Westgate Cinemas

5101 Washington Avenue,
Racine, WI 53406

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp., Marcus Theatres

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WESTGATE Cinemas, Racine, Wisconsin, 2006 photo

The Westgate Cinema was opened as a twin on May 29, 1968 with Lucille Ball in “Yours, Mine and Ours” & Tony Anthony in “A Stanger in Town”. It was expanded to a 5-screen theatre on February 14, 1992. It was an all stadium seat, digital sound operation. A large building with the entrance in the middle. A large bright lobby and concession area with the auditoriums spread around the lobby in a U shape. There was a large cream color portico over the entrance with glass extending up to the top of the building at the entrance. This gave the lobby a bright and airy atmosphere.

It was closed in September 24, 2006 and demolished in summer of 2017.

Contributed by Chuck Van Bibber

Recent comments (view all 19 comments)

DonRosen
DonRosen on November 1, 2006 at 9:38 am

The new Marcus Renaissance Theatres, 13 screens one of which is an Ultra Screen (!!) open November 17, 2006. I’ll be attending the preview party the night before, then do a remote broadcast on opening night. I’ll take pictures. Now, if I can figure out how to post ‘em, you’ll see 'em.

William
William on October 22, 2009 at 7:37 pm

As a GCC house the theatre was once equipped with Sensurround (control unit #85) which was installed in their GCC Meadowdale Theatres in Carpentersville, Illinois at onetime.

quartrun
quartrun on January 27, 2010 at 5:36 pm

The original was an outdoor theater facing to the southeast on Ohio Street, south of Washington Avenue. There were several small store fronts facing Ohio to the east, one of which was a laundromat where my Dad and I would go on Saturdays to do the laundry. I remember they had a machine known as “The Extractor”. It was a large, spinning tub dryer that extracted water from heavy items such as rugs. Directly to the north of those shops, facing Washington was Turn-Style. My Dad’s band, The Ward Allen Trio, was the house band for The Clayton House during the ‘60’s and 70’s. Great memories…

CoryJacobson
CoryJacobson on October 24, 2017 at 5:12 pm

General Cinema’s Westgate Cinema was never a drive-in. The drive-in was located behind the shopping center that was anchored originally by the Turnstyle Department Store bordered by Perry Avenue, Wright Avenue and Ohio Street. When the Shopko Store was built (around 1980) the original Turnstyle store was demolished and shopping center was pushed further back to include the former drive-in property. The drive-in was single screen and separate operation that was also named Westgate.

With regard to the indoor theatre, it was built as a twin theatre and two screens were added to the original building on the east side of the property (where a hotel was demolished) and the original large 700 seat auditorium was split. The original plan was to split the second auditorium, but Ben Marcus personally liked the room and picture size and the theatre remained a 5 screen facility.

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on November 11, 2017 at 4:34 am

General Cinema opened Cinema I & II with “Yours, Mine and Ours” and “A Stranger in Town” on Mary 29, 1968. Ad in photos.

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on November 11, 2017 at 3:27 pm

September 24, 2006 last day of operation with Hollywoodland, Wicker Man, Little Miss Sunshine and The Covenant.

rivest266
rivest266 on November 15, 2017 at 8:59 pm

Grand opening ad already up.

rivest266
rivest266 on November 15, 2017 at 9:51 pm

5 screens on February 14th, 1992. No special ad in the newspaper.

stephny0923
stephny0923 on November 24, 2017 at 8:27 pm

I worked here from 1988-91. It was so much fun, such great memories. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future are what I remember the most. Life was simpler back then. Candy, popcorn and soda! That’s it! I didn’t know it closed. What a bummer.

reschultzed
reschultzed on January 6, 2018 at 1:33 am

After sitting around abandoned for a decade, the Westgate was finally torn down this past summer. They’re going to build a bank in its place. Link: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/in-photos-former-westgate-cinema-razed/collection_509014b8-d451-5ed5-b7fe-7bb336d12724.html

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