The El Rancho Drive-in opened its gates on May 8, 1951 with Bill Williams in “Blue Blood” (unknown if any short subjects). It was closed at the end of the 1983 season and was demolished in late-March 1984.
The La Rita Theatre opened its doors on February 4, 1931 with Nancy Carroll in “Laughter” along with MGM’s Dogville short “The Dogway Melody” and the Paramount Screen Song “Chinatown, My Chinatown” (listed as simply “China Town” on ad).
Original information about the theater goes as follows: The brick, tile, and steel faced with light-colored brick, terra cotta and fancy tile building measures 50x120ft with the theater being 30x120ft with an office located above the theater. Installations of RCA sound were installed and inside the auditorium has an original capacity of 800 seats as of 1931. The decorations of the theater inside were mainly triangular-shaped globes. W.L. Hamilton who also owns the Mission Theatre was the original owner of the La Rita as well, with Otis Parks being the first operator of the theater.
The Yuma Theatre opened its doors on June 24, 1938 with Mickey Rooney in “Lord Jeff” along with Disney’s Mickey Mouse in “Mickey’s Trailer”, Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks' “Czechoslovakia on Parade”, and a Universal Newsreel (all of these were listed on article and not on the grand opening ad).
The Yuma Theatre is first owned by J.N. Hughes and the husband-and-wife team of Mr. and Mrs. J.K. Powell. The opening of the Yuma Theatre caused a permanent closure to the nearby Gem Theatre also in Yuma.
In 1965, the Yuma Theatre closed for three months following interior remodeling which include a new concession stand and ticket booth.
Throughout its first 50 years of operation, the Yuma Theatre ran a grand total of nearly 6,000 movies (including special showings and children’s matinees) between 1938 and 1988, and still going strong.
Opened with Walt Disney’s “Follow Me Boys” and Robert Redford in “All The President’s Men”. The theater housed a total of 640 seats (with 320 seats in each auditorium) complete with an automated projection system. It was first operated by the Dubinsky Brothers chain and was first managed by Charles McLaughlin.
According to an article about its construction including the $64,000 project on the twin cinema, the theater’s original name was supposed to be the “Cooper-Highland Twin Cinema” but the name was dropped for unknown reasons.
The city of Trenton was left without a movie theater for eight months after the closure of the Plaza Theatre on August 30, 1985 due to poor attendance.
Movies return to Trenton after an eight-month hiatus when the single-screen Main Street Cinema opened its doors on April 11, 1986 with “Rocky IV”. An addition to its main feature, a one-day matinee of “Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation” was added a day later but was not shown on grand opening. The theater originally housed 138 seats.
The Main Street Cinema closed for the final time on December 30, 1999 with “Toy Story 2” and the theater was later converted into a classroom, leaving Trenton again without a movie theater until the launch of the Bigtime Cinema in October 2006.
The Plaza Theatre closed its doors on August 30, 1985 with “Weird Science” due to poor attendance, and George Day was the last operator of the theater. The Main Street Cinema would later open eight months later.
On December 1, 1999, the building was destroyed by a fire causing two walls to collapse.
The Grand Vu Drive-In opened its gates on June 11, 1953 with Rhonda Fleming in “The Golden Hawk” along with a cartoon before showing and fireworks after showing. It was first operated by W.O. and William Lenhart who also constructed the theater. It was closed in 1983.
The Royal Theatre opened in 1911 and was relocated to its current location a couple of years later. It was first operated by Percy Jones and later V.C. Rose Sr. who purchased the theater in 1916 and operated the theater until 1933 when it was taken over by the husband-and-wife team of G.W. Summers.
The large fire on May 16, 1951 destroyed the entire building caused by unknown. It was rebuilt and reopened on September 11, 1951.
The Royal closed for the final time in mid-March 1977.
The Sky Vue Drive-In opened its gates on May 15, 1953 with Rod Cameron in “Ride The Man Down” with no extra short subjects. The Sky Vue featured original installations of a Boyer product Homosete screen and Baliantype Double Coned speakers.
