I don’t think the closings were completely natural. (Maybe the New Amsterdam was) but many were hastened along by development money. It wasn’t a case of abandoned theaters being re-discovered years later; most of these houses went from showing movies to being parts of various redevelopment proposals, some of which have actually come to pass while others still lie vacant.
I miss the double and triple features; I skip many movies now that I would have seen as part of double bill. I started going in the mid-70’s until the end, and while it was all those things that Ed said, I still miss sitting in the balcony and seeing movies in those faded showplaces.
I recently saw a great movie from 1964 — Becket, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole — on TCM and read that it premiered here at the Loew’s State. I wish I could have seen it on the big screen in a showplace like the State. I’m afraid we’ll never see the likes of it again.
Reading that Frankenstein ad I noticed a funny coincidence—It says No One Seated During Final Reel, which is a precursor or foreshadowing of the policy at this same theater for Psycho 30 years later, when no one was seated after the feature began. (I like to publish this same comment once every five years.)
Well, the walls may have been standing but the roof and every single thing in the place that wasn’t removed beforehand were completely demolished — it was a just a very big hole in the ground before the Ford Center was constructed.
Since the entire marquee in the 1952 shot posted above on 8/1/09 is covered with the features playing next door at the Lyric, I think the Victory must have been closed at the time for some reason.
There was a good article with a nice photo of the renovated auditorium in the News-Gazette back on or about November 4, 2009, which I just saw a copy of. I can’t seem to find it on their website but it was lovely. They have already hosted one wedding there, even though it’s not finished. I’ll keep trying to find that article and photo, but if anyone else can get it please post it here.
Per Greg Boardman’s newsletter posted above on 12/1/09:
“While I would have loved the challenge and I love large, old, single-screen theatres, unfortunately, the owners of the Rialto Theatre did not feel the time was right for them.”
Art Theater’s new owner plans changes, welcomes input
By Melissa Merli
Sunday, December 27, 2009 7:00 AM CDT
CHAMPAIGN â€" Movie lover Sanford Hess is taking over ownership of the only art-movie house in Champaign-Urbana. He has a lot of ideas but no preconceived notions.
And he’s open to input about what
he is renaming the Art Theater, currently Boardman’s Art Theatre.
I’ve found that people have not held back on giving me their ideas,“ said Hess, who takes over the single-screen venue on Jan. 1 from Greg Boardman, a Vermilion County native who has operated it since 2003.
“So many people have such good feelings about it. People tell me all their memories and experiences,” Hess said.
Hess, who moved to Champaign a year and a half ago from Chicago, appreciates the input as well as the kind of movies, mainly independent, that Boardman has booked for the theater through the end of this year.
The final one is the Coen Brothers' “A Serious Man”; Boardman also booked for Christmas Day “The Bicycle Thief,” the 1948 Italian neo-realist masterpiece directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Hess, who takes over as of Jan. 1, 2010, will show “Me and Orson Welles” the first week. The 2008 release, directed by Richard Linklater, is about a 17-year-old boy who becomes embroiled in the behind-the-scenes machinations of Welles' first production in 1937 at the Mercury Theater.
The second week the Art will show the critically acclaimed “The Messenger,” released last month, and directed by Oren Moverman. In it Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson are soldiers who knock on doors and tell people their loved ones aren’t coming back from the war.
As for the complex area of distribution, Hess is working with a professional film buyer. Hess has no prior experience running a movie house but sees that as allowing him to think outside the box. He plans to continue showing independent and other films usually not shown elsewhere.
He also plans to increase the variety of films shown at the Art, as his tastes are all over the map.
Hess, 38, admits to a fondness for popcorn movies and was looking forward to James Cameron’s “Avatar,” a blockbuster that opened last weekend. Though he said it would not be in his best interest to show the same fare as do multiplex theaters, Hess is considering some mainstream fare for the Art, particularly when the University of Illinois is not in session. Hess also loves horror movies and would like to show them at late-night screenings.
“How can you be a college town and not show midnight movies?” he asked.
