On November 7, 1917 the MADISON SQUARE Theatre opened, seating 2,000 people and owned by the West End Amusement Company, which also controled the Virginia and Crawford Theaters. The West End Amusement Company
was formed by William E. Heaney (vice-president of the Illinois Branch of MPEL of America and manager of the
Virginia and Crawford theaters), his father James B. Heaney, J. D. Murphy, and H. A., Paul A. and John Arm-
strong. There was a $6,000 Wangerin & Weickhardt pipe organ. Admissions were 10 and 15 cents including the war tax.
The CRYSTAL Theatre opened Thursday, November 8, 1917 on the site of an earlier CRYSTAL Theatre. It was
operated by Peter J. Schaefer of Jones, Linick & Schaefer and Fred and Frank Schaefer of the Schaefer Theaters Company, and seated 1,800 on the ground floor. An eight-piece orchestra was employed and the architect was Henry L. Newhouse. The opening attraction was “The Man From Painted Post” with Douglas Fairbanks. Admission was 10 and 15 cents, including the war tax.
The Broadway-Strand Theatre address was listed in Moving Picture World as 6141-53 W. Twelfth street, and opened November 10, 1917 by Marshfield Amusement Company officials Louis L. Marks, Julius Goodman, Meyer S. Marks and Louis H. Harrison. It seated 2,100 people without a balcony, employed a fifteen-piece orchestra, and the architect was A. L. Levy. There was a playroom for children and a gymnasium for the employees. Marshfield Amusement Company also then
operated the Orpheus, Illington and Marshfield theatres.
The Times reopens on Friday, December 28, 2012 at 6 PM with a floodlight and a red-carpet runner after being dark since March when its lender began foreclosure proceedings. New owner Lee Barczak bought the Times at auction in May, and on Sunday, December 23 he announced details of the Times' reopening ceremonies, which will feature “Django Unchained” at 7:30 PM.
(New York Times)
Theater Fire Damages Interior of the Biltmore Theater
By ESTHER IVEREM, December 11, 1987
The interior of the Biltmore Theater in Manhattan, which recently received landmark designation, was damaged by fire early yesterday in a blaze that officials say was deliberately set.
At about 2:30 A.M., firefighters responded to an alarm set off by a sprinkler system at the theater, at 261 West 47th Street. Firefighters found the stage and a portion of the orchestra seating ablaze. Heat damaged the ornate plaster ceiling, sending some slabs falling 60 feet to the floor.
“The chief at the scene has deemed the fire suspicious,” said a spokesman for the Fire Department, Lieut. Frank Martinez. “There was a flammable substance poured onto the stage.”
According to the police, there is evidence that someone broke into the 948-seat theater, which has not been used since the musical “Stardust” closed in May. Hypodermic needles were found inside the theater, indicating that drug users may have been using it as a shooting gallery, and storage lockers had been rifled.
Vagrants and Squatters
No one was seen fleeing the building at the time of the fire, said a Police Department spokesman, Det. Joseph K. McConville.
Lieutenant Martinez said, however, that there has recently been a problem with vagrants and squatters breaking into the building.
One month ago, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the interior of the 52-year-old theater as a city landmark, protecting it against demolition or alteration. The commission praised the Biltmore’s detailed and refined neo-classical architecture.
The commission is still considering designation of the exterior of the theater.
According to city records, the Biltmore is owned by Murray Hill Investments, represented by Sam Pfeiffer, whose address was listed as Madison Investments in Manhattan. There is no phone listing for Murray Hill Investments or Mr. Pfeiffer, and the telephone for Madison Investments has been disconnected.
Lillian Ayala, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Commission, said that despite fire damage, the building’s interior would retain its protected status. Any reconstruction would be reviewed by the commission.
The HOLLYWOOD Theatre building/Polish Legion of American Veterans was sold in February, 2012 to L&M Meats, which has plans to expand the kitchen and utilize the HOLLYWOOD’s former auditorium for catered events. Some interior and exterior cosmetic alterations are ongoing.
Ahead on Waukegan Drive-In (Boxoffice, June 24, 1950)
Construction of a drive-in being erected by Highway Amusement Enterprises, Inc. at the intersection of Routes 173 and 41 near here, is expected to be completed about July 1. With a capacity of 628 cars, the open-air theatre will cost approximately $90,000. The projection booth is to be located atop the concession stand. Irving M. Karlin, Chicago architect, designed the drive-in.