The theater was built by Mrs. George Summers, and was first operated by Rex Cool. Rex formerly operated the Royal Theatre until the Royal was destroyed by a large fire in May 1951 which was later rebuilt.
The Sky Vue Drive-In closed for the final time on August 31, 1986 with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.
The Tyson Theater opened its doors on August 27, 1946 with Judy Garland in “The Harvey Girls” along with a Passing Parade subject “Magic On A Stick” plus a speech delivered by civil leaders which also featured WROX radio personalities in the lobby, with an original capacity of 520 seats. The Tyson originally featured a gray and red exterior and arrangements of multicolored lights aroused in passers.
The 1951 film “Three Guys Named Mike” gave very special sneak preview at the Tyson due to the film being inspired by experiences of a Clarksdale woman named Ethel “Pug” Welles who worked as an airline stewardess for American Airlines.
The Tyson Theatre was once known as “Bosworth Showcase Cinema” when ownership changed after Billy Holcomb passed the theater building over to Tom Bosworth in 1975. In November 1979, the theater installed Dolby Stereo. After Bosworth moved to Louisiana in 1981, it was taken over by another person who continued operating the theater. He later twinned it. Although it became the Delta Theater and Delta Cinema later on, it eventually kept the Showcase name on the center of the marquee. In 2003, the theater suddenly went vacant for a short time but reopened later.
The Delta Cinema closed for the final time in January 2019 due to a sewage problem.
The Marion Theatre opened its doors on April 22, 1918 with a sporting event (which would later become a movie theater). The Marion became the Paramount Theatre on August 4, 1930, reopening with Joan Crawford in “Our Blushing Brides” along with the Our Gang short “Railroadin'” and a Universal Newsreel (listed as “Graham McNamee Newscasting Latest News”), when it was acquired by the Saenger chain that same year.
The Roxy Theatre originally opened as a colored-only theater. The Roxy opened its doors on December 15, 1949 with “The Big Cat” along with a newsreel, a serial, and a comedy reel, featuring an original capacity of 700 seats, and was first operated by A.N. Rossie. The structure measures 40x125ft long and its original projection equipment features Simplex projection with a Four-Star sound system.
The South Willow Street Cinemas started life as a quad, but opened slowly throughout July 1981. The first two screens opened on July 3, 1981, while the other two screens opened on July 17, 1981.
Four more screens were added in 1985 bringing a total to eight screens, and one more was added the following year bringing a total to nine.
General Cinemas opened the Bedford Mall Cinema I & II on July 23, 1969 with “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” at Screen 1 and “Goodbye Columbus” at Screen 2. A third screen was added on October 24, 1975 and a fourth screen was added in the Spring of 1987.
General Cinema operated the theater until it was taken over by Canad Cinemas in late-1992 or early-1993. Canad would later add three more screens to the theater in 1994, but however, Canad only operated the theater for around four years until it was taken over by Hoyts in 1997. Hoyts operated the Bedford Mall Cinema 7 until Regal took it over on April 4, 2003.
Regal closed the Bedford Mall Cinema 7 for the final time on October 22, 2007.
The Latchis Theatre was built on a site of the former Howe Garage and Moore’s Antique Shop, and opened its doors on December 19, 1928 with Greta Garbo in “A Woman Of Affairs” along with four acts of vaudeville and an address delivered by Judge Chester B. Jordan of Keene which also featured a special speech appearance by Peter Latchis of Keene, the main man who operates the Latchis chain.
The 1,150-seat theater featured the interiors of classic Greek architecture from the original architects of Harold Mason and Wesley Haynes, both from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. A total of 900 people from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts attended the opening ceremony and attraction (including a group of town officials from the New Hampshire town of Milford).
The Latchis Theatre was originally planned in October 1927 by the Latchis chain who were passed by Mrs. John H. Howe who was the senior member of the Latchis chain. An agreement said that they must take possession on or by April 1, 1928. The transfer which included both the garage and the antique shop themselves and an adjoining land featuring a frontage of 102ft. The property itself was purchased by Howe herself in 1915, and both the garage and the antique shop were both built in 1917. Both the garage and the shop were later torn down in early-1928 to make way for the erection of the Latchis Theatre building.
