Century 22

My fondest memory of Century 22 in San Jose was waiting in a long line on blankets through the center of the parking lot for the original “Star Wars”. Years later, in the early 1980’s, I would work for Syufy as an Assistant Manager at Century Almaden (five-house theatre at Blossom Hill Rd and Almaden Expressway) and help out occasionally on the Big Block, mostly for Ron Giffen at Century 23 or Bill Tannehill at Century 21. I met Ray Syufy Sr. once when he came to Century Almaden to decide whether to split the center big house in two, but he never did. Sometime later while working the door at Century 23 a younger man walked up and said he was Ray Syufy and he wanted to see the manager. I chuckled, since I had already met Ray Syufy. I went to the office and told Ron Giffen some guy said he was Ray Syufy and wanted to see him. Ron exclaimed, “That could be Ray Syufy, Jr.!” I was mortified.

Still years later after having left that profession I was at Century 22 for the first showing of “Back to the Future III” with a friend. They were going to show all three movies in a series in the big A house. We waited in line, but it sold out when we were about 20 people from the box office. Disappointed, we bought tickets for some other movie in one of the other two houses. We bought a ton of food at the concessions stand to fill our arms, then walked right past the guy guarding the door to the A house and sat in the very front row for all three movies. There are so many other stories about these grand theatres — good times. Now they are closed and will likely be gone soon like Century 24 and 25.

There is a large preservation movement… The City of San Jose has just granted the Century 21 City Landmark status— it doesn’t remove the threat of demolition, but it makes it tougher to do. The National Register of Historic Places is determining whether or not it will be added to the register… the state can also do this.

We hope the developers of the property will see the value in a restored movie house, possibly with Stargazer’s from CO or a similar company.

PLEASE help us save the Century 21! Sign the petition, pass it along to all of your friends— there’s strength in numbers! If anyone has any Hollywood connections— please put them in contact with us! http://www.change.org/petitions/save-the-winchester-domes

or on Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/savedome

I was in the area last night, and they recently just tore down the Century 22 for their new bland office project. 23 is still standing, although the sign is gone, so I’d believe they’re prepping for that to bite the dust too. You might want to change the status to “Demolished”.

I saw THE EXORCIST on this screen when I was in sixth grade, during the film’s April 1979 two-week return to the big screen. My big sis was a freshman in high school then. We hounded our folks to take us to see the movie because of all the hype we heard about it over the six years after its first release. Our folks caved in and the movie lived up to all the hype, and then some, to our still-forming brains. We were sleep deprived for a week afterward. It was worth it. What an experience!

So many great memories at Century 22: Seeing the Sound of Music at least 7 times during it’s initial run, the excitement of the Opening Nights for Star Wars, Star Trek, and other blockbusters (at Century 21 as well). It was a great decision to add the two “mini-domes” to the main theater rather than carving it up. I also a shame the Cinerama screens wit the smaller one.

Century 21 and 22 (the big one} were THE places to see big films, especially in the 70’s through the early 2000’s. Regarding the earlier roadshow picture of the 60’s, the greatest collection of films playing together were: 2001 (Century 21), Funny Girl (Century 22) Oliver! (Century 23) and Hello Dolly (Century 24). Those were the days!!!