When I saw La Vie En Rose a month ago, which is still playing, the Paris leaflet stated Coming Soon: Close Encounters of the Third Kind-30th Anniv engagement- 2 WEEKS ONLY!, and Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in ten years, an extraordinary love story wrapped in a grand mystery.
Below posted on another theater page about this theater (in reply to a comment about the other theater) I hope Steve doesn’t mind my copying it here, as screen sizes are often important to moviegoers:
Theatre 1 there is 50-feet wide with theatres 10 and 11 coming in at 40 feet or thereabouts. Theatres 5 and 6 are the next largest and I don’t recall them hitting 40 feet but they might….yes I helped install that one and serviced it for the first couple of years.
Steve
posted by Steve Guttag on Jul 23, 2007 at 3:39am
Steve, by now you must think I’m hallucinating exteriors and curtains. However, I’ve not actually been to the Fairfax Square, so I didn’t realize there isn’t an exterior. I am, however, thinking about the Fine Arts curtain….where I did see movies.
View link
Regal’s press release stated the theater takes up 63,000 square feet, and one side of the mall. There are 2600 total seats, with 12 auditoriums of 209 seats and two of 300 seats (which would total more so some auditoriums might be smaller). There are 3 hallways of theaters, with the larger theaters along the center hallway. One projectionist can operate all 14 auditoriums. The concession stand has 10 cashier stations. A party room flanks the entrance.
The Washington Post online site states the following:
“Its two largest houses seat 479 and have screens that are 64.5 feet wide and 35 feet tall. The smallest houses seat 177. The theater is THX certified, and auditoriums have SRD and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound….”
Jeff, enjoy a movie at the Paris in NYC, with a curtain rather than any stupid preshow! /theaters/307/
and many other movie theaters throughout the US and the world.
A friend emailed me the following:
“I took a trip there after most but not all of the demolition was completed. There was still a frame of iron girders around the proscenium arch….I went there late at night, and walked out to where the orchestra pit should have been.”
(That really was from a friend. I never saw the theater).
Peter, I didn’t address hollywood90038 other comment, but he was talking, I think, about flat previews, then scope movies.
to answer Justin’s questions, the Ziegfeld screen uses its full size for scope movies, but becomes smaller for flat movies (less screen shown on far left & far right). He’s right in that some megaplexes lower masking for scope so scope screen is less large than flat screen. That’s kind of a punitive scope!
No wide lens. Tiny print at the photo tells you the camera model, which is digital. It is a point and shoot camera, but not a basic model. It is a very nice camera. I did have to take a number of photos to get some decent ones.
You are welcome. Those are photos that I found at flickr. Here are my own photos from earlier this month. The color isn’t right, as the real color is a deeper red. I’m not using tripods or long exposure, and a flash won’t capture this huge auditorium, but the high resolution preshow really lights up the auditorium. I’m not likely going to keep these photos forever on my flickr gallery but for now:
JodarMovieFan, the community was really upset, which is especially ironic considered how apprehensive they were that a movie theater was going to open back in 1946.
I’ve searched flickr for photos, but none. Can’t somebody photo its exterior?
My 1995 notes are that MacArthur’s 2 small screens, both from in the sides of the auditorium but not all the way to the front, were maybe each about 20 feet wide. The middle auditorium with original Proscenium Arch (screen) had about 500 seats, a stage, and orange curtain that was used before the screen (whereas the vertical curtains in the small auds were no longer used in 1995) and screen that looked like 40 feet wide. There were 25 rows of 2 seats, 13, 2 more, and then additional seats in front of that configuration. Each auditorium had a tiny balcony of 12 seats. There weren’t any bothersome (glaring) lights or exit signs near the screen. I saw John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon that day, which was beautifully filmed; in 1998, I saw his Hope and Glory but possibly in one of the small screens.
JodarMovieFan, why don’t you post some memories of the Cinema on that page? I saw Empire of the Sun in 70 mm there. I’ve been the only one posting on that page, and that theater deserves way more!
Hairspray photos don’t seem to be flickr posted yet (wait, people post even years later) but looking at the last half year (difficult because somebody posted hundreds of vintage beautiful Ziegfeld girls), here’s a few of the most interesting:
When I saw La Vie En Rose a month ago, which is still playing, the Paris leaflet stated Coming Soon: Close Encounters of the Third Kind-30th Anniv engagement- 2 WEEKS ONLY!, and Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in ten years, an extraordinary love story wrapped in a grand mystery.
Below posted on another theater page about this theater (in reply to a comment about the other theater) I hope Steve doesn’t mind my copying it here, as screen sizes are often important to moviegoers:
Theatre 1 there is 50-feet wide with theatres 10 and 11 coming in at 40 feet or thereabouts. Theatres 5 and 6 are the next largest and I don’t recall them hitting 40 feet but they might….yes I helped install that one and serviced it for the first couple of years.
