to license films in any manner they so choose.
In mortgage foreclosure situations, in order to stop a foreclosure proceeding once a court complaint has been filed, the debtor must not only bring the mortgage current, but also pay the bank’s “court costs”. These “court costs” include not only the court filing and the sale advertising fees, but almost always also include the bank’s attorney fees as well.
Although the modern trend is to state that the debtor has to pay “reasonable attorney fees”, many older mortgages used to provide (and some still contain the provision today) that the debtor had (has) to pay a fixed percentage of the total amount of the entire mortgage as “attorney fees”. The minimum percentage was (is) at least 5% of the total outstanding mortgage (regardless of the amount actually past due).
All ‘attorney fee" mortgage provisions are a windfall for the bank’s attorneys who get paid what amounts to hundreds of dollars per hour for doing very little work – and most of that work consists of fill-in the blank standard word processing complaint and mortgage foreclosure forms.
I would guess the additional 20K being sought here is for the ubiquitous “court costs”.
Sadly letting any mortgage go into to foreclosure to the point where a complaint is filed in court and a sale is scheduled and the halting the sale is an expensive way of financing.
You gotta love it! When the current owners took the company “private” just a few years ago, they forced out many small shareholders (including employees who held the former AMC stock in their retirement holdings)and who did not want to sell. Now these same owners want to go back in and re-line their pockets all over again. To quote Gordon Gecko: “Greed is Good”.
The sad thing about the Hershey Theatre is that they have all but given up running film. They are down to about four or five features a year – with each title shown one night only on a Saturday night in the fall and spring. Movies are clearly filler only and not well promoted. With its huge CinemaScope screen this is truly a shame.
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.
From its opening in 1950 until about 1965 the Genesee was a double feature second run venue. It only started playing first run about 1965 and then managed to get Dr. Zhinvago in February 1966 because the Shoppingtown was tied up with Sound of Music.
The biggest negative of the Genesee was its low proceenium arch and narrow stage area which resulted in a relatively small screen. As a result both the flat and scope pictures were the same size.
Sadly Wattsontown was done in by the multiplex mania which has swept so many other areas of our country. With the opening of three nearby competing complexes totaling 34 screens in the past couple of years, single screen Wattsontown (which is not in an area for art or inde product) was effectively doomed. I was there this summer when the Watson played Disney’s “UP” on national break and the place was empty.
Typically after such a theatre such as Wattsontown closes the local community moans how much it misses their beloved theatre but where were these people when the theatre was operating?
Sadly Wattsontown was done in by the multiplex mania which has swept so many other areas of our country. With the opening of three nearby competing complexes totaling 34 screens in the past couple of years, single screen Wattsontown (which is not in an area for art or inde product) was effectively doomed. I was there this summer when the Watson played Disney’s “UP” on national break and the place was empty.
Typically after such a theatre such as Wattsontown closes the local community moans how much it misses their beloved theatre but where were these people when the theatre was operating?
The San Toy in Reading was located adjacent to the busy railroad tracks in Reading. This proved a problem once sound was introduced as the trains going by not only made it difficult to hear the sound. This in one reason the theatre did not survive long.
For those who would like to see a gorgeous color slide of the Boyd in Philadelphia in her Cinerama days there one for sale (mislabled) currently on Fleecebay: ClickHere.
Yes Lost Memory it is the same building with the Trinity name superimposed.
After the Astor quit showing films and closed, the theatre at some point was acquired by a group that sought to present Christian programs and religious themed films. This effort at religious fare did not last very long.
Also at some time in the era between the being Astor and the Allen the theatres was also used briefly for concerts by local rock bands. The concert thing was sporadic and also did not last very long.
I am interested and also just sent you an email.
I have a humidity and temperature controlled vault for the proper storage of classic 35MM prints built in my basement.
Like everything else it takes money …….. See attached from the London Financial Times
Theaters Halting Switch To Digital, Says IMAX Chief
3 February 2009 1:41 AM, PST
The conversion of movie theaters from film to digital projection “has virtually come to a halt,” IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond has told the London Financial Times. While studios and exhibitors have reached an agreement under which the theater owners would receive a “virtual print fee” for every film they run from digital media to cover the costs of the equipment, the economic slowdown has made it difficult for the exhibitors to borrow money. Gelfond, however, said IMAX plans to open 100 digital 3-D screens worldwide in 2009. The FT said that by next month, there will only be a total of 1,500 digital 3-D screens in the U.S., far fewer than the 5,000 that DreamWorks Animation had counted on for the release of Monsters vs. Aliens. Gelfond said that the movie will appear on 200 IMAX screens.
The AMC Tilghman 8 opened in 1988. It was originally started as a Budco build but finished by AMC when it acquired Budco. It is standard 8 screen plex with four theatres on each side with the concession stand in the middle of the lobby.
The Tilghman 8 and its twin sister the Hampden 8 on the west shore of Harrisburg PA are identical theatres with the same layout, color scheme, and auditorium sizes. Both Tilghman and Hampden were built from the same set of plans and opened within a couple of weeks of each other in July 1988. The Hampden 8 closed in July 2008 when its lease was up due to the overscreening in the Harrisburg PA market. Tilghman is currently on a lease extension but its days appear numbered as well.
