Cooper 1-2-3 Theatres
17 S. Nevada Avenue,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80903
17 S. Nevada Avenue,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80903
4 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Commonwealth Amusement Corp., Cooper Foundation
Architects: Mel C. Glatz
Firms: Knight & Rorman, Mel C. Glatz & Associates
Previous Names: Cooper Theatre, Cooper 70
Nearby Theaters
The Cooper Foundation opened the Cooper Theatre in 1963 with James Stewart in “Take Her, She’s Mine” with James Stewart due to appear ‘in person’ but that never happened. It was built on the site of the old Tompkin Theatre. On December 24, 1965 it was renamed Cooper 70 having been equipped to screen 70mm film. The single screen Cooper 70 had 832 seats. Two additional screens were built and it re-opened as a triple screen theatre on December 25, 1970, with seating capacities of 406 & 418 in the new screens.
The Cooper 1-2-3 Cinemas was closed December 17, 1987.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
See Boxoffice magazine for August 30, 1971, for more details in the Modern Theatre Section beginning on page 12. This is for the Cooper 1,2,3 Theatre complex.
Does anyone in the Colorado Springs area remember a single screen theater that showed off beat movies at midnight on weekends? I think it was on upper Platte near the Citadel. I was stationed at Carson 73-75 and went there quite often. Is the building still there? I do know Cooper 1-2-3 was our theater of choice being near the bus station made in convenient but I also seem to remember a multi screen theater at the Citadel mall. Am I right on that? I enjoyed my years in the Springs and look forward to coming back to visit in the near future.
Hhc632: I’m not from Colorado Springs, but could the theater you recall be the Cinema 70, located on Chelton Road just off of East Platte?
As for the multiplex at the mall, the only one we have listed is Picture Show at Citadel Crossing, which is actually across the street and apparently didn’t open until the early 1990s, so it probably isn’t the one you remember. I’ve seen a couple of references to a theater having operated in the mall in the 1970s, but haven’t found any details about it, other than that it has been closed and probably demolished for the expansion of a department store. It isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
Here is a clickable link to the 1971 Boxoffice article kornpopper76 cited about the conversion of the Cooper 70 into a triplex. The seating capacity of the Cooper 1-2-3 was 1,656, with 832 seats in the original theater and 406 and 418 in Cinemas 2 and 3, respectively. Theater designer Mel C. Glatz collaborated with the architectural firm of Knight & Rorman on the expansion project.
Hhc632: The multiplex at the mall belonged to General Cinema Corporation (GCC). They sold all their Colorado theatres several years ago. I worked at several in the Denver area from 1976-1978.
I was hired in December 1974 (by “kornpopper76”!!) as an usher at the Cooper 1-2-3. Over the next ten years, I managed several Colorado Springs theatres, including the Cooper from January 1983 to July 1984. I have numerous photos of the Cooper that I’ll upload soon. I do have some additional info about the theatre:
Grand opening of the Cooper, scheduled on Friday, November 22, 1963, was to be a benefit for the March of Dimes. “Take Her, She’s Mine” was to be shown that evening with its star, James Stewart, in attendance. As mentioned previously, the benefit was cancelled due to President Kennedy’s assassination.
Grand opening of the new Cooper 1-2-3 was Christmas Day, 1970. Cooper 1 played “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, Cooper 2 played “Catch-22” and Cooper 3 played “I Love My…Wife”.
Cooper Foundation leased its theatres, including the Cooper and Ute in Colorado Springs, to Highland Theatres in January 1975. The company operating the theatres became known as Cooper-Highland.
Cooper Foundation sold its theatres, including the Cooper and Ute in Colorado Springs, to Commonwealth Amusement Corp. in October 1979.
The Cooper’s final day of operation was December 17, 1987.
The Cooper building was used briefly as a church. In October 1997, developers announced that the Cooper building would be remodeled and renamed “One City Centre”. It would house offices, retailers and a small restaurant.
“One City Centre” was short-lived. On the site today is a 2-story office building.
I was a D.M. for General Cinema, when visiting my theaters in this city a number of times took in a show here, it was a wonderful theater to see a film in
Opened on November 22nd, 1963. Grand opening ad posted.
I wonder if the grand opening of this house actually took place on schedule? It seems unlikely to me. The ad would have appeared in the morning papers, but by evening things would have changed all over America. November 22, 1963 was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and many events scheduled for that day and a few subsequent days were cancelled or postponed. If the Cooper 70 did go through with the plans, I can’t imagine the event was very well attended.
Answering the question above, the entry is brief but not terribly accurate. The opening did not take place on the date mentioned or with the star in attendance due to the Kennedy assassination. Also, the venue didn’t open as the Cooper 70. (It opened as the Cooper Theatre and its name changed some two years later in 1965 to the Cooper 70 Theatre. The official grand opening date for the “70” moniker was December 24, 1965. But the Norelco 70mm projection, sound system, and new, wider screen were all installed in November of 1965 so the theater had a full month of, essentially, a soft launch rebranding as the Cinema 70 Theatre.)
Also, the name change on December 25, 1970 was not to the Cooper 1-2-3 Cinemas but to the Cooper 1-2-3 Theatres - not particularly earth shattering but for the record.