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Cooper Theatre
5755 Wayzata Boulevard,
St. Louis Park,
MN
55416
5755 Wayzata Boulevard,
St. Louis Park,
MN
55416
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 66 comments
New Showcase Presentations in Minneapolis article includes mention of the numerous Cinerama and 70mm presentations here and other Twin Cities area cinemas.
Grand opening ad in the photo section and below
Found on Newspapers.com
Here is a link to watch Lost Twin Cities III, the Cooper Theater section starts at about 36 minutes. Be prepared to shed a tear or two:
http://video.tpt.org/video/2258670927/
I was an usherette in a black dress with pearl necklace in the early 60s. “How the West Was Won” was playing. Salary was $1.10/hour. There were so many terrific young women who worked as usherettes, and most were university students. There was Mauricette, Emily, Linda, Dallas. I should drag out photos. We partied together, had wedding showers, sleepovers. It was the best time for me as I had just moved there from California. —A big shout out to all those usherettes. —Patty Fewer
I have three Cinerama projectors and a Cinerama sound reproducer like the ones that were installed at the three Cooper Cinerama Theaters during the three-strip Cinerama days. If anybody would like to see them, please contact me at . I would be happy to show them to you. Or, I’ll be happy to send photographs to you.
This was the best Cinerama installation in America. The screen was gigantic, the projection & sound superb. I recently attended the Cinerama Festival in Los Angeles at the Cinerama Dome and it did not come close to the thrill of seeing & hearing Cinerama at the Cooper. Ironic the Minneapolis Tribune celebrated the opening of the Cooper as the successor to the Radio City movie palace downtown & they have both met the wrecking ball.
I just posted a write up about the Cooper on my website. Let me know what you think. http://wp.me/p20gfX-15z
I saw Bladerunner (the original cut) at Indian Hills in Omaha in 1982. 10 years later… I saw Bladerunner (The Director’s Cut) at the Cooper Theater in Denver. Glad I was able to see those films in those beautiful movie theaters.
I was excited to see that the Cooper was included in a segment produced by Twin Cities Public Television for the Lost Twin Cities III special. It was really well done with lots of pictures and information. Covered everything from the premiere with the Brothers Grimm, to the long run of How the West was Won, Airport and its end with Dances With Wolves. Definitely worth checking out for any Cooper or Cinerama fans. Would love to find a way to put some screen caps up on the site here (although I’m not sure if that is allowed, and I’m not sure if many of the pics were the St. Louis Park Cooper or ones taken from Indian Hills or Denver).
Great theater we saw “Abyss”, “Hunt/Red October”, “Godfather 3”, and even “Ten Commandments” in….
I have recently acquired what have been alleged to be seats #103 and #104 from the MN Cooper Theatre. If anyone has any pictures of the seats from the theatre or can validate they are authentic, I would be very interested in knowing for sure.
I have an original “Price and Performance schedule” for the movie “Khartoum” 1966. It looks like a small version of the Movie poster on one side and price and show times with the address on the other. This is for the Cooper theatre in MN.
Any interest?
How about a model of the Cooper made of Legos just like this church photo: View link I might have trouble finding lego pieces that are orange in color.
One of the pictures links previous was an exterior shot of the cooper with “The Mission” on the sign. Seeing that movie at the cooper was the first date my wife and I went on. I wanted to impress her by going to the classiest place i knew. I remember being disappointed the theater was so run down. We had to pick and choose to find 2 seats together where the springs hadn’t worn through. You could see how nice the place had been but it was worn out. My first memory of the cooper was the movie Airport. I was nice how they redid the lobby to fit with the theme of the movie being played. I will miss the place.
Gail, I got the same feeling watching 2001 at my favorite theatre in 70mm,National Hills theatre.
Nice looking theatre too bad it it gone now.
I saw “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How The West Was Won” at the Cooper when I was seven. I remember that in its early days, the theatre had reserved seating (hence the sign mentioned in an earlier post). But the movie I really remember was “2001: A Space Odyssey.” You almost felt as if you were falling into the screen during the space station docking sequence.
What great stories to read. don’t ever forget the Cooper Theatre those of you that were lucky enough to catch a movie there.
MJV, I would like to contact you. My name is Rob from Eveleth, MN and I met you at John Novak’s funeral, I was his very good friend from northern MN who made the collage with the theaters and posters My email is Please forgive this interruption to this thread.
It’s funny you mention the Brookdale equipment because John had showed me through the Brookdale and we went to see Tron there, I always liked the theater but he said the sound system was not very good, though it sounded “not bad” to me. But we all know how he knew sound. John and I went to many movies together at the Cooper. I’ll never forget the opening of Star Trek 2 Khan, and the dozens of other untul it closed.
I wanted to comment on the gentleman regardng the Cooper showing Todd AO. I worked the Cooper as projectionist from 1980 to 1990. I had the pleasure of showing the release of Oklahoma! in 1984. We knew the 70mm print would come in at 30 frames per second. The Cooper was equiped with the Century JJ II 35-70 set up. To convert to the 30 frames per second speed, all I had to do was move the motor to projecter drive belt to the outer set of pullies. It was very easy. The film ran fine with no problem, but it was very noisy! As an aside, at the end of our run, the Oklahoma! print was sent up the road to Plitt Brookdale. The Brookdale had Century 35-70 machines, but those machines did not have the double pulley drive set up. We ended up taking the motors and pullies off the Cooper equipment and swaping them with the Brookdale machines! I did get to work an Oklahoma! shift at Brookdale and those Century machines worked well. MJV
I have several pages of the original blueprints of the Cooper Theater. they came from the Library in Denver under the collection of the architect. Very Interesting, indeed.
I remember seeing the first Star Trek movie, my dad fell asleep during it. Also took a girlfriend to the Abyss, and saw, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Shortly before demolition, a friend and I snuck in through the front door, which was left wide open, with a camera for our local TV access show, and filmed the interiors. The auditorium shots are a bit dark. On the tape as I was filming the concession stand in the lobby moving toward the door to leave, a guy doing something behind the counter saw us and got pissed we had come in there, and said something to us about getting out! I still have the footage somewhere and have not seen it since 1992 when I edited a small section together to run credits over the footage. I see from online that any pictures, or video, of these lost theaters is a rarity. I thought this theater was the best one ever built for movies! Shame it is gone! :(
The Cooper ! Reading all the great memories brings back my own ! I know I saw many movies at The Cooper, but the only movie memory I have is seeing “Pippy Long Stocking” probably in the late 70’s when I was in my very early teens. I also remember the smoking area that was mentioned, the cages that were higher than the actual seats that had the ceiling “smoke sucking” fans.
What great times those were !
I worked at the Cooper in the 70’s. Here’s the history of the Cooper Foundation. www.cooperfoundation.org/cooper_theatres.html
The Office Depot that replaced the Cooper is up for sale. Here is an aerial view of the current location:
http://tinyurl.com/dehzbr