Foster Art Theatre

Jack Oberleitner on December 27, 2010 at 3:08 pm

A couple comments:

1. The domiant chain, prior to Associated Theatres/Cinemette, was Cleveland-based National Amusements. National,under Mr. Petrich (sp) operated the Palace and State downtown and opened some of the first large mall theatres in the suburbs. Associated (Pittsburgh) operated the Liberty Plaza and Uptown. John Harper and associates bought the Associated chain in the mid 70’s usiing the Cinemette name. Following was a spree of theatre purchasing and building.

2. The Foster was the main venue for true “art” films for many years. I, like many of you, saw my first Felini and Bergman films there. Occasionally the Foster would even present an opera or ballet-based film Throughout the 50’s and 60’s they maintained a postcard mailing list to “fine arts film fans.” This was the type of theatre that one usually expected to fine in NYC and the like. The real prototype of the art format house.

It’s a shame that it will probably be remembered as a porn theatre.

milanp on December 27, 2010 at 12:36 pm

The closest Loews Theater to Youngstown was a Loews house at the Eastwood Mall in Niles (roughly a half-hour’s drive from downtown Y-town) that opened spring ‘69 (“Anne of the Thousand Days” may have been their first movie).
Loews twinned that Eastwood house in 1973, and within a few years they sold the theater to the same Youngstown chain that—at the time—owned virtually every theater in the area. Drawing a blank on the chain’s name right now: pretty ironic considering the fact that, like most Baby Boomer Ytown natives, I worked at one of their theaters while in high school.

milanp on December 27, 2010 at 11:12 am

The Foster’s glory days, unfortunately, were mostly before I was old enough to take advantage of them.
I remember they used to show a classic film (“The Seventh Seal” or maybe “La Strada”) every Tuesday as a bonus feature with their regular attraction. Can you imagine something like that today??!!
They truly put the “art” in “arthouse.”
During the mid-‘60s “Batman” TV craze, they did weekend matinees of all the old “Batman” serials from the 1940s. And I remember seeing a reissue of “House of Wax” there (in REAL 3-D!) around 1971.
The Foster also gets bonus points for being the place where I saw my first subtitled movie: Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maude’s” in 1970. I was 12 at the time.

kencmcintyre on April 5, 2010 at 2:54 pm

It looks like the theater was working on having a site, but never finished it.
http://fostertheater.com/

MagicLantern on March 9, 2010 at 8:01 pm

What an insanely beautiful old dump!