On August 26, 1982, the Latchis Theatre closed due to low attendance as the theater faced short competition with the Claremont Triple Cinema and with Warner-Amex Cable in Claremont began adding more channels on television including both HBO and The Movie Channel. However, the Latchis Theatre briefly reopened in 1985 under a mixture of first-run and second-run titles (plus classic serials before showings) but closed due to both falling disrepair and the management there didn’t do as much business to revive.
The Paramount Theatre opened its doors on June 9, 1949 with the Canadian Premiere of Bob Hope in “Sorrowful Jones” along with a Paramount Screen Song (“The Ski’s The Limit”), a Paramount Popular Science (“Air Force Fire Fighters”), and a Fox Movietone Newsreel. It was first operated by Famous Players.
There was a lot of original information about the Paramount Theatre, which goes as follows: As of 1949, the original capacity of the theater housed 900 seats (with 600 in the original section and 300 in the balcony). The marquee measures 50ft towering 6ft over the top of the building with bold Neon letters and incandescent flashing borders. The marquee is outlined in Neon tubing and the readograph is illuminated by cold cathode on the inside and neon lights at the edges. 15 150-watt floodlights were located at the underside of the marquee which leads to the six such doors in the theater. Three are the entrance and the other three at the threshold of the lobby. The roomy box office is situated at the east end of the building at the street line providing convenience of entrance for ticket buyers. Equipped with heavy place glass windows, the box office equipment contains the latest establishments. On Grand Opening, Mayor T.T. McCammon launched the official opening when he cut the ribbon.
Aisles of the theater as of 1949 featured heavy carpeting in pastel shades to harmonize with the color scheme of the turquoise-colored walls and red-rippled satin draperies with extra silver and rose textures on the walls with some rose blush title sheet. The lobby leads up three competed stairs to the large rectangular richly carpeted foyer, and the floor of the outer lobby is brick-colored tile in an attractive pattern. At the right is a broad stairway sweeping towards the mezzanine and balcony section. There are two wide entrances to the orchestra section of the auditorium, which both of its doors keep out extraneous sound from the audience. At the left is the cosmetic salon for the females and past that is the compact confection bar. The foyer walls are painted in old rose shades with matching shades to the ceiling.
One of the most unique things about this theater is hearing aids. Citizens who had experienced deafness or any difficulty hearing the movie are welcome the news that special hearing aids (coming in two different versions) have been installed along one of the rows of the center section of the theater. Usherettes at the Paramount as of 1949 are smartly attired in bolero type double-breasted jackets, set off by white piquet collars and cuffs, and with divided long skirt slacks, both in blue. The Famous Players logo insignia is carried on the right sleeve. The doorman wears a smart navy blue double-breasted pea jacket with light blue trousers.
The walls of the theater are fireproof and was built more than 800 yards of reinforced concrete and 60 tons of structural steel. The largest of the cantilever steel girders are 24-inch “I” beams which are equal to any single steel unit in Pattullo Bridge. The comfort of the theater features unseen pipes, fans, cooling coils, boilers, and furnaces are thermostatically controlled to assure an acme of ultra-modern heating and ventilation. Fresh air is circulated by 28 vents strategically located throughout the theater, Heating was done by recessed steam radiators with most heating equipment located underneath the stage. Lungs of the air-conditioned network are situated in a penthouse on the roof, where huge fans turn fresh air through a honeycomb of filtering apparatus before the air is piped in to all parts of the building.
Liverpool, England resident Claude G. Smith who worked in the show business since 1913 was listed as the first manager for the Paramount. He was a former assistant property master in the old Grand Theatre in Calgary and once lived in Vancouver before moving to Chilliwack in 1937 right at the same time the Famous Players Corporation took over the former RKO-operated Orpheum Theatre. Smith joined the organization served in Kelowna, Penticton, Nelson, back to Vancouver, and then back to Chilliwack a short time later. He was once the manager of the Strand Theatre there as well. The Strand Theatre nearby was forced to close its doors in connection of the opening of the first-run Paramount Theatre. The Strand did reopen its doors a short time later but didn’t show any mainstreamers.
