This theater is not closed, it is functioning as the Fine Arts. It was the WKAQ studio theater. It also had radio studios and TV dubbing studios which became the two smaller auditoriums.
If it has been torn down, a street number won’t help. Anyway, if someone writes a book about PR theaters it won’t be us who don’t live there. It has to be a local and will have to walk a lot and do a lot of research, that is why I don’t feel that here we have to be so specific. Anyway, that is me personal opinion. Good health to your wife and you and hope you will be able to go back. But believe me, it is not the same PR we left many years ago.
The address here does not need more info. Going to Hato Rey from Buchanan or Guaynabo on Roosevelt Avenue, you see the Marti on the right as soon as you reach the De Diego intersection. It is right there. Only a blind person would miss it.
LuisV, if one walks west from the Ideal and turns left on the first corner, the Ramily was the third or fourth building on the left, before a park further down. The theater must have been built after the Ideal since it had a simple more modern facade with the marquee and the signage and the interior was not as elaborate as the Ideal. I have passed by the area in the past few years but I don’t remember if the building was still there. When my dad was in college he worked at the Ramily as assistant projectionist during his summer vacation. The name Ramily is formed by the first two letters of the owner’s three children, RA for Raymundo — one his grandchildren was called Raymundo so I guess the owner’s son was Raymundo — and LY for Lydia. I don’t remember for what name MI stood for. This all I know about the theater.
As for the Star, the Yauco de mi infancia page on Facebook has pictures and comments on the Star but no address or other info.
It was a very nice theater, one of the Commnweath venues Wometco took over. It played Spanish and English movies. In the late 60’s sometimes played movies day and date with San Juan.
I don’t think it was ours (Commonwealth) because the first thing I did every morning was to check the movie ads, including the cartelera of the neighborhood houses, to make sure there were no mistakes and I don’t remember the Lux in the cartelera. So it must have been Llamas.
I could be wrong, rrstar, is just that the actual buildings don’t look like a theater building was there. My understading is that those buildings predate the 30’s but, again, I could be wrong.
rrstar, I was in the film business in PR for many years and there was no Tres Banderas on Recinto Sur. I did not live in Old San Juan but my girlfriend did, at Edificio Plaza on Plaza de Armas, so I know the neighborhood well. Recinto Sur in the area of “Doña Fela’s” parking is the way it was for many many years. A bank on the corner of Tanca or whatever the street that goes up to Plaza the Armas is called, and all those buildings where we now have restaurants. No movie house there, believe me.
Bob J, I don’t know why you have this fixation with exact addresses and street numbers. Why don’t you buy a GPS or whatever that gadget is called? In NYC no one knows the street number of Radio City Music Hall, Macy’s or the Empire State Building and everyone, including non-English speaking visitors, know where they are. In PR, does anyone know the street number of Plaza las Americas on Roosevelt Avenue? Of Fortaleza or the Capitol in Old San Juan? Of course not, but everyone knows where they are. For buildings such as theaters, churches, landmarks, etc., if they tell you it is on X avenue or street between Y and Z streets, that is enough info to find them.
The Olimpo theater was renamed the Paramount after a hurricane in the 1930’s destroyed the marquee and Paramount Pictures loaned Rafael Ramos Cobián the money to rebuild the marquee on the condition the theater be renamed the Paramount. When Cobián divorced his first wife, Rita, he gave her the Paramount and the Tres Banderas, Imperial and Borinquen in Barrio Obrero as part of their divorce settlement. Cobián and Commonwealth Theaters leased the Paramount from her for $2000 a week, and Rita’s second husband, Jorge, operated the concession stand. The Paramount was the top money making cinema in PR, grossing an average of $12,000 a week and sometimes as much as $15,000 and $16,000 a week, a lot of money in the 1960’s. More than once, Cobián told me that one of his biggest mistakes was giving the Paramount to his first wife as part of the divorce settlement. After Commonwealth was sold to Wometco, Rita took the theater back and was managed and booked by Junior Cobián, a former VP at Commonwealth. Eventually Junior leased it to United Artists when UA opened the Cinema 150. UA tripled it and as we all know it was eventually closed and is now in the process of renovation. By the way, how is the renovation coming along?
Registering.
This theater is not closed, it is functioning as the Fine Arts. It was the WKAQ studio theater. It also had radio studios and TV dubbing studios which became the two smaller auditoriums.
