UA East Park I & II

The East Park Center shopping plaza was announced in 1962 anchored by a Town & Country discount variety store and a Super Thrift Food Market. Sameric Theatre and Sam Shapiro added the Eric Theatre, a 1,400 luxury cinema to the complex in the planning stages just to the right of the Super Thrift. Purportedly, it was “adaptable” to Cinerama but would open with 70mm and 35mm capability and stereo sound. The theatre was a big deal as Governor William W. Scranton showed up to lay the cornerstone for the theater on April 26, 1963.

The Eric Theatre opened in the East Park Center with a ribbon cutting by State Senator M. Harvey Taylor on July 10, 1963. Just over ten years later, on December 19, 1973, the venue became a twin called Twin Eric I and II with “Sleeper” and a double feature of “Midnight Cowboy” and “Easy Rider.”

Sameric Theatres sold the theatre in May of 1989 to UAB II Inc. with the theatres operated by Creative Entertainment, LTD. The theaters were renamed as the Twin East Park Center Theatres on May 5, 1989. The Creative Entertainment nameplate was discontinued in 1991 with the theaters continuing. On April 23, 1993, they became the UA East Park I & II Theatres.

The UA East Park I & II Theatres closed at the end of lease on February 26, 1995 with “Nobody’s Fool” and “Legends of the Fall.” Any thoughts of returning the cinemas to operational condition was challenged by arsonists who set a number of small fires inside the twins in 1996. The theater stood until 2006 when it was finally demolished.

MSC77 link is dead. its at https://www.in70mm.com/country/usa/h/harrisburg/index.htm

Anytime L. Weigard.

Contrary to the photo of the plaque, the theatre opened July 10 with ribbon-cutting by Sen.M.Harvey Taylor.

Michael:

The comment about the twin in 1978 came from me in a post several years ago. For some unknown reason that post along with several others that I made along way several years ago seem to have gotten deleated when this website went through various machinations.

If I recall correctly the theatre was twinned sometime around in either 1977 or early 1978. It took the landlord a while to find out about the twinning but then the Landlord decided to take action with the opening of Superman. I believe that Superman was playing on both screens.

The landlord literally padlocked the front doors with large chains and padlocks. I know this for a fact because I represented the theatre owner in the court case. The county court found for the theatre owner since the lease did not forbid twinning of the theatre so long as the premises were returned to its original state on termnination of the lease. Needless to say on the settlment of the suit the theatre owner got a sweethart rental adjustment due to the landlord’s actions.

To Mike Rodgers and carolgrau, its sad the way the I.A.T.S.E. projectionists were treated in the 90’s and 2000’s. I myself being one for almost 38 years now, well, I lost my last job in May 2013 to digital, but I had a really nice run. My father was also IA. He worked for 55 years up till 12/31/1992. Sad thing is he passed away the following Oct of 93. In all my years I never once scratched film, even when I worked in adult theatres. My booths were clean as hospital wards. But I was always looked at as too expensive, etc. I remember the late 90’s/early 2000’s when I worked for Clearview in NJ. Always got 97 to 100 on secret shoppers scores for presentation. A month after they got rid of the union in 04, scores went down to 60-70 range.

I guess you can’t fight Wall Street,but I would like to think had i been a director such as a Kubrick,no 17 year would run my movie.It never has made sense to me.I saw this non-union crap coming my last year at GCC i was a pro-union manager because the guys in booth put on a good show,never had to give advice,maybe on a trailer,but other than that took their hours down for the payroll.I guess i was just too dang smart to manage a theatre when i saw they had plans for Managers in the booth and on the floor.Glad I got out in 1983.

What I never could figure out,and i was a manager,but pro-union is why producers and directors would use union labor to make a movie then turn it over to a 17 year old to present to moviegoers.I wish someone that knows much more Than I do,please explain?

The Trans Lux in York was probably the same as the one in Harrisburg, and was twinned in the Blue and Gold style as well. They were even nice, plush theaters as twins. The only problem was they were really long and not so wide, and you practically needed binoculars if you were near the back.

That story about Sameric firing Paul Hipple really ticks me off. He’s long gone I’m sure but what a lousy way to treat an employee who came up with a way to recycle carbon rods and save them money. To my young eyes he was really good at his craft, and he was always nice to us “JRs” as he used to call us. What possible justification did they have?

I remember there was an Eric in downtown Allentown. It opened in the late 60s and I remember going there in the summer of 1969 to see “Midnight Cowboy” It must have been the same chain because the letters of the name in the photos above were the same as the one in Allentown. Many years later I was in Allentown again and it was the Eric 5, so they obviously added on more screens. I’m not sure when it closed but it was a stand alone building right near city hall and had it’s own parking lot. I don’t know if it still stands or was demolished.

Norelco…I remember there was a third projector in the booth, to the left of the big ones. It was smaller and very old-looking and 35mm only. That projector was used for a couple of weeks when I worked there as an usher. They were showing the Julie Andrews flop “Star!” in 70mm but late in the run they wanted to run a trailer for the next attraction before the main feature, and that projector was used only for that. It was a Simplex I think. How old was that one?

There was a storage area at the top of the steps to the booth and to the left. It was stacked with box upon box filled with used carbon rods. What did they keep them for? When they split the Eric into twins did they build a new booth for either side or did they keep it in the same place? I went in there one time after it was twinned and think I saw what looked like another staircase in the lobby, which I assumed was for better access to the booth. It was 30+ years ago so I may be remembering something that wasn’t there.

Another thing I remember about the Eric was the emergency lighting system, which was in a small room to the right of the screen. There must have been a dozen or more storage batteries all wired up and ready for the lights to go out. Never saw anything like it. The room was freezing cold as I recall.

I worked at the Eric for about a year in 1968-69. There was a lot of turnover among ushers. Mr. Bernstein wasn’t the easiest person to work for, cranky as he was.

The Eric wasn’t much for beauty but 70mm looked great in there and the sound was really nice. However, I’ve always thought the Trans Lux was just a nicer theater all around.

John S in York: Yes they built an Eric Theatre in Lancaster. However, it was not a copy of the Eric Harrisburg. It was built in downtown Lancaster as part of the urban renewal after they tore down an entire block of buildings on both sides of the street. Included in the demolition was four movie palaces. One of which had two balconies and another one had one balcony. Anyway, the Eric was built in the concrete monstrosity they build to replace what was demolished. It was tucked away in a corner next to the “new Hilton Hotel” which replaced the original locally owned Brunswick Hotel that was also demolished. I think the original theatre had about 800 seats. It opened in the Fall of 1970. The theatre was twinned in the Fall of 1973 and reopened at Christmas. The theatre was closed on Labor Day, Sept. 4, 1995. I think as of today it is still sitting there empty. The whole concrete boondogle which started out with a movie theatre, shops, and offices is now basically empty. They are trying to get federal funding to tear it down and “re do” the block to look like it did prior to its demolition in 1967. Makes sense to me! They called that block seedy in 1967. Now it is a disaster.

John S…Thanks for sharing and welocme to Cinema Treasures. Hope to hear more from you in the future.