He has no plans to show 3-D movies soon, but eventually will buy a digital projector that would be 3-D compliant. “I would be an idiot not to,” he said.
Other programming
Hess has ideas for other programming as well. For example, he would like to schedule group discussions, comparable to book clubs, for certain shows for moviegoers who want to stay and talk about what they just saw.
He would like to make the theater available for film festivals, among them those sponsored by University of Illinois departments. He wants to give the Art a strong local flavor by showing films and shorts by Illinois filmmakers.
He wants to further emphasize the movie house as a local business by playing, between screenings, recorded music by area musicians and to project between shows images of art by local artists.
No structural changes
He has no plans to make structural changes, saying the theater and the equipment, including surround sound, are in great condition.
Hess has no plans to remove some seats and replace them with tables and lounge chairs, though he has applied for a liquor license.
He plans to serve alcohol and coffee drinks and to expand the food menu to include fresh baked goods from Pekara, a downtown Champaign bakery and restaurant, and specialty popcorn.
And good news for Boardman’s employees: Hess plans to keep those who want to stay.
So why does Hess want to take over the Art Theater, or any movie house?
“Why not? Wouldn’t you want to have a movie theater for yourself? I’ve been trying to have my own business. I love the movies. I love going to the movies. You’re supposed to do what you love, and I decided to pursue this.”
Hess said he’s walking into a good situation as the Art is in great shape and boasts a loyal following.
Hess will rent the theater at 126 W. Church St., C, from building owner David Kraft. Boardman, who lives in California, decided not to renew the lease after this year ends, as Kraft had upped the rent.
“David has every right to seek more rent than what he was getting,” Hess said, noting the development of downtown Champaign as one reason, “and Greg had every right to end the lease.”
Hess noted that Boardman did a great job picking movies for the Art but, living in California, Boardman rarely had the opportunity to enjoy the theater in person.
Hess plans to be present as much as possible, though he wants to spend time at home, too. He and his wife, C-U native Elizabeth (born Belber) Hess, have a 3-year-old son.
Ebert weighs in
Hess plans to continue on a half-time basis his position as a corporate employee at a software company, a job he’s had for 16 years. Hess said he was surprised and flattered by Ebert’s comparison of himself to Paul Allen, a co-founder of software giant Microsoft.
Hess sees differences, though. “I’m approaching this as a business I operate as opposed to a luxury investment,” he said.
Ebert wrote recently in his online journal that Hess follows in the tradition of Allen, who renovated and operates the giant screen Cinerama in Seattle. The theater at the Art is not a giant one and cannot accommodate 70 mm films. The nearby Virginia can, Hess noted.
Ebert, an Urbana native, was delighted to learn that the Art Theater will continue, as it’s where the famed movie critic first saw “Citizen Kane” and the films of Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes and many others.
“For 11 years I’ve operated my annual Ebertfest a block away at the renovated and historic Virginia theater, and over those years we spoke more than once with Greg Boardman about incorporating the Art into the festival. I still hope it can be done,” Ebert wrote.
Hess said he’s amenable to working with Ebertfest.
The critic also wrote that the Thunderbird movie theater, now the Canopy Club in Urbana, close to the UI campus, is still usable as a movie house.
“It’s my dream that someday it will be operated in connection with the proposed Ebert Center for Film Studies at the University of Illinois,” wrote Ebert, who has pledged $1 million for the center.
“But for right now, the saving of the Art is the big news. How many nights I drove my ‘54 Ford across town, parked in the free lot at its side, and walked in to drink black coffee and discover the world of the cinema. For me it is a shrine.”
Thanks for your report, Bill. The booth operators here can put on a professional, grade A show when they want to, but the moment no one is looking, sloppiness prevails.
‘Wicked’ witch wins battle of nerves over screaming woman in the crowd By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer December 10, 2009, 7:00AM
Merideth Kaye Clark went out there an understudy. She came back a tough cookie.
And a showbiz disaster became a “beautiful theatrical moment, and the actors onstage and the 2,700 people in the audience shared something.” That’s how Clark recalled it all Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, in the midst of the quietest moment in the hugely popular Broadway tour of “Wicked” at the State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, a drunken, obscenity-filled brawl broke out in the audience, tour manager Steve Quinn said.
