Comments from ChasSmith

Showing 201 - 225 of 236 comments

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Another cell phone "innovation:" a movie that calls you on Mar 18, 2010 at 1:22 pm

I must be dreaming.

Two things, though: (1) I’m not James Bond, and (2) I don’t mean that in a nice way.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Free Tour of the Saban Theatre (Formerly Fox Wilshire) on Mar 12, 2010 at 8:10 pm

Wish I could be there for the tour. My memories of the Fox Wilshire are shamefully few, though I lived only a couple of miles away for a few years. A couple of memories: a “Gone With the Wind” that was probably the bastardized “widescreen” 70mm release in the 1970s. And my first “Blazing Saddles” — no idea if that was during its first run.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Everett's Puget Park Drive-In shuttered on Feb 8, 2010 at 1:51 pm

Terrible news.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Save the Fairfax Theater on Jan 15, 2010 at 9:12 am

What horrible news. The last place I lived in L.A. in the late 1980s was a short trip away, and it was a wonderful neighborhood theater.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Happy New Year! on Jan 4, 2010 at 7:25 am

CT becomes more valuable to me every time I log in, and I haven’t even BEGUN to spend the time here that I need to. But it serves so well on both a public and a personal level, that already I can’t imagine not having it.

I must echo the very critical need for a photos database.

Here’s to another ten wonderful and productive years. Thank you for everything!

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about UA Del Amo 6 on Jan 1, 2010 at 9:27 pm

I was watching “2010” on Blu-ray this afternoon, which happens to be the first time I’ve seen it straight way through since it came out, and was reminiscing about living in Redondo Beach at the time, and seeing it at the Del Amo Mall. Another film I know I saw there was “The Right Stuff”. I’ve been in the northeast for the past 20 years, but I have wonderful memories of Redondo and the whole South Bay in the early 1980s. And since you all have mentioned it here, those memories include Old Towne Mall — a unique place. I know there have been incredible changes, but I hope the area is as great for people living there now as it was for me then.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Davie Boulevard Drive-In on Dec 14, 2009 at 8:54 am

Absolutely.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Warner Theatre on Dec 11, 2009 at 7:59 am

Here’s a batch of pictures I took in November 2004 (while playing in the pit for a local production of West Side Story, hence the actor/musician photos). The theater is absolutely incredible, and they are now also showing movies on holidays and special occasions, but I haven’t yet been there for one myself. I’ll remedy that soon.

View link

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Screenvision announces new Long-Term agreement with Bow Tie Cinemas on Dec 3, 2009 at 12:55 pm

“Pre-Show Entertainment”

Orwell is rolling over, seething with envy.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Mann Festival Theater on Dec 2, 2009 at 7:23 pm

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable, to any of us who knew and cherished Westwood Village in (in my case) the 1970s and 1980s. That this kind of area in any decent city, let alone one on the scale of L.A., could see this kind of change so rapidly, is shocking to those of us who have been away for some years. It’s unimaginable.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Raging fire destroys Historic Central Texas Theater in Hamilton on Dec 2, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Seconded. I’m from CT, and just taking a glance at the few photos available here takes me back to many wonderful memories of similar theaters I took for granted.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Requesting Intervention on behalf of The SENATOR Theatre on Nov 20, 2009 at 12:51 pm

Same. All best wishes to the Senator.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Galleria Cinemas on Oct 19, 2009 at 7:38 am

Great information, everyone. Appreciate it. I know it’s a long shot, but I hope to eventually find mid-60s photos of the place.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Savor Cinema on Oct 19, 2009 at 7:22 am

In the early 1960s we lived within walking distance when this was the First Methodist Church. I had good friends who were members, and as a young organist at that time, I substituted there one week, enjoying playing on the church’s Allen organ. I have very warm memories of that neighborhood overall, most especially the easy walking distance between home and the then-existing Florida and Warnor theaters and the then-lively and traditional downtown.

I haven’t been to the Cinema Paradiso, but an article about the film festival caught my attention and normally I’d certainly look forward to checking it out next time I’m in South Florida. What a disappointment, then, to read the above description of the state of things. Has there been any improvement in the past year?