On June 8, 1975, the Paramount closed its doors as a single-screener with “The Trial Of Billy Jack” for a short time due to twinning, which immediately downgraded its original capacity of 900 to 774 seats, however, Wilf Keelan (the manager at the time) said that the theater will be more wider but advantages are a problem.
Some comparing from the original and the twin contains the main snack bar being replaced with a stretched snack bar across the middle of the front lobby and will serve both theaters. A smaller snack bar was also added but located on the top floor but was only used during very busy periods.
The Paramount reopened as a twin on August 14, 1975 with “Mandingo” at Screen 1 and “Young Frankenstein” at Screen 2, featuring a total capacity of 774 seats (with 496 seats at Screen 1 with a 14x28ft screen, and 278 seats at Screen 2 with a 13x30ft screen).
Opened on December 9, 1988, the Carmike Cinema 7 has a total seating capacity of 1,190 seats (with 302 seats in the large auditorium and 117 seats in two small auditoriums). It was first managed by Tony Black, who said that three out of the seven auditoriums have installations of stereo sound, while the four remaining screens have mono-surround sound.
The Wynnsong 10 opened on May 14, 1999 and this replaced two nearby theaters, the World West Theatres and the Rimrock 5 (which both theaters closed two months apart in early-1999).
It was last known as “Sage 4 Drive-In”. What’s unique about it is that the theater was eventually renamed “Sage 4 Drive-In” while the three other screens were still under construction in early-August 1978. The theater then fully became a four-screen drive-in on September 1, 1978.
The El Rancho Drive-in opened its gates on May 8, 1951 with Bill Williams in “Blue Blood” (unknown if any short subjects). It was closed at the end of the 1983 season and was demolished in late-March 1984.
The Mission Theatre opened its doors on January 24, 1921 with George Loane Tucker in “The Miracle Man”. It was twinned on April 16, 1972.
The La Rita Theatre opened its doors on February 4, 1931 with Nancy Carroll in “Laughter” along with MGM’s Dogville short “The Dogway Melody” and the Paramount Screen Song “Chinatown, My Chinatown” (listed as simply “China Town” on ad).
Original information about the theater goes as follows: The brick, tile, and steel faced with light-colored brick, terra cotta and fancy tile building measures 50x120ft with the theater being 30x120ft with an office located above the theater. Installations of RCA sound were installed and inside the auditorium has an original capacity of 800 seats as of 1931. The decorations of the theater inside were mainly triangular-shaped globes. W.L. Hamilton who also owns the Mission Theatre was the original owner of the La Rita as well, with Otis Parks being the first operator of the theater.
The Gem Theatre was built in 1913 and closed on June 23, 1938 following the opening of the Yuma Theatre.
The Yuma Theatre opened its doors on June 24, 1938 with Mickey Rooney in “Lord Jeff” along with Disney’s Mickey Mouse in “Mickey’s Trailer”, Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks' “Czechoslovakia on Parade”, and a Universal Newsreel (all of these were listed on article and not on the grand opening ad).
The Yuma Theatre is first owned by J.N. Hughes and the husband-and-wife team of Mr. and Mrs. J.K. Powell. The opening of the Yuma Theatre caused a permanent closure to the nearby Gem Theatre also in Yuma.
In 1965, the Yuma Theatre closed for three months following interior remodeling which include a new concession stand and ticket booth.
Throughout its first 50 years of operation, the Yuma Theatre ran a grand total of nearly 6,000 movies (including special showings and children’s matinees) between 1938 and 1988, and still going strong.
Opened with Walt Disney’s “Follow Me Boys” and Robert Redford in “All The President’s Men”. The theater housed a total of 640 seats (with 320 seats in each auditorium) complete with an automated projection system. It was first operated by the Dubinsky Brothers chain and was first managed by Charles McLaughlin.
