Cerberus 1-2-3
3040 M Street NW,
Washington,
DC
20007
3040 M Street NW,
Washington,
DC
20007
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January 21st, 1970 grand opening ad in photo section
can anyone confirm for me that a) ‘Starchasers: The Legend of Orin’ and b) it was presented in anaglyph 3D played here – I vaguely remember it as such.
The Washington Post obituary for architect Joseph Wilkes said this about his position in the firm of Wilkes & Faulkner: “Mr. Wilkes’s business partner, Winthrop W. Faulkner, did most of the firm’s design work. Mr. Wilkes, an expert in construction methods and materials, was responsible for the nuts-and-bolts work of translating the drawings into buildings.”
Wow, never seen “Z” heard about it.Must be a political film to stay that long in a political town. 14 weeks on “LITTLE BIG MAN” not bad.Thanks Stephen for the info.
The Cerberus 1-2-3 coplex opened on 1/21/70 with Z playing at all three theaters. At Number 1 it played for 23 weeks, at Number 2 for 22 weeks, and at Number 3 for 16 weeks.
These are the longest running films at the complex for the years 1970-1971: WOODSTOCK opened at Number 2 on 6/24/70, immediately after it closed at the Cinema theater. One week later it was moved to Number 1 where it played for 15 weeks. On 12/25/70 FIVE EASY PIECES moved into Number 1 from the Embassy theater, where it had played for 8 weeks, and stayed for 17 weeks. LITTLE BIG MAN opened at Numbers 2 and 3 on 2/25/71 and played there for 14 weeks.
Somewhere around ‘87 I took photos of this place. They can now be found at the Theatre Historical Society archive in Elmhurst, IL.
There is an exterior photo here:
http://tinyurl.com/9b67wf
Was located on the South West corner of M st NW and Thomas Jefferson St NW
The Cerberus occupied an old building that had been a multi level, city Automobile (Ford)dealership earlier. The three theatres were served by a common projection room, each theatre had twin Century projectors with Strong Xenon lamps (Magnarc type housings) and auto changovers. The projection room was a level above the theatres and used a series of front surface mirrors as periscopes to project the picture. “Hi Fi” stereo, MacIntosh Amps were installed to show “Woodstock” in 4ch Magnetic sound.
Cerberus was a mythological three-headed dog. Appropriate for a triplex, I suppose.
Back in the 1970’s this was a great place to see movies- three relatively small theaters in one building. Unfortunately the property values in Georgetown skyrocketed and the various theaters couldn’t survive.
Demolished? Not exactly, the Cerberus was far from the first tenant of this brick pile which looks to date back to the 20’s or 30’s. Certainly, the theater part was gutted out, and in 1993 when I moved to Washington, the place was really desolate looking. I think street level had shops, but the side street still had the Cerberus marquee. It was once a fancy parking garage, I heard, but a real nice Barnes and Noble occupies the building now.