Where are they going to get decent 70MM prints of some of these pictures. Are they striking new prints?
I understood that there were no runable 70MM prints at all of Titantic and that all the ones for Raiders were either badly faded or trashed.
Saturday November 29th, 2008 will be the final showings at the Diamond State. With the death of Mrs. Steel the lease was not renewed. The heirs felt the property could be better marketed to developers if the drive-in was not operating.
The reason that “Mad World” and “Hallelujah Trail” did not play at the Eckel was the product split that then existed in downtown Syracuse. The UA product was divided 50% between Shine’s (who had the Eckel and the Paramount) with the other 50% to Lowes which had the State (now the Landmark) and the Capitol (which had closed in 1958). “Mad World” and “Trail” went to Lowes on the split.
It wasn’t too long after “Krakatoa” that the Eckel degenerated into running blaxploitation such as “Up Tight” and others of that era which hastened its demise.
That means Quantum will be all over the internet before it opens in the US. Looks like a repeat of what happened last November with American Gangster.
Lionsgate recently announced they are starting production on a remake that 1980’s chestnut “My Bloody Valentine” to be filmed in Digital 3-D and which will be called (surprise, surprise) “My Bloody Valentine 3-D”.
It is truly sad to see the articles section of Cinema Treasures becoming clogged with this sort of ADVERTISING SPAM. I had thought the operators of this website had more class than to allow this sort of thing but after they started accepting paid advertising I have seen the whole website go downhill. It is one of the reasons I have stopped posting.
The Strand was last operated by Loew’s before its demise in 1958. I remember seeing both “Bridge On The River Kwai” (1957) and “Tom Thumb” (1958) there.
Another picture may be found here:
[url]http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enyononda/PHOTOS/061905_StrandTheatre2.jpg[/url]
Just double checked my information about Springsteen at the Roxy in Northampton PA. It was April 29, 1974 that he played there. I don’t know why I said November 29.
The link to the Roxy theatre above is wrong.
http://www.roxytheaternorthampton.com
Bruce Springsteen played the Roxy Theatre in Northampton Pennsylvania on November 29, 1974. At that time the Roxy featured a series of concerts by then relatively unknown artists including Springsteen, Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac.
The Roxy still hosts the occasional concert in addition to live plays and daily film showings. They just had a concert a couple of months ago featuring Leon Redbone.
/theaters/470
http://www.roxytheaternothampton.com
I take issue with your comment that post 9/11 the studios displayed anything what could remotely be construed as a “sensitvity to violence”. In the weeks following 9/11 all the studios seemed to release were nihilistic violent filled crap such as “Training Day” and “From Hell”. You could not give tickets away to family movie at that time. The families seemed ‘hunkered down’ and to have completely disappeared from the moviegoing scene. The only people that seemed willing to venture out to the movies were those who delighed in the gore. The families did not return until release of Harry Potter & the Socerer’s Stone in mid November 2001.
This issue has already been decided in favor of the studios and against the theatres several years ago. In Orcon, II vs Miramax Films, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Federal Copyright Act preempted a 1986 Pennsylvania law which required the studios to license a film to any Pennsylvania exhibitor after the film had been in release for 6 weeks. The court held that the copyright act gives the studios unfettered discretion to license films in any manner they so choose.
In mortgage foreclosure situations, in order to stop a foreclosure proceeding once a court complaint has been filed, the debtor must not only bring the mortgage current, but also pay the bank’s “court costs”. These “court costs” include not only the court filing and the sale advertising fees, but almost always also include the bank’s attorney fees as well.
Although the modern trend is to state that the debtor has to pay “reasonable attorney fees”, many older mortgages used to provide (and some still contain the provision today) that the debtor had (has) to pay a fixed percentage of the total amount of the entire mortgage as “attorney fees”. The minimum percentage was (is) at least 5% of the total outstanding mortgage (regardless of the amount actually past due).
All ‘attorney fee" mortgage provisions are a windfall for the bank’s attorneys who get paid what amounts to hundreds of dollars per hour for doing very little work – and most of that work consists of fill-in the blank standard word processing complaint and mortgage foreclosure forms.
I would guess the additional 20K being sought here is for the ubiquitous “court costs”.
Sadly letting any mortgage go into to foreclosure to the point where a complaint is filed in court and a sale is scheduled and the halting the sale is an expensive way of financing.
You gotta love it! When the current owners took the company “private” just a few years ago, they forced out many small shareholders (including employees who held the former AMC stock in their retirement holdings)and who did not want to sell. Now these same owners want to go back in and re-line their pockets all over again. To quote Gordon Gecko: “Greed is Good”.
The sad thing about the Hershey Theatre is that they have all but given up running film. They are down to about four or five features a year – with each title shown one night only on a Saturday night in the fall and spring. Movies are clearly filler only and not well promoted. With its huge CinemaScope screen this is truly a shame.