According to an article about its construction including the $64,000 project on the twin cinema, the theater’s original name was supposed to be the “Cooper-Highland Twin Cinema” but the name was dropped for unknown reasons.
Any additional information on this theatre would be greatly appreciated, and will be updated as soon as we get information.
The city of Trenton was left without a movie theater for eight months after the closure of the Plaza Theatre on August 30, 1985 due to poor attendance.
Movies return to Trenton after an eight-month hiatus when the single-screen Main Street Cinema opened its doors on April 11, 1986 with “Rocky IV”. An addition to its main feature, a one-day matinee of “Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation” was added a day later but was not shown on grand opening. The theater originally housed 138 seats.
The Main Street Cinema closed for the final time on December 30, 1999 with “Toy Story 2” and the theater was later converted into a classroom, leaving Trenton again without a movie theater until the launch of the Bigtime Cinema in October 2006.
The Plaza Theatre closed its doors on August 30, 1985 with “Weird Science” due to poor attendance, and George Day was the last operator of the theater. The Main Street Cinema would later open eight months later.
On December 1, 1999, the building was destroyed by a fire causing two walls to collapse.
The Grand Vu Drive-In opened its gates on June 11, 1953 with Rhonda Fleming in “The Golden Hawk” along with a cartoon before showing and fireworks after showing. It was first operated by W.O. and William Lenhart who also constructed the theater. It was closed in 1983.
The Royal Theatre opened in 1911 and was relocated to its current location a couple of years later. It was first operated by Percy Jones and later V.C. Rose Sr. who purchased the theater in 1916 and operated the theater until 1933 when it was taken over by the husband-and-wife team of G.W. Summers.
The large fire on May 16, 1951 destroyed the entire building caused by unknown. It was rebuilt and reopened on September 11, 1951.
The Royal closed for the final time in mid-March 1977.
The Sky Vue Drive-In opened its gates on May 15, 1953 with Rod Cameron in “Ride The Man Down” with no extra short subjects. The Sky Vue featured original installations of a Boyer product Homosete screen and Baliantype Double Coned speakers.
The theater was built by Mrs. George Summers, and was first operated by Rex Cool. Rex formerly operated the Royal Theatre until the Royal was destroyed by a large fire in May 1951 which was later rebuilt.
The Sky Vue Drive-In closed for the final time on August 31, 1986 with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.
The Tyson Theater opened its doors on August 27, 1946 with Judy Garland in “The Harvey Girls” along with a Passing Parade subject “Magic On A Stick” plus a speech delivered by civil leaders which also featured WROX radio personalities in the lobby, with an original capacity of 520 seats. The Tyson originally featured a gray and red exterior and arrangements of multicolored lights aroused in passers.
The 1951 film “Three Guys Named Mike” gave very special sneak preview at the Tyson due to the film being inspired by experiences of a Clarksdale woman named Ethel “Pug” Welles who worked as an airline stewardess for American Airlines.
The Tyson Theatre was once known as “Bosworth Showcase Cinema” when ownership changed after Billy Holcomb passed the theater building over to Tom Bosworth in 1975. In November 1979, the theater installed Dolby Stereo. After Bosworth moved to Louisiana in 1981, it was taken over by another person who continued operating the theater. He later twinned it. Although it became the Delta Theater and Delta Cinema later on, it eventually kept the Showcase name on the center of the marquee. In 2003, the theater suddenly went vacant for a short time but reopened later.
The Delta Cinema closed for the final time in January 2019 due to a sewage problem.
The Marion Theatre opened its doors on April 22, 1918 with a sporting event (which would later become a movie theater). The Marion became the Paramount Theatre on August 4, 1930, reopening with Joan Crawford in “Our Blushing Brides” along with the Our Gang short “Railroadin'” and a Universal Newsreel (listed as “Graham McNamee Newscasting Latest News”), when it was acquired by the Saenger chain that same year.
