AMC Holiday Six Theatres

psmith102006 on February 12, 2011 at 10:43 am

I saw Tommy and couldnt hear for a week. I saw several other movies as well. I tried to avoid the back 4, they were to small (like the Evans in Williamsville—which isnt mentioned here. The Plaza North on Niagara Falls Blvd isnt mentioned either) The curtains were closed and would open like the old shows did, but not up and down but across instead.

alknobloch on May 22, 2009 at 6:57 pm

I can’t believe that nobody has commented on these theaters so far

To be certain, the outlying 4-screen building, put up years after the major structure, was little more that the traditional cookie-cutter multiplex of the day. But the original 2 theaters were absolutely fantastic.

Wish I knew more about them technically, but they were originally called the Holiday Showcase Theaters. They shared the land parcel with the Holiday Showcase Restaurant, a circular building which was very unusual at the time.

Each theater was an enormously plain rectangle – one slightly smaller than the other – but getting beyond that, inside you found a massive floor to ceiling curved screen and a sound system that blew all others away. A scope film in here was a true experience!

The big theater ran the local premier of Ken Russel’s “Tommy” which, I believe, was the first film to utilize the forerummer of 5.1 Dolby sound. They squeezed in gigantic speakers at each rear corner of the auditorium which forced patrons to squeeze by THEM while coming and going. The resultant auditory assult would never have made a Lucasfilm THX certified best-of list, but was perfect for the crowd of the day.

These houses would sell out on weekends, and during the showing of “Alien” that I attended, I hit the late show after a sold-out 8PM crowd came staggering out. As I entered the auditorium, a sense of ‘fear’ after the hugh crowd had seen the film on that huge screen was actually palpble – something I’ve yet to ever re-experience in any theater again.

Management was also fond of holding events in the parking lot to attract attention – like the old car show at the opening of “Grease 2”.

Let’s hear more memories of this popular cinema — anyone remember seeing “Johnathan Livingston Seagull” wall-to-wall here???