Clark, a standby filling in as Elphaba, the green witch, had to make a quick decision as police and others scuffled with — and eventually handcuffed and forcibly removed — a screaming woman in the audience, Quinn said.
Clark could have followed Hugh Jackman and Patti LuPone, who recently stopped shows when cell phones rang in the audience. Instead, Clark sang the sad, beautiful “I’m Not That Girl” despite the increasing volume and invective, until the perpetrator was dragged out kicking.
“I thought, ‘If the show stops, then she wins. If I go on, she loses.’ ”
As Clark sang the last notes in the newly minted silence, the audience rose to give her an ovation that “felt like a whole minute, and I guess I kind of took a bow. It was very magical.”
As for the other woman in the tale, Cleveland police identified her as Kathleen Holmes, 49, of Rock Creek. She was charged with two misdemeanors, and would have been released if she hadn’t attacked the booking officer, police said. She was charged with felonious assault and was in jail Wednesday night.
Holmes will get her chance to sing this morning, when she’s due to be in the audience of a judge.
Latest news from Greg Boardman (mostly about the Art but he does mention the Rialto.)
Fellow Independent and foreign language film lovers and Boardman’s Art Theatre supporters…
What good is being on an email newsletter list, if you don’t hear the news there first?
Many of you know that I was investigating reopening the Rialto Theatre (directly across from the Art Theatre) because my lease ends at the Art on December 30, 2009.
While I would have loved the challenge and I love large, old, single-screen theatres, unfortunately, the owners of the Rialto Theatre did not feel the time was right for them.
Other locations were explored, but none would have been ready in a timely manner.
I have sold my equipment and furnishings to a new operator, Sanford Hess, who has secured a lease with the owner of the Art Theatre, David Kraft.
It is my understanding that the new operator will be using a professional film booker to secure films.
My hope and belief is the Art Theatre will continue to provide CU with quality Independent and foreign language films.
I am proud to have taken the Art Theatre from its closed and run down condition in 1993 to the best theatre in CU today.
The lobby/concession area remodel, the picture and (especially) the sound presentation, is my design.
I have booked every film shown since reopening in June of 2003. I worked with the U of I to bring French, Latin American, and Asian film festivals to the Art Theatre.
I would like to thank all of you for your interest in quality films, your attendance, and your film suggestions.
Without your support, CU would suffer with only the multiplex offerings from the corporate giants in town.
They thought we would fail. They hoped we would fail. They did what they could to bring our failure about. But in the end, Boardman’s Art Theatre performed better than the multiplexes in some head-to-head battles.
And they don’t even come close to our attendance when they attempt to show films that truly belong at the Art.
Your support for our presentation of quality Independent films now has many film distributors calling me to see if they can book their films into the Art Theatre.
We should all be proud of that.
In addition to your support, Boardman’s Art Theatre could also not have been successful without the help of talented, honest and dedicated managers and staff over the years.
And none has been better to rely on than Yvonne Green, my present manager, and her staff.
Finally, I will miss all of the above and hearing from you. I wish that I could have been at the theatre more often, to discuss with you the many fine films you have enjoyed.
I hope you continue to support the Art Theatre. Yvonne will be staying on for some time, helping with the transition.
Smart Cards will continue to be operational into the new year.
I will send out a few more newsletters before my lease is up.
PS. I wanted to show “A Serious Man” from the Coen brothers before my lease ran out, but “An Education” may take us into “Precious."
The Coen brothers' films are some of my favorites.
That 1980 photo posted on April 7, 2009 brought back some memories!
I don’t think the closings were completely natural. (Maybe the New Amsterdam was) but many were hastened along by development money. It wasn’t a case of abandoned theaters being re-discovered years later; most of these houses went from showing movies to being parts of various redevelopment proposals, some of which have actually come to pass while others still lie vacant.
I miss the double and triple features; I skip many movies now that I would have seen as part of double bill. I started going in the mid-70’s until the end, and while it was all those things that Ed said, I still miss sitting in the balcony and seeing movies in those faded showplaces.