The MICHIGAN’s spectacular vertical sign was called the largest in Michigan, and was 120 feet tall by fourteen feet high and weighing seventeen tons.
By 1954, corrosion was found inside the 27-year-old sign which wasn’t noticeable outside. Sign contractor Edward A. Long of the Long Sign Company worked several eight-hour shifts from midnight until 8 am using a huge Moto-Crane to remove the sign, cutting it from the top down with torches. United Detroit Theatres said the sign wouldn’t be replaced.
The BADGER’s pipe organ was still there
in 1979. The theatre was immaculate and the elderly owners were very gracious in allowing me to look around after the evening’s program.
TRIPLE SCREEN (Kenosha News; Tuesday, December 9, 1975, p. 31)
The Lake Theater will be remodeled and expanded into a triple screen theater in late 1976, John F. Ling, theater owner, announced Monday.
The project’s first phase entails dividing the theater in half to make two auditoriums, one seating 475 persons and the other 485.
Work on the theater’s “twinning” should begin in January and be completed by March, Ling said. The Lake Geneva architectural firm Nafziger and Howard, currently involved in constructing a double-screen theater in Lake Geneva, was the designer.
The project’s second phase, beginning in the Fall of 1976, will put a third, mini-theater seating 300, in part of the area presently the lobby. The balcony will be eliminated.
Ling said he had also been thinking of selling the theater, called by some a city landmark, to build a theater outside of the downtown area. He said the Southport Mall project and expanded parking facilities via a recent trade with American Motors convinced him to stay downtown.
Mayor Wallace Burkee said the city was considering buying the Union Dye building, east of the theater on 5th Avenue, for conversion to a 28-space parking lot.
The theater remodeling will cost $100,000 to $150,000, Ling said. He added the cost to expand to a third screen area will equal the first phase cost.
The revamping will give patrons a wider choice of movies by allowing more films to be shown, said Ling. The theater had previously been remodeled in the late 1950s (sic), Ling said.
Burkee called the plans one of the “first tangible large remodeling projects since the mall.” He said he expects further such downtown projects.
Grand opening of the Hi-Way Outdoor theater, located at Rte. 173 on Skokie highway, just south of the state line, has been set for tonight, according to James E. Mc-
Grain, manager of the new theater.
The latest developments in motion picture sound and projection equipment and a new type screen designed to furnish the best in outdoor movie entertainment have
been incorporated into the open air movie palace.
Knowledge gained in more than 150 years of combined movie and entertainment experience by the operators of the theater insure sound selection of programs and
smooth, courteous service to the patrons.
McGrain’s experience includes operation of the Barrison theater in Waukegan during the halcyon nickelodeon days, management of legitimate theater road troupes, and
motion picture promotion.
Something new in outdoor movie concessions will be the hot plate lunches to be served patrons in their cars.
Well-balanced menus of tempting, inexpensive meals will make it possible for the entire famiy to enjoy a holiday at the movies.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 28. (1903) — The Girard Avenue Theater was gutted by fire early today, entailing a loss of $50,000, of which $25,000 was on the building and the remainder on the contents.
The fire started at about 3:30 a. m. on the stage, and is supposed to have been caused by an electric light
wire. A traveling company was producing the “Minister’s Daughter.” All of the company’s scenery and costumes were destroyed. Miller and Kauffman were the lessees.
Going To The Liberty — 67-Year-Old Theater Finds Success In Treating Kids Like Family By Keith Ervin
PUYALLUP
“What’s your name, sweetie? How old are you?”
Her name is Mariah, says the girl sitting in the front row of the large movie theater. And she’s 10.
“We’ll sing `Happy Birthday.‘ Are you agreeable? If not, we’ll throw you out!” jokes the man with the microphone and the ready smile.
The audience claps, then sings a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Mariah.
But wait.
Bud Dunwoody, proprietor of the Liberty Theatre, isn’t quite ready to dim the lights and show “White Fang,” a second-run Walt Disney movie.
After reminding the patrons to keep their feet off the chairs in front of them, keep their trash off the floor and enjoy the movie, he has a few more words of advice.