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Esquire Theatre on Sep 30, 2009 at 8:51 pm

Interesting! I’ve also wondered if the Bexley might have been the one to have had it in that part of town. I think that about covers the possibilities.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Davie Boulevard Drive-In on Sep 30, 2009 at 11:28 am

Here’s an ad from late November 1963:
View link

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Davie Boulevard Drive-In on Sep 30, 2009 at 9:05 am

A couple of corrections can be made here:

The name was Davie Boulevard Drive-In, and it was in Fort Lauderdale, not Davie. An early-1960s city directory listed it at 3200 Davie Blvd. — not 3100 — which looks correct on the maps and agrees with my own knowledge of the large block it took up. It was replaced by the shopping center seen there now.

We lived about five minutes away, and I have a number of very nice memories of attending this neighborhood drive-in, both with my family and on my own dates, in the early-mid-1960s.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Esquire Theatre on Sep 29, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Was the Esquire operating through the 1950s/1960s?

Is there any chance that it ran Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” on its first release in 1959?

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Galleria Cinemas on Sep 29, 2009 at 6:38 am

Thanks. I have no idea why I thought the layout was different. I visited Fort Lauderdale in 2000 and when I drove by there I had no sense whatever, even from outside, that this was the place I remembered.

I’m looking at a straight-down view on Bing Maps, which must be a few years old because the buildings are still there. (Unfortunately, the bird’s eye views are up to date.) There are two slightly fan-shaped movie auditoriums, with two other buildings in front of them, with what might be an open walkway between them. Was that retail space, or did they add more theaters at one point? What are we actually seeing here?

View link

http://tinyurl.com/yduey4y

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Galleria Cinemas on Sep 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm

We lived in Fort Lauderdale during the 1960s and I’ve been trying to find the twin that I always remembered as the “Sunrise Cinemas”. I guess I’ve found it, but I admit to some confusion. It’s described here as originally being a back-to-back, and, oddly enough, I’d remembered it as a side-to-side layout, with the seats of both theaters facing north.

The theaters I remember, which were indeed new in the mid-1960s, were of a very clean, modern design with no curtains or other traditional details, and the screens themselves were set back, framed within bevelled walls that were painted light like the screen. In my mind’s eye, those were lit by a soft blue light before and after films. It was spare and modern, but attractive and comfortable.

I’m probably not describing this well, and of course the memories are 45 years old, so I will very much appreciate it if anyone can confirm or correct any of this.

Here are films I think I saw there as a teen, some new and others obviously in re-release: “Blowup”, “Heavens Above” (Peter Sellers), “Psycho”, “Dr. Zhivago”, “West Side Story”, “How the West Was Won” (flat, of course). I left Fort Lauderdale for school in the fall of 1967, so all of this would have been in 1964-1967.

I’ll be very grateful for any help on this. Show me where I’m right and where I’m wrong. Thanks!

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Leo S. Bing Theater on Sep 1, 2009 at 10:54 am

Thank you all for the links. The good news certainly didn’t travel as fast as the bad, that’s for sure. But what a relief. For now.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Grauman's Chinese for sale on Aug 12, 2009 at 8:56 am

“Seismic shifts” = a barely adequate description.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about "MAD, MAD WORLD" screening at Cinerama Dome on Aug 7, 2009 at 12:38 pm

How I’d love to be there for this!

I was about 14 when my folks took us to the road show engagement in Miami Beach, and of all the footage later to be cut, for some reason I always remembered the scene in which Spencer Tracy goes out for his ice cream and telephones the police station from the ice cream parlor. Later, I used to wonder why I never saw this scene again, till a few years back when I got around to acquiring the deluxe laserdisc set which I believe contains this same “most complete print”. (This cut has yet to see the light of day on DVD.)

Enjoy, you lucky ones!

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Mann Festival Theater on Aug 3, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Oh man, some scary news to be found here about Mann. Simply unimaginable.

Meanwhile, on the subject of the UA THEATRE, as I knew it in the 1970s, I’d like to add my remembrance of “1984”, as well as (I think): the Herzog/Kinski “Nosferatu”, “High Anxiety”, and “Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother”. There were surely more, but some of them stick in your mind and others don’t. And I definitely remember the balcony, and appreciative full houses for the Brooks and Wilder.

ChasSmith
ChasSmith commented about Cinema Treasures adds its 25,000th theater on Jul 1, 2009 at 6:02 am

Congratulations! Definitely one of the most valuable web sites.

And I must echo those who say PLEASE do something about the picture library. We’re having to rely on people providing them off-site, and so many of those links become obsolete in time.

Thanks, and keep up the incredible work!