If it has been torn down, a street number won’t help. Anyway, if someone writes a book about PR theaters it won’t be us who don’t live there. It has to be a local and will have to walk a lot and do a lot of research, that is why I don’t feel that here we have to be so specific. Anyway, that is me personal opinion. Good health to your wife and you and hope you will be able to go back. But believe me, it is not the same PR we left many years ago.
Registering.
The address here does not need more info. Going to Hato Rey from Buchanan or Guaynabo on Roosevelt Avenue, you see the Marti on the right as soon as you reach the De Diego intersection. It is right there. Only a blind person would miss it.
It is not near Plaza Las Americas. Avenida de Diego in Puerto Nuevo is closer to Guaynabo than Hato Rey.
LuisV, if one walks west from the Ideal and turns left on the first corner, the Ramily was the third or fourth building on the left, before a park further down. The theater must have been built after the Ideal since it had a simple more modern facade with the marquee and the signage and the interior was not as elaborate as the Ideal. I have passed by the area in the past few years but I don’t remember if the building was still there. When my dad was in college he worked at the Ramily as assistant projectionist during his summer vacation. The name Ramily is formed by the first two letters of the owner’s three children, RA for Raymundo — one his grandchildren was called Raymundo so I guess the owner’s son was Raymundo — and LY for Lydia. I don’t remember for what name MI stood for. This all I know about the theater.
As for the Star, the Yauco de mi infancia page on Facebook has pictures and comments on the Star but no address or other info.
It was a very nice theater, one of the Commnweath venues Wometco took over. It played Spanish and English movies. In the late 60’s sometimes played movies day and date with San Juan.
I don’t remember this one.
It was one of the Commonwealth theaters Wometco took over. It played both Spanish and English movies if I remember correctly.
I remember this one. It was independently owned, but I don’t remember the name of he owner.
Registering.
Don’t remember this one. Probably before my time.
I don’t think it was ours (Commonwealth) because the first thing I did every morning was to check the movie ads, including the cartelera of the neighborhood houses, to make sure there were no mistakes and I don’t remember the Lux in the cartelera. So it must have been Llamas.
I had completely forgotten about the Lux. Never went there. I don’t even remember if it was owned by Commonwealth or Llamas.
I could be wrong, rrstar, is just that the actual buildings don’t look like a theater building was there. My understading is that those buildings predate the 30’s but, again, I could be wrong.
rrstar, I was in the film business in PR for many years and there was no Tres Banderas on Recinto Sur. I did not live in Old San Juan but my girlfriend did, at Edificio Plaza on Plaza de Armas, so I know the neighborhood well. Recinto Sur in the area of “Doña Fela’s” parking is the way it was for many many years. A bank on the corner of Tanca or whatever the street that goes up to Plaza the Armas is called, and all those buildings where we now have restaurants. No movie house there, believe me.
Good, thanks Davsot. Hope it’s finished by the time I go to PR for Thanksgiving and Xmas.
Registering.
Registering.
Registering.
Registering.
Bob J, I don’t know why you have this fixation with exact addresses and street numbers. Why don’t you buy a GPS or whatever that gadget is called? In NYC no one knows the street number of Radio City Music Hall, Macy’s or the Empire State Building and everyone, including non-English speaking visitors, know where they are. In PR, does anyone know the street number of Plaza las Americas on Roosevelt Avenue? Of Fortaleza or the Capitol in Old San Juan? Of course not, but everyone knows where they are. For buildings such as theaters, churches, landmarks, etc., if they tell you it is on X avenue or street between Y and Z streets, that is enough info to find them.
The Olimpo theater was renamed the Paramount after a hurricane in the 1930’s destroyed the marquee and Paramount Pictures loaned Rafael Ramos Cobián the money to rebuild the marquee on the condition the theater be renamed the Paramount. When Cobián divorced his first wife, Rita, he gave her the Paramount and the Tres Banderas, Imperial and Borinquen in Barrio Obrero as part of their divorce settlement. Cobián and Commonwealth Theaters leased the Paramount from her for $2000 a week, and Rita’s second husband, Jorge, operated the concession stand. The Paramount was the top money making cinema in PR, grossing an average of $12,000 a week and sometimes as much as $15,000 and $16,000 a week, a lot of money in the 1960’s. More than once, Cobián told me that one of his biggest mistakes was giving the Paramount to his first wife as part of the divorce settlement. After Commonwealth was sold to Wometco, Rita took the theater back and was managed and booked by Junior Cobián, a former VP at Commonwealth. Eventually Junior leased it to United Artists when UA opened the Cinema 150. UA tripled it and as we all know it was eventually closed and is now in the process of renovation. By the way, how is the renovation coming along?
Registering.