Be sure to buckle your seat belt on the way home, have a beautiful day tomorrow, and above all, “Say no to drugs. They can and do kill you.”
Kids may not take Dunwoody’s words to heart any more than they do the advice of their own parents. But in an age of faceless, electronic entertainment, they are offered something personal in this throwback to another era.
Going to the Liberty is more than going to see a movie. It’s an experience.
“In most movie theaters it’s more an entertainment situation nowadays than a social gathering,” says Dunwoody. “I’m trying to make it both. I want people to come in and have a good time and see a good movie and have a good feeling.”
It’s a formula that seems to work.
When Dunwoody took over the theater nine years ago, it was in decline, showing movies only three nights a week. Now the 600-seat theater is open every day, sometimes selling out its regular $2 shows as well as its $1 weekend matinees.
Dunwoody’s trademark opening act, with its tribute to the birthday boys and girls, didn’t start out in a lighthearted way. The first time he stood in front of the audience, it was to deliver a furious warning to the teenagers who had been disrupting shows with their loud socializing.
He threw out the troublemakers and solved the discipline problem. But he continued his practice of standing before the audience and saying what was on his mind.
The quintessential family theater, the Liberty not only offers fare for the whole family, it’s family-run. Working at the 67-year-old theater with Dunwoody are his wife, Patricia, his daughter Christy, his granddaughter Jennifer, and his son Dennis, who now manages the theater five days a week.
Of the children in the audience, says Dennis, “We call them our kids when they’re inside our theater. When they go back out, they’re their parents' again.”
The Liberty does show some films aimed at older audiences – “Awakenings” and “Dances with Wolves,” for example.
The theater once showed “The Abyss” even though it included some adult language and offered a glimpse of the heroine’s breast. That glimpse was acceptable, Bud Dunwoody explains, because it was brief and because it occurred while the woman’s husband was trying to revive her.
He censored the “F-word” in a recent film by turning the sound off momentarily. But Dunwoody dismissed one patron’s complaint that Demi Moore showed “too much cheek” in the hit movie “Ghost.” “They show more on these TV ads for swimming suits than we see in these movies,” he says.
Although Dunwoody chooses not to show R-rated movies at the Liberty, he has no objection to theaters that do. In fact, he shows “some of the better R’s” at the Neptune Theatre, which he has operated in Long Beach, Pacific County, for the past three years.
One kind of film he won’t show at either theater is the popular slice-and-dice horror genre: “There’s enough violence in the world without putting it on the screen.”
Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Dunwoody got into the theater business after retiring from the Air Force in 1969. His brother-in-law offered him a job as a management trainee in a Renton theater. He managed theaters in Tacoma, Seattle and Portland before buying the Liberty.
At 62 – “and feeling like 40” – he’s in no hurry to retire from his second career. The point of it all isn’t to make money, he says, but to have fun:
“I’m not out to make a million dollars. If I was out to make a million dollars, I sure wouldn’t be at two bucks a head. The million dollars is not my goal.”
So he’s still at his small-town theaters several nights a week, greeting customers outside the box office and giving his cornball spiels that are as much a part of the show as the movie itself.
What about the warmup act on the nights Bud Dunwoody isn’t at the theater? He took care of that when he asked his son to manage the theater – and insisted that he continue the tradition of addressing the audience.
Dennis Dunwoody was uneasy about it at first. But, his dad says proudly, “He’s just like a duck in the water now. In fact, he’s probably just as crazy as I am.”
Sioux City, Ia.—Fred Melcher, of Chicago, has arrived in the city and will immediately take charge of the new moving picture theatre, the Olympic, which is being fitted at 415 Fourth Street. An elaborate front is being put in the new theater.
(From the National Register of Historic Places registration form:)
Princess Theatre-Carolina Theatre; narrow, rectangular theatre building of rock-faced concrete block with
rusticated concrete lintels; front gable roof of metal Spanish tile with round ridge vents; rear addition and fly gallery of brick; gabled facade of painted brick and stucco has two-story central bay with arch containing wrought iron balcony, round-arched window
alcove; first floor modern display windows of aluminum and glass on either side of doorway, with side lights and transom: stuccoed panels either side of second floor with projecting wrought iron light brackets; stuccoed gable; modern canvas marquees; windows with
transoms on side elevations boarded over; built 1913-14 by T. S. Burgess for Southern Pines Improvement Company and operated by Charles Picquet; in 1924 the
building was expanded and given a new facade for Oscar auf der Heide of New York and Dr. George Herr; Charles Picquet and Richard Tufts operated the theatre in tandem with the Carolina Theatre in Pinehurst.