42nd Street was more like a ghost town than a pit at the time the theaters were shuttered and re-development hadn’t kicked in.
I recently saw a great movie from 1964 — Becket, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole — on TCM and read that it premiered here at the Loew’s State. I wish I could have seen it on the big screen in a showplace like the State. I’m afraid we’ll never see the likes of it again.
Reading that Frankenstein ad I noticed a funny coincidence—It says No One Seated During Final Reel, which is a precursor or foreshadowing of the policy at this same theater for Psycho 30 years later, when no one was seated after the feature began. (I like to publish this same comment once every five years.)
A NY Times' review of the PBS show “Blueprint America” features a photo of this theater now in use as a parking garage.
Link to photo: View link
Link to article: View link
Craig, are you listening?
Separate admissions?
Well, the walls may have been standing but the roof and every single thing in the place that wasn’t removed beforehand were completely demolished — it was a just a very big hole in the ground before the Ford Center was constructed.
Cool shot.
Since the entire marquee in the 1952 shot posted above on 8/1/09 is covered with the features playing next door at the Lyric, I think the Victory must have been closed at the time for some reason.
It’s the best place to catch up on the artier Oscar nominees.
There was a good article with a nice photo of the renovated auditorium in the News-Gazette back on or about November 4, 2009, which I just saw a copy of. I can’t seem to find it on their website but it was lovely. They have already hosted one wedding there, even though it’s not finished. I’ll keep trying to find that article and photo, but if anyone else can get it please post it here.
Per Greg Boardman’s newsletter posted above on 12/1/09:
“While I would have loved the challenge and I love large, old, single-screen theatres, unfortunately, the owners of the Rialto Theatre did not feel the time was right for them.”
Article from News-Gazette 12-27-09
Art Theater’s new owner plans changes, welcomes input
By Melissa Merli
Sunday, December 27, 2009 7:00 AM CDT
CHAMPAIGN â€" Movie lover Sanford Hess is taking over ownership of the only art-movie house in Champaign-Urbana. He has a lot of ideas but no preconceived notions.
And he’s open to input about what
he is renaming the Art Theater, currently Boardman’s Art Theatre.
I’ve found that people have not held back on giving me their ideas,“ said Hess, who takes over the single-screen venue on Jan. 1 from Greg Boardman, a Vermilion County native who has operated it since 2003.
“So many people have such good feelings about it. People tell me all their memories and experiences,” Hess said.
Hess, who moved to Champaign a year and a half ago from Chicago, appreciates the input as well as the kind of movies, mainly independent, that Boardman has booked for the theater through the end of this year.
The final one is the Coen Brothers' “A Serious Man”; Boardman also booked for Christmas Day “The Bicycle Thief,” the 1948 Italian neo-realist masterpiece directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Hess, who takes over as of Jan. 1, 2010, will show “Me and Orson Welles” the first week. The 2008 release, directed by Richard Linklater, is about a 17-year-old boy who becomes embroiled in the behind-the-scenes machinations of Welles' first production in 1937 at the Mercury Theater.
The second week the Art will show the critically acclaimed “The Messenger,” released last month, and directed by Oren Moverman. In it Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson are soldiers who knock on doors and tell people their loved ones aren’t coming back from the war.
As for the complex area of distribution, Hess is working with a professional film buyer. Hess has no prior experience running a movie house but sees that as allowing him to think outside the box. He plans to continue showing independent and other films usually not shown elsewhere.
He also plans to increase the variety of films shown at the Art, as his tastes are all over the map.
Hess, 38, admits to a fondness for popcorn movies and was looking forward to James Cameron’s “Avatar,” a blockbuster that opened last weekend. Though he said it would not be in his best interest to show the same fare as do multiplex theaters, Hess is considering some mainstream fare for the Art, particularly when the University of Illinois is not in session. Hess also loves horror movies and would like to show them at late-night screenings.
“How can you be a college town and not show midnight movies?” he asked.
