Grand Illusion Cinema
1403 NE 50th Street,
Seattle,
WA
98105
1403 NE 50th Street,
Seattle,
WA
98105
11 people
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During several trips to Seattle starting in 2008, I visited the Grand Illusion three or four times and it became my favorite Seattle cinema for its cozy environment and interesting offerings.
When I returned to Seattle in September/October 2015 to consider moving there, I found that many of the decades-old local businesses whose presence imbued the area with a vibe of creativity I had enjoyed being in were suddenly gone and continuing to disappear, apparently due to an influx of tech industry workers and the rising rents they can afford, changing the feel of the city and my mind about living there… but at least the Grand Illusion was still there.
Reading here that the Grand Illusion will be forced to relocate, and assuming its original location will be replaced by new construction of less character, I am reminded of my disappointment. (I felt haunted into early 2017, like I had visited an old acquaintance named Seattle, and found them changing in a direction that suddenly ended what might have become a friendship.) I hope the coziness I remember will relocate with it.
This context of accelerated change inspired a song for a Seattle area band which became my “theme song” for this situation, “Gold Rush” by Death Cab For Cutie.
If I had moved to Seattle, by now I would have had enough stamps on the Grand Illusion “Cinephile Card” I still keep as a souvenir to earn a free admission.
I cherish the five or six years I worked there in the early 80s, for Paul Doyle and then with/for Doug Campbell (of Bulldog News). I made a lot of long lasting friendships by letting people crash on the red mohair couch. It’s been a home for so many folks, I think the real GI will be able to transcend it’s present physical space.
As of January 2023 our building is for sale, likely to be razed and developed. We have a two year lease and will relocate the cinema. Until then, it’s business as usual. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/grand-illusion-cinema-building-for-sale-in-seattles-university-district/
Wow, nice article from the front page of the November 26th, 2017 Seattle Times about several of Seattle’s historic movie houses starting with the Grand Illusion, including why we go to the movies!:
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/seattles-historic-moviehouses/
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7275
A bit of history as to how everything got started.
Wonder if they’ll play Inadmissible Evidence when they hit 50 years?
We’re doing fine now, thanks!
Well it is a Grand Illusion.
According to this article, the theater is not doing well financially: View link
For many years the auditorium space was occupied by a dentist’s office. The Grand Illusion was originally The Movie House, the first cinema in what became Randy Finley’s Seven Gables circuit, now part of Landmark Theaters. The current name came from Paul Doyle, who ran the cinema for 20 years before selling to a non-profit. He now owns the Columbia City Cinema in Seattle’s Rainier Valley.
I’m sure the late Mr. Powell and Ms. Loy would appreciate their films running alongside of a classic like Pootie Tang.
And, in fact, there was indeed a “Ben-Hur Drive-In” in Indiana…also a “New Merry Widow Theatre” in St. Louis, possibly named after the operetta rather than the Ernst Lubitsch/Jeanette MacDonald film.
David Kleiler used to run a regular series called “The Rear Window” in various rented spaces around Boston.
Other cinemas I thought of that were named after movies are Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) in Stockholm, named after the Ingmar Bergman movie, and Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale, named after the Italian movie or else the theatre portrayed in it.
Here’s an excellent article with photos on the cinema, published in The Seattle Times.
Nice to read about a cinema named after a great movie classic, in this case Jean Renoir’s 1937 masterpiece. There is a cinema in Paris called Accattone in honor of the Pasolini film. Is there a “Citizen Kane Cinema” somewhere, a “Psycho Theatre” or a “Ben Hur Multiplex”? I think it’s a wonderful idea. Anyone know of others?