“March 18, 1952: Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Davis,
operators of the Alan theater, have begun remodeling the building and plan to show an additional movie
each week.” (The theatre was owned by Charles Carter, the justice of the peace.)
FORT JACKSON, S.C. — The Fort Jackson Theater opened last weekend to rave reviews.
Theater opens after two-year closure
November 19, 2009
By STEVE REEVES, Fort Jackson Leader
Soldiers with the 187th Ordnance Battalion filed into the theater to get the first seats at the Fort Jackson theater grand opening. Crowds gathered outside the theater at least two hours before the movie – a sneak preview of “The Blind Side” – was slated to begin.
Jason Rosenberg, AAFES general manager, Col. Lillian A. Dixon, garrison commander, and Billy Wood, movie theater manager, cut the ribbon during the grand opening of Fort Jackson’s movie theater. Dixon said she made the project, which took two years to complete.
Rene Muniz was one of the hundreds of people who stood in line Saturday to get a sneak preview of the renovated theater, as well as a free screening of the film, “The Blind Side.”
Muniz, chief of Fort Jackson’s Information Assurance Division, gave the theater two thumbs up. “I had been waiting a long time for that theater to open back up, and I wasn’t disappointed,” Muniz said. “Everything was nice and new and very attractive. And the movie was excellent, also.”
Muniz said it’s a big plus for the Fort Jackson community now that the theater has reopened. “I’ll definitely be a frequent visitor,” he said.
The theater holds 750 people, and it was a packed house Saturday. Many of the attendees were no doubt lured by the free movie, but everyone was treated to a sparkling new theater interior.
“Opening the theater is a double bonus for the Fort Jackson community,” said Col. Lillian Dixon, Fort Jackson garrison commander. “It has always been a key venue to our training mission. It also enhances the quality of life for our Soldiers, families and retirees. It will be a great outlet for our graduating Soldiers and their families during Family Day.”
Dixon made reopening the theater a priority when she arrived at Fort Jackson in 2007 and said she is pleased with the result.
“You can’t help but smile when you walk inside the facility,” she said. “I invite everyone to support the theater. The price is right and the company is even better.”
The renovated theater features new seats, curtains and carpet, fresh paint, upgraded projection equipment and concessions, and a new Dolby Digital sound system.
Matt Gibbs, project manager for Fort Jackson’s Directorate of Public Works, said approximately $600,000 in garrison funds went toward the renovation of the theater, which had been closed since 2007 because the facility had deteriorated so badly.
The renovation project began in April, Gibbs said, and was completed just before the theater’s grand opening last weekend.
Matt Shealy, chief of engineering for DPW, said the theater’s ceiling had been badly damaged by water leakage and maintenance of the interior had not been kept up in recent years. “It was just a tired, old space,” Shealy said.
Aside from being a major source of entertainment on post, the theater was a multi-use facility because of its large capacity.
“The theater is as important for training as it is for movies,” Shealy said. “We just don’t have that many spaces on post that can hold 750 people. We really needed the theater to open back up.”
But being a source of entertainment is a large part of the theater’s significance to Fort Jackson, Shealy said.
“We need a theater on post because that’s important for the families,” he said.
Built in 1908 during the booming lumbering era in Michigan, the STATE Theatre was known as the BIJOU and was redone in 1930 by C. Howard Crane, who used local labor using hand-crafted plaster casts for the 9,500 square-foot theatre. As years passed and owners changed, the Mayan murals were painted over and water damage became evident. The Dow Chemical Company Foundation provided financial support for the restoration project.
On November 7, 1917 the MADISON SQUARE Theatre opened, seating 2,000 people and owned by the West End Amusement Company, which also controled the Virginia and Crawford Theaters. The West End Amusement Company was formed by William E. Heaney (vice-president of the Illinois Branch of MPEL of America and manager of the Virginia and Crawford theaters), his father James B. Heaney, J. D. Murphy, and H. A., Paul A. and John Arm- strong. There was a $6,000 Wangerin & Weickhardt pipe organ. Admissions were 10 and 15 cents including the war tax.