He has no plans to show 3-D movies soon, but eventually will buy a digital projector that would be 3-D compliant. “I would be an idiot not to,” he said.
Other programming
Hess has ideas for other programming as well. For example, he would like to schedule group discussions, comparable to book clubs, for certain shows for moviegoers who want to stay and talk about what they just saw.
He would like to make the theater available for film festivals, among them those sponsored by University of Illinois departments. He wants to give the Art a strong local flavor by showing films and shorts by Illinois filmmakers.
He wants to further emphasize the movie house as a local business by playing, between screenings, recorded music by area musicians and to project between shows images of art by local artists.
No structural changes
He has no plans to make structural changes, saying the theater and the equipment, including surround sound, are in great condition.
Hess has no plans to remove some seats and replace them with tables and lounge chairs, though he has applied for a liquor license.
He plans to serve alcohol and coffee drinks and to expand the food menu to include fresh baked goods from Pekara, a downtown Champaign bakery and restaurant, and specialty popcorn.
And good news for Boardman’s employees: Hess plans to keep those who want to stay.
So why does Hess want to take over the Art Theater, or any movie house?
“Why not? Wouldn’t you want to have a movie theater for yourself? I’ve been trying to have my own business. I love the movies. I love going to the movies. You’re supposed to do what you love, and I decided to pursue this.”
Hess said he’s walking into a good situation as the Art is in great shape and boasts a loyal following.
Hess will rent the theater at 126 W. Church St., C, from building owner David Kraft. Boardman, who lives in California, decided not to renew the lease after this year ends, as Kraft had upped the rent.
“David has every right to seek more rent than what he was getting,” Hess said, noting the development of downtown Champaign as one reason, “and Greg had every right to end the lease.”
Hess noted that Boardman did a great job picking movies for the Art but, living in California, Boardman rarely had the opportunity to enjoy the theater in person.
Hess plans to be present as much as possible, though he wants to spend time at home, too. He and his wife, C-U native Elizabeth (born Belber) Hess, have a 3-year-old son.
Ebert weighs in
Hess plans to continue on a half-time basis his position as a corporate employee at a software company, a job he’s had for 16 years. Hess said he was surprised and flattered by Ebert’s comparison of himself to Paul Allen, a co-founder of software giant Microsoft.
Hess sees differences, though. “I’m approaching this as a business I operate as opposed to a luxury investment,” he said.
Ebert wrote recently in his online journal that Hess follows in the tradition of Allen, who renovated and operates the giant screen Cinerama in Seattle. The theater at the Art is not a giant one and cannot accommodate 70 mm films. The nearby Virginia can, Hess noted.
Ebert, an Urbana native, was delighted to learn that the Art Theater will continue, as it’s where the famed movie critic first saw “Citizen Kane” and the films of Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes and many others.
“For 11 years I’ve operated my annual Ebertfest a block away at the renovated and historic Virginia theater, and over those years we spoke more than once with Greg Boardman about incorporating the Art into the festival. I still hope it can be done,” Ebert wrote.
Hess said he’s amenable to working with Ebertfest.
The critic also wrote that the Thunderbird movie theater, now the Canopy Club in Urbana, close to the UI campus, is still usable as a movie house.
“It’s my dream that someday it will be operated in connection with the proposed Ebert Center for Film Studies at the University of Illinois,” wrote Ebert, who has pledged $1 million for the center.
“But for right now, the saving of the Art is the big news. How many nights I drove my ‘54 Ford across town, parked in the free lot at its side, and walked in to drink black coffee and discover the world of the cinema. For me it is a shrine.”
View link
And at $12.50 a pop, they’re not exactly giving the show away for free.
And it doesn’t even cost anything extra to run a proper show! Craig, are you listening?
Was this theater used in Thank God its Friday?
Thanks for your report, Bill. The booth operators here can put on a professional, grade A show when they want to, but the moment no one is looking, sloppiness prevails.
I’d like to hear more about its final days as an adult theater. 1138 sets! That’s some porno palace.
Just watched “Boomerang” and there were some nice shots of the night-time marquee, showing “Smoky” in Technicolor.