The Roxy Theatre originally opened as a colored-only theater. The Roxy opened its doors on December 15, 1949 with “The Big Cat” along with a newsreel, a serial, and a comedy reel, featuring an original capacity of 700 seats, and was first operated by A.N. Rossie. The structure measures 40x125ft long and its original projection equipment features Simplex projection with a Four-Star sound system.
Functions Update: Classics films are also presented.
The South Willow Street Cinemas started life as a quad, but opened slowly throughout July 1981. The first two screens opened on July 3, 1981, while the other two screens opened on July 17, 1981.
Four more screens were added in 1985 bringing a total to eight screens, and one more was added the following year bringing a total to nine.
General Cinemas opened the Bedford Mall Cinema I & II on July 23, 1969 with “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” at Screen 1 and “Goodbye Columbus” at Screen 2. A third screen was added on October 24, 1975 and a fourth screen was added in the Spring of 1987.
General Cinema operated the theater until it was taken over by Canad Cinemas in late-1992 or early-1993. Canad would later add three more screens to the theater in 1994, but however, Canad only operated the theater for around four years until it was taken over by Hoyts in 1997. Hoyts operated the Bedford Mall Cinema 7 until Regal took it over on April 4, 2003.
Regal closed the Bedford Mall Cinema 7 for the final time on October 22, 2007.
The Latchis Theatre was built on a site of the former Howe Garage and Moore’s Antique Shop, and opened its doors on December 19, 1928 with Greta Garbo in “A Woman Of Affairs” along with four acts of vaudeville and an address delivered by Judge Chester B. Jordan of Keene which also featured a special speech appearance by Peter Latchis of Keene, the main man who operates the Latchis chain.
The 1,150-seat theater featured the interiors of classic Greek architecture from the original architects of Harold Mason and Wesley Haynes, both from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. A total of 900 people from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts attended the opening ceremony and attraction (including a group of town officials from the New Hampshire town of Milford).
The Latchis Theatre was originally planned in October 1927 by the Latchis chain who were passed by Mrs. John H. Howe who was the senior member of the Latchis chain. An agreement said that they must take possession on or by April 1, 1928. The transfer which included both the garage and the antique shop themselves and an adjoining land featuring a frontage of 102ft. The property itself was purchased by Howe herself in 1915, and both the garage and the antique shop were both built in 1917. Both the garage and the shop were later torn down in early-1928 to make way for the erection of the Latchis Theatre building.
On August 26, 1982, the Latchis Theatre closed due to low attendance as the theater faced short competition with the Claremont Triple Cinema and with Warner-Amex Cable in Claremont began adding more channels on television including both HBO and The Movie Channel. However, the Latchis Theatre briefly reopened in 1985 under a mixture of first-run and second-run titles (plus classic serials before showings) but closed due to both falling disrepair and the management there didn’t do as much business to revive.
The Paramount Theatre opened its doors on June 9, 1949 with the Canadian Premiere of Bob Hope in “Sorrowful Jones” along with a Paramount Screen Song (“The Ski’s The Limit”), a Paramount Popular Science (“Air Force Fire Fighters”), and a Fox Movietone Newsreel. It was first operated by Famous Players.
There was a lot of original information about the Paramount Theatre, which goes as follows: As of 1949, the original capacity of the theater housed 900 seats (with 600 in the original section and 300 in the balcony). The marquee measures 50ft towering 6ft over the top of the building with bold Neon letters and incandescent flashing borders. The marquee is outlined in Neon tubing and the readograph is illuminated by cold cathode on the inside and neon lights at the edges. 15 150-watt floodlights were located at the underside of the marquee which leads to the six such doors in the theater. Three are the entrance and the other three at the threshold of the lobby. The roomy box office is situated at the east end of the building at the street line providing convenience of entrance for ticket buyers. Equipped with heavy place glass windows, the box office equipment contains the latest establishments. On Grand Opening, Mayor T.T. McCammon launched the official opening when he cut the ribbon.