The CRYSTAL Theatre opened Thursday, November 8, 1917 on the site of an earlier CRYSTAL Theatre. It was operated by Peter J. Schaefer of Jones, Linick & Schaefer and Fred and Frank Schaefer of the Schaefer Theaters Company, and seated 1,800 on the ground floor. An eight-piece orchestra was employed and the architect was Henry L. Newhouse. The opening attraction was “The Man From Painted Post” with Douglas Fairbanks. Admission was 10 and 15 cents, including the war tax.
The Broadway-Strand Theatre address was listed in Moving Picture World as 6141-53 W. Twelfth street, and opened November 10, 1917 by Marshfield Amusement Company officials Louis L. Marks, Julius Goodman, Meyer S. Marks and Louis H. Harrison. It seated 2,100 people without a balcony, employed a fifteen-piece orchestra, and the architect was A. L. Levy. There was a playroom for children and a gymnasium for the employees. Marshfield Amusement Company also then operated the Orpheus, Illington and Marshfield theatres.
A Mrs. R. D. Frazier owned the GRANT Theatre in 1917.
The Times reopens on Friday, December 28, 2012 at 6 PM with a floodlight and a red-carpet runner after being dark since March when its lender began foreclosure proceedings. New owner Lee Barczak bought the Times at auction in May, and on Sunday, December 23 he announced details of the Times' reopening ceremonies, which will feature “Django Unchained” at 7:30 PM.
(New York Times) Theater Fire Damages Interior of the Biltmore Theater By ESTHER IVEREM, December 11, 1987
The interior of the Biltmore Theater in Manhattan, which recently received landmark designation, was damaged by fire early yesterday in a blaze that officials say was deliberately set.
At about 2:30 A.M., firefighters responded to an alarm set off by a sprinkler system at the theater, at 261 West 47th Street. Firefighters found the stage and a portion of the orchestra seating ablaze. Heat damaged the ornate plaster ceiling, sending some slabs falling 60 feet to the floor.
“The chief at the scene has deemed the fire suspicious,” said a spokesman for the Fire Department, Lieut. Frank Martinez. “There was a flammable substance poured onto the stage.”
According to the police, there is evidence that someone broke into the 948-seat theater, which has not been used since the musical “Stardust” closed in May. Hypodermic needles were found inside the theater, indicating that drug users may have been using it as a shooting gallery, and storage lockers had been rifled.
Vagrants and Squatters
No one was seen fleeing the building at the time of the fire, said a Police Department spokesman, Det. Joseph K. McConville.
Lieutenant Martinez said, however, that there has recently been a problem with vagrants and squatters breaking into the building.
One month ago, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the interior of the 52-year-old theater as a city landmark, protecting it against demolition or alteration. The commission praised the Biltmore’s detailed and refined neo-classical architecture.
The commission is still considering designation of the exterior of the theater.
According to city records, the Biltmore is owned by Murray Hill Investments, represented by Sam Pfeiffer, whose address was listed as Madison Investments in Manhattan. There is no phone listing for Murray Hill Investments or Mr. Pfeiffer, and the telephone for Madison Investments has been disconnected.
Lillian Ayala, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Commission, said that despite fire damage, the building’s interior would retain its protected status. Any reconstruction would be reviewed by the commission.
The HOLLYWOOD Theatre building/Polish Legion of American Veterans was sold in February, 2012 to L&M Meats, which has plans to expand the kitchen and utilize the HOLLYWOOD’s former auditorium for catered events. Some interior and exterior cosmetic alterations are ongoing.
Ahead on Waukegan Drive-In (Boxoffice, June 24, 1950)
Construction of a drive-in being erected by Highway Amusement Enterprises, Inc. at the intersection of Routes 173 and 41 near here, is expected to be completed about July 1. With a capacity of 628 cars, the open-air theatre will cost approximately $90,000. The projection booth is to be located atop the concession stand. Irving M. Karlin, Chicago architect, designed the drive-in.
The MICHIGAN’s spectacular vertical sign was called the largest in Michigan, and was 120 feet tall by fourteen feet high and weighing seventeen tons.