Some action at the State:
‘Wicked’ witch wins battle of nerves over screaming woman in the crowd By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer December 10, 2009, 7:00AM
Merideth Kaye Clark went out there an understudy. She came back a tough cookie.
And a showbiz disaster became a “beautiful theatrical moment, and the actors onstage and the 2,700 people in the audience shared something.” That’s how Clark recalled it all Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, in the midst of the quietest moment in the hugely popular Broadway tour of “Wicked” at the State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, a drunken, obscenity-filled brawl broke out in the audience, tour manager Steve Quinn said.
Clark, a standby filling in as Elphaba, the green witch, had to make a quick decision as police and others scuffled with — and eventually handcuffed and forcibly removed — a screaming woman in the audience, Quinn said.
Clark could have followed Hugh Jackman and Patti LuPone, who recently stopped shows when cell phones rang in the audience. Instead, Clark sang the sad, beautiful “I’m Not That Girl” despite the increasing volume and invective, until the perpetrator was dragged out kicking.
“I thought, ‘If the show stops, then she wins. If I go on, she loses.’ ”
As Clark sang the last notes in the newly minted silence, the audience rose to give her an ovation that “felt like a whole minute, and I guess I kind of took a bow. It was very magical.”
As for the other woman in the tale, Cleveland police identified her as Kathleen Holmes, 49, of Rock Creek. She was charged with two misdemeanors, and would have been released if she hadn’t attacked the booking officer, police said. She was charged with felonious assault and was in jail Wednesday night.
Holmes will get her chance to sing this morning, when she’s due to be in the audience of a judge.
Did the movie open?
Latest news from Greg Boardman (mostly about the Art but he does mention the Rialto.)
Fellow Independent and foreign language film lovers and Boardman’s Art Theatre supporters…
What good is being on an email newsletter list, if you don’t hear the news there first?
Many of you know that I was investigating reopening the Rialto Theatre (directly across from the Art Theatre) because my lease ends at the Art on December 30, 2009.
While I would have loved the challenge and I love large, old, single-screen theatres, unfortunately, the owners of the Rialto Theatre did not feel the time was right for them.
Other locations were explored, but none would have been ready in a timely manner.
I have sold my equipment and furnishings to a new operator, Sanford Hess, who has secured a lease with the owner of the Art Theatre, David Kraft.
It is my understanding that the new operator will be using a professional film booker to secure films.
My hope and belief is the Art Theatre will continue to provide CU with quality Independent and foreign language films.
I am proud to have taken the Art Theatre from its closed and run down condition in 1993 to the best theatre in CU today.
The lobby/concession area remodel, the picture and (especially) the sound presentation, is my design.
I have booked every film shown since reopening in June of 2003. I worked with the U of I to bring French, Latin American, and Asian film festivals to the Art Theatre.
I would like to thank all of you for your interest in quality films, your attendance, and your film suggestions.
Without your support, CU would suffer with only the multiplex offerings from the corporate giants in town.
They thought we would fail. They hoped we would fail. They did what they could to bring our failure about. But in the end, Boardman’s Art Theatre performed better than the multiplexes in some head-to-head battles.
And they don’t even come close to our attendance when they attempt to show films that truly belong at the Art.
Your support for our presentation of quality Independent films now has many film distributors calling me to see if they can book their films into the Art Theatre.
We should all be proud of that.
In addition to your support, Boardman’s Art Theatre could also not have been successful without the help of talented, honest and dedicated managers and staff over the years.
And none has been better to rely on than Yvonne Green, my present manager, and her staff.
Finally, I will miss all of the above and hearing from you. I wish that I could have been at the theatre more often, to discuss with you the many fine films you have enjoyed.
I hope you continue to support the Art Theatre. Yvonne will be staying on for some time, helping with the transition.
Smart Cards will continue to be operational into the new year.
I will send out a few more newsletters before my lease is up.
PS. I wanted to show “A Serious Man” from the Coen brothers before my lease ran out, but “An Education” may take us into “Precious."
The Coen brothers' films are some of my favorites.
Sincerely,
Greg Boardman