Aisles of the theater as of 1949 featured heavy carpeting in pastel shades to harmonize with the color scheme of the turquoise-colored walls and red-rippled satin draperies with extra silver and rose textures on the walls with some rose blush title sheet. The lobby leads up three competed stairs to the large rectangular richly carpeted foyer, and the floor of the outer lobby is brick-colored tile in an attractive pattern. At the right is a broad stairway sweeping towards the mezzanine and balcony section. There are two wide entrances to the orchestra section of the auditorium, which both of its doors keep out extraneous sound from the audience. At the left is the cosmetic salon for the females and past that is the compact confection bar. The foyer walls are painted in old rose shades with matching shades to the ceiling.
One of the most unique things about this theater is hearing aids. Citizens who had experienced deafness or any difficulty hearing the movie are welcome the news that special hearing aids (coming in two different versions) have been installed along one of the rows of the center section of the theater. Usherettes at the Paramount as of 1949 are smartly attired in bolero type double-breasted jackets, set off by white piquet collars and cuffs, and with divided long skirt slacks, both in blue. The Famous Players logo insignia is carried on the right sleeve. The doorman wears a smart navy blue double-breasted pea jacket with light blue trousers.
The walls of the theater are fireproof and was built more than 800 yards of reinforced concrete and 60 tons of structural steel. The largest of the cantilever steel girders are 24-inch “I” beams which are equal to any single steel unit in Pattullo Bridge. The comfort of the theater features unseen pipes, fans, cooling coils, boilers, and furnaces are thermostatically controlled to assure an acme of ultra-modern heating and ventilation. Fresh air is circulated by 28 vents strategically located throughout the theater, Heating was done by recessed steam radiators with most heating equipment located underneath the stage. Lungs of the air-conditioned network are situated in a penthouse on the roof, where huge fans turn fresh air through a honeycomb of filtering apparatus before the air is piped in to all parts of the building.
Liverpool, England resident Claude G. Smith who worked in the show business since 1913 was listed as the first manager for the Paramount. He was a former assistant property master in the old Grand Theatre in Calgary and once lived in Vancouver before moving to Chilliwack in 1937 right at the same time the Famous Players Corporation took over the former RKO-operated Orpheum Theatre. Smith joined the organization served in Kelowna, Penticton, Nelson, back to Vancouver, and then back to Chilliwack a short time later. He was once the manager of the Strand Theatre there as well. The Strand Theatre nearby was forced to close its doors in connection of the opening of the first-run Paramount Theatre. The Strand did reopen its doors a short time later but didn’t show any mainstreamers.
On June 8, 1975, the Paramount closed its doors as a single-screener with “The Trial Of Billy Jack” for a short time due to twinning, which immediately downgraded its original capacity of 900 to 774 seats, however, Wilf Keelan (the manager at the time) said that the theater will be more wider but advantages are a problem.
Some comparing from the original and the twin contains the main snack bar being replaced with a stretched snack bar across the middle of the front lobby and will serve both theaters. A smaller snack bar was also added but located on the top floor but was only used during very busy periods.
The Paramount reopened as a twin on August 14, 1975 with “Mandingo” at Screen 1 and “Young Frankenstein” at Screen 2, featuring a total capacity of 774 seats (with 496 seats at Screen 1 with a 14x28ft screen, and 278 seats at Screen 2 with a 13x30ft screen).
Opened on December 9, 1988, the Carmike Cinema 7 has a total seating capacity of 1,190 seats (with 302 seats in the large auditorium and 117 seats in two small auditoriums). It was first managed by Tony Black, who said that three out of the seven auditoriums have installations of stereo sound, while the four remaining screens have mono-surround sound.
The Wynnsong 10 opened on May 14, 1999 and this replaced two nearby theaters, the World West Theatres and the Rimrock 5 (which both theaters closed two months apart in early-1999).
Closed in April 1999.
Opened on October 17, 1975 and closed in February 1999.
It was last known as “Sage 4 Drive-In”. What’s unique about it is that the theater was eventually renamed “Sage 4 Drive-In” while the three other screens were still under construction in early-August 1978. The theater then fully became a four-screen drive-in on September 1, 1978.