By 1954, corrosion was found inside the 27-year-old sign which wasn’t noticeable outside. Sign contractor Edward A. Long of the Long Sign Company worked several eight-hour shifts from midnight until 8 am using a huge Moto-Crane to remove the sign, cutting it from the top down with torches. United Detroit Theatres said the sign wouldn’t be replaced.
Photo from 1940.
Just for accuracy’s sake, officially the theatre’s name has a period after the name ‘Al’.
The BADGER’s pipe organ was still there in 1979. The theatre was immaculate and the elderly owners were very gracious in allowing me to look around after the evening’s program.
TRIPLE SCREEN (Kenosha News; Tuesday, December 9, 1975, p. 31)
The Lake Theater will be remodeled and expanded into a triple screen theater in late 1976, John F. Ling, theater owner, announced Monday.
The project’s first phase entails dividing the theater in half to make two auditoriums, one seating 475 persons and the other 485.
Work on the theater’s “twinning” should begin in January and be completed by March, Ling said. The Lake Geneva architectural firm Nafziger and Howard, currently involved in constructing a double-screen theater in Lake Geneva, was the designer.
The project’s second phase, beginning in the Fall of 1976, will put a third, mini-theater seating 300, in part of the area presently the lobby. The balcony will be eliminated.
Ling said he had also been thinking of selling the theater, called by some a city landmark, to build a theater outside of the downtown area. He said the Southport Mall project and expanded parking facilities via a recent trade with American Motors convinced him to stay downtown.
Mayor Wallace Burkee said the city was considering buying the Union Dye building, east of the theater on 5th Avenue, for conversion to a 28-space parking lot.
The theater remodeling will cost $100,000 to $150,000, Ling said. He added the cost to expand to a third screen area will equal the first phase cost.
The revamping will give patrons a wider choice of movies by allowing more films to be shown, said Ling. The theater had previously been remodeled in the late 1950s (sic), Ling said.
Burkee called the plans one of the “first tangible large remodeling projects since the mall.” He said he expects further such downtown projects.
This was the location for the film-theatre sequence in “Unfaithful” (2002). (“Mr. Hulot’s Holiday” was the feature in the storyline.)
(Antioch [IL] News, August 10, 1950)
New Hi-Way Theatre To Open
Grand opening of the Hi-Way Outdoor theater, located at Rte. 173 on Skokie highway, just south of the state line, has been set for tonight, according to James E. Mc- Grain, manager of the new theater.
The latest developments in motion picture sound and projection equipment and a new type screen designed to furnish the best in outdoor movie entertainment have been incorporated into the open air movie palace.
Knowledge gained in more than 150 years of combined movie and entertainment experience by the operators of the theater insure sound selection of programs and smooth, courteous service to the patrons.
McGrain’s experience includes operation of the Barrison theater in Waukegan during the halcyon nickelodeon days, management of legitimate theater road troupes, and motion picture promotion.
Something new in outdoor movie concessions will be the hot plate lunches to be served patrons in their cars.
Well-balanced menus of tempting, inexpensive meals will make it possible for the entire famiy to enjoy a holiday at the movies.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 28. (1903) — The Girard Avenue Theater was gutted by fire early today, entailing a loss of $50,000, of which $25,000 was on the building and the remainder on the contents. The fire started at about 3:30 a. m. on the stage, and is supposed to have been caused by an electric light wire. A traveling company was producing the “Minister’s Daughter.” All of the company’s scenery and costumes were destroyed. Miller and Kauffman were the lessees.
(SEATTLE TIMES, Wednesday, July 10, 1991)
Going To The Liberty — 67-Year-Old Theater Finds Success In Treating Kids Like Family
By Keith Ervin
PUYALLUP
“What’s your name, sweetie? How old are you?”
Her name is Mariah, says the girl sitting in the front row of the large movie theater. And she’s 10.
“We’ll sing `Happy Birthday.‘ Are you agreeable? If not, we’ll throw you out!” jokes the man with the microphone and the ready smile.
The audience claps, then sings a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Mariah.
But wait.
Bud Dunwoody, proprietor of the Liberty Theatre, isn’t quite ready to dim the lights and show “White Fang,” a second-run Walt Disney movie.