Steve
posted by Steve Guttag on Jul 23, 2007 at 3:39am
1950 photo, exterior:
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/intro.htm
The Grand auditorium sits 360+.
This seems to be an ad for leasing space in this one:
View link
photo of lobby:
View link
Photo of grand lobby:
View link
Opened by Crown, later acquired by Bow Tie.
The 35 feet wide estimate is consistent with my memories of filmgoing there 1985 to 1987.
Auditorium which I photographed in 2004 by which time the curtain wasn’t being used:
View link
another view of the exterior from 2004 (same visit as the photo that I posted above)
View link
Steve, by now you must think I’m hallucinating exteriors and curtains. However, I’ve not actually been to the Fairfax Square, so I didn’t realize there isn’t an exterior. I am, however, thinking about the Fine Arts curtain….where I did see movies.
View link
Regal’s press release stated the theater takes up 63,000 square feet, and one side of the mall. There are 2600 total seats, with 12 auditoriums of 209 seats and two of 300 seats (which would total more so some auditoriums might be smaller). There are 3 hallways of theaters, with the larger theaters along the center hallway. One projectionist can operate all 14 auditoriums. The concession stand has 10 cashier stations. A party room flanks the entrance.
The Washington Post online site states the following:
“Its two largest houses seat 479 and have screens that are 64.5 feet wide and 35 feet tall. The smallest houses seat 177. The theater is THX certified, and auditoriums have SRD and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound….”
Photo from inside the mall:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piscestiff/70446494/
I created it earlier today:
/theaters/20626/
And, this one, which needs somebody to photograph it real soon! (exterior, and if somebody can, lobby and and a large auditorium)
/theaters/20638/
actually, Al, the Ziefeld does the preshow, and then closes and opens the curtain, in that order!
Jeff, enjoy a movie at the Paris in NYC, with a curtain rather than any stupid preshow! /theaters/307/
and many other movie theaters throughout the US and the world.
I recall seeing movies here. Exterior in more recent photo:
View link
A friend emailed me the following:
“I took a trip there after most but not all of the demolition was completed. There was still a frame of iron girders around the proscenium arch….I went there late at night, and walked out to where the orchestra pit should have been.”
(That really was from a friend. I never saw the theater).
Peter, I didn’t address hollywood90038 other comment, but he was talking, I think, about flat previews, then scope movies.
to answer Justin’s questions, the Ziegfeld screen uses its full size for scope movies, but becomes smaller for flat movies (less screen shown on far left & far right). He’s right in that some megaplexes lower masking for scope so scope screen is less large than flat screen. That’s kind of a punitive scope!
Gone, Rest in Peace!
View link
No wide lens. Tiny print at the photo tells you the camera model, which is digital. It is a point and shoot camera, but not a basic model. It is a very nice camera. I did have to take a number of photos to get some decent ones.
Steve,
when in the 1980’s? I saw movies there from 1985 to 1987 and I seem to recall a curtain being used.
Headley’s last sentence in his book is “The Fine Arts actually had a curtain that opened when the film began”
You are welcome. Those are photos that I found at flickr. Here are my own photos from earlier this month. The color isn’t right, as the real color is a deeper red. I’m not using tripods or long exposure, and a flash won’t capture this huge auditorium, but the high resolution preshow really lights up the auditorium. I’m not likely going to keep these photos forever on my flickr gallery but for now:
View link
preshow over, curtain closed before movie is shown:
View link
JodarMovieFan, the community was really upset, which is especially ironic considered how apprehensive they were that a movie theater was going to open back in 1946.
I’ve searched flickr for photos, but none. Can’t somebody photo its exterior?
My 1995 notes are that MacArthur’s 2 small screens, both from in the sides of the auditorium but not all the way to the front, were maybe each about 20 feet wide. The middle auditorium with original Proscenium Arch (screen) had about 500 seats, a stage, and orange curtain that was used before the screen (whereas the vertical curtains in the small auds were no longer used in 1995) and screen that looked like 40 feet wide. There were 25 rows of 2 seats, 13, 2 more, and then additional seats in front of that configuration. Each auditorium had a tiny balcony of 12 seats. There weren’t any bothersome (glaring) lights or exit signs near the screen. I saw John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon that day, which was beautifully filmed; in 1998, I saw his Hope and Glory but possibly in one of the small screens.
JodarMovieFan, why don’t you post some memories of the Cinema on that page? I saw Empire of the Sun in 70 mm there. I’ve been the only one posting on that page, and that theater deserves way more!
Hairspray photos don’t seem to be flickr posted yet (wait, people post even years later) but looking at the last half year (difficult because somebody posted hundreds of vintage beautiful Ziegfeld girls), here’s a few of the most interesting:
This photo & a few adjoining photos of A Mighty Heart premiere:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamymo/645271842/
Sicko premiere with director Moore in the auditorium!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/571271630/
not a premiere but a couple nice photos of the Lobby:
View link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chowmeyow/516103873/