After reminding the patrons to keep their feet off the chairs in front of them, keep their trash off the floor and enjoy the movie, he has a few more words of advice.
Be sure to buckle your seat belt on the way home, have a beautiful day tomorrow, and above all, “Say no to drugs. They can and do kill you.”
Kids may not take Dunwoody’s words to heart any more than they do the advice of their own parents. But in an age of faceless, electronic entertainment, they are offered something personal in this throwback to another era.
Going to the Liberty is more than going to see a movie. It’s an experience.
“In most movie theaters it’s more an entertainment situation nowadays than a social gathering,” says Dunwoody. “I’m trying to make it both. I want people to come in and have a good time and see a good movie and have a good feeling.”
It’s a formula that seems to work.
When Dunwoody took over the theater nine years ago, it was in decline, showing movies only three nights a week. Now the 600-seat theater is open every day, sometimes selling out its regular $2 shows as well as its $1 weekend matinees.
Dunwoody’s trademark opening act, with its tribute to the birthday boys and girls, didn’t start out in a lighthearted way. The first time he stood in front of the audience, it was to deliver a furious warning to the teenagers who had been disrupting shows with their loud socializing.
He threw out the troublemakers and solved the discipline problem. But he continued his practice of standing before the audience and saying what was on his mind.
The quintessential family theater, the Liberty not only offers fare for the whole family, it’s family-run. Working at the 67-year-old theater with Dunwoody are his wife, Patricia, his daughter Christy, his granddaughter Jennifer, and his son Dennis, who now manages the theater five days a week.
Of the children in the audience, says Dennis, “We call them our kids when they’re inside our theater. When they go back out, they’re their parents' again.”
The Liberty does show some films aimed at older audiences – “Awakenings” and “Dances with Wolves,” for example.
The theater once showed “The Abyss” even though it included some adult language and offered a glimpse of the heroine’s breast. That glimpse was acceptable, Bud Dunwoody explains, because it was brief and because it occurred while the woman’s husband was trying to revive her.
He censored the “F-word” in a recent film by turning the sound off momentarily. But Dunwoody dismissed one patron’s complaint that Demi Moore showed “too much cheek” in the hit movie “Ghost.” “They show more on these TV ads for swimming suits than we see in these movies,” he says.
Although Dunwoody chooses not to show R-rated movies at the Liberty, he has no objection to theaters that do. In fact, he shows “some of the better R’s” at the Neptune Theatre, which he has operated in Long Beach, Pacific County, for the past three years.
One kind of film he won’t show at either theater is the popular slice-and-dice horror genre: “There’s enough violence in the world without putting it on the screen.”
Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Dunwoody got into the theater business after retiring from the Air Force in 1969. His brother-in-law offered him a job as a management trainee in a Renton theater. He managed theaters in Tacoma, Seattle and Portland before buying the Liberty.
At 62 – “and feeling like 40” – he’s in no hurry to retire from his second career. The point of it all isn’t to make money, he says, but to have fun:
“I’m not out to make a million dollars. If I was out to make a million dollars, I sure wouldn’t be at two bucks a head. The million dollars is not my goal.”
So he’s still at his small-town theaters several nights a week, greeting customers outside the box office and giving his cornball spiels that are as much a part of the show as the movie itself.
What about the warmup act on the nights Bud Dunwoody isn’t at the theater? He took care of that when he asked his son to manage the theater – and insisted that he continue the tradition of addressing the audience.
Dennis Dunwoody was uneasy about it at first. But, his dad says proudly, “He’s just like a duck in the water now. In fact, he’s probably just as crazy as I am.”
(From Moving Picture World, October 10, 1908:)
Sioux City, Ia.—Fred Melcher, of Chicago, has arrived in the city and will immediately take charge of the new moving picture theatre, the Olympic, which is being fitted at 415 Fourth Street. An elaborate front is being put in the new theater.
I believe the MASSENA Theatre had earlier been the STRAND Theatre. Check photos …
(From the National Register of Historic Places registration form:)
Princess Theatre-Carolina Theatre; narrow, rectangular theatre building of rock-faced concrete block with rusticated concrete lintels; front gable roof of metal Spanish tile with round ridge vents; rear addition and fly gallery of brick; gabled facade of painted brick and stucco has two-story central bay with arch containing wrought iron balcony, round-arched window alcove; first floor modern display windows of aluminum and glass on either side of doorway, with side lights and transom: stuccoed panels either side of second floor with projecting wrought iron light brackets; stuccoed gable; modern canvas marquees; windows with transoms on side elevations boarded over; built 1913-14 by T. S. Burgess for Southern Pines Improvement Company and operated by Charles Picquet; in 1924 the building was expanded and given a new facade for Oscar auf der Heide of New York and Dr. George Herr; Charles Picquet and Richard Tufts operated the theatre in tandem with the Carolina Theatre in Pinehurst.
KEN (KENWOOD) Theatre; Chicago, Illinois during 1938 redesigning work.
“March 18, 1952: Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Davis, operators of the Alan theater, have begun remodeling the building and plan to show an additional movie each week.” (The theatre was owned by Charles Carter, the justice of the peace.)
FORT JACKSON, S.C. — The Fort Jackson Theater opened last weekend to rave reviews. Theater opens after two-year closure November 19, 2009 By STEVE REEVES, Fort Jackson Leader Soldiers with the 187th Ordnance Battalion filed into the theater to get the first seats at the Fort Jackson theater grand opening. Crowds gathered outside the theater at least two hours before the movie – a sneak preview of “The Blind Side” – was slated to begin.
Jason Rosenberg, AAFES general manager, Col. Lillian A. Dixon, garrison commander, and Billy Wood, movie theater manager, cut the ribbon during the grand opening of Fort Jackson’s movie theater. Dixon said she made the project, which took two years to complete.
Rene Muniz was one of the hundreds of people who stood in line Saturday to get a sneak preview of the renovated theater, as well as a free screening of the film, “The Blind Side.”
Muniz, chief of Fort Jackson’s Information Assurance Division, gave the theater two thumbs up. “I had been waiting a long time for that theater to open back up, and I wasn’t disappointed,” Muniz said. “Everything was nice and new and very attractive. And the movie was excellent, also.”
Muniz said it’s a big plus for the Fort Jackson community now that the theater has reopened. “I’ll definitely be a frequent visitor,” he said.
The theater holds 750 people, and it was a packed house Saturday. Many of the attendees were no doubt lured by the free movie, but everyone was treated to a sparkling new theater interior.
“Opening the theater is a double bonus for the Fort Jackson community,” said Col. Lillian Dixon, Fort Jackson garrison commander. “It has always been a key venue to our training mission. It also enhances the quality of life for our Soldiers, families and retirees. It will be a great outlet for our graduating Soldiers and their families during Family Day.”
Dixon made reopening the theater a priority when she arrived at Fort Jackson in 2007 and said she is pleased with the result.
“You can’t help but smile when you walk inside the facility,” she said. “I invite everyone to support the theater. The price is right and the company is even better.”
The renovated theater features new seats, curtains and carpet, fresh paint, upgraded projection equipment and concessions, and a new Dolby Digital sound system.
Matt Gibbs, project manager for Fort Jackson’s Directorate of Public Works, said approximately $600,000 in garrison funds went toward the renovation of the theater, which had been closed since 2007 because the facility had deteriorated so badly.
The renovation project began in April, Gibbs said, and was completed just before the theater’s grand opening last weekend.
Matt Shealy, chief of engineering for DPW, said the theater’s ceiling had been badly damaged by water leakage and maintenance of the interior had not been kept up in recent years. “It was just a tired, old space,” Shealy said.
Aside from being a major source of entertainment on post, the theater was a multi-use facility because of its large capacity.
“The theater is as important for training as it is for movies,” Shealy said. “We just don’t have that many spaces on post that can hold 750 people. We really needed the theater to open back up.”
But being a source of entertainment is a large part of the theater’s significance to Fort Jackson, Shealy said.
“We need a theater on post because that’s important for the families,” he said.
Rapp and Rapp also designed the atmospheric GATEWAY Theatre in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Built in 1908 during the booming lumbering era in Michigan, the STATE Theatre was known as the BIJOU and was redone in 1930 by C. Howard Crane, who used local labor using hand-crafted plaster casts for the 9,500 square-foot theatre. As years passed and owners changed, the Mayan murals were painted over and water damage became evident. The Dow Chemical Company Foundation provided financial support for the restoration project.