The Uptown Theatre opened with Jack Oakie in “Rise And Shine” (unknown if extras added) featuring installations of RCA sound and screen equipment, and was first owned by the Gasconade Theatre Company. It opened two days after Pearl Harbor.
Like most theaters in Rolla, the Uptown Theatre operated for many decades. Throughout its history, the Uptown went into several chains over the years, including Commonwealth Theatres, United Artists, Crown Theatres, Hollywood Theaters, and lastly Wallace Theaters before closing in 1998.
The Ritz Theatre opened its doors on July 19, 1941 with a one-day showing of Jackie Moran in “The Gang’s All Here” along with a few short subjects featuring sound installations by Western Electric.
Like most theaters in Rolla, the Ritz operated for many decades. Throughout its history, the Ritz went into several chains over the years, including Commonwealth Theatres, United Artists, and Crown Theaters.
The Ritz Theatre closed for the final time on June 18, 1995 with “Braveheart” and was demolished on May 30, 1998.
The Knights Of Pythias actually operated as early as 1888 at a different location inside a lodge, but members from the Pythias purchased a vacant lot on Main Street in February 1889 with an estimate $2,500.
The Cathay Theatre had several name changes over the years. When it opened on January 1, 1932 with Lionel Barrymore in “A Free Soul” (unknown if any extra short subjects were added), it first went under the name “Cathay Grand Theatre”. The Grand part of the name was dropped soon after. It originally housed 1,080 seats featuring a special ear-phoning system for Chinese audio translation over American first-run features. Without those special earphones are just normal English audio with Chinese subtitles below on-screen.
In 1966, the Cathay Theatre’s name was changed to “People’s Cinema”, but in 1979, the Cathay name was restored and was renamed the “Cathay Cinema”. The Cathay Cinema originally used projection equipment from Simplex until 1964 when it switched on over to Sempres, and it would later install Dolby optical stereo sound in 1986, followed by DTS surround digital stereo in 1997 and reinstallations in 1999. During the early-1990s, the seating capacity was downgraded from 1,080 to 978 seats.
The Cathay Theatre was tripled in 2003 after reconstruction, downgrading its total capacity to 584 seats. At the same time, a 150-square-meter lounge was added as well. Inside all three screens goes as follows: Screen #1 has a capacity of 225 seats with red dipping. Screen #2 has 236 seats with blue dipping, and Screen 3 accommodates 123 people with gray dipping.
This first went with the name “Xinxin Grand Theater” with funds raised by Peking opera actor Ma Lianliang when it was built in 1937, but was renamed Capital Cinema in 1950. It also officially became China’s first widescreen stereo theater on July 1, 1957.
The Sky-Line opened its gates on March 20, 1953 with Tony Curtis in “Son Of Ali Baba” and Robert Ryan in “Horizons West” along with a cartoon, featuring an original 68x50ft screen. The projection booth was located 584ft away from the screen. It was first operated by Skyline Theaters of Newport and was first managed by Ray DiLorenzo.
Midstate Amusement opened the 1,200-seat Uptown Theatre on October 26, 1950 with Robert Cummings in “The Petty Girl” and Walt Disney’s “Beaver Valley” with no extra short subjects. The building had an estimate $300,000 in construction.
The River-Vue Drive-In opened its gates on March 5, 1953 with “The Story Of Robin Hood” and “Montana Territory” with no extra short subjects. It was first operated by Midstates Amusement Corp. and was managed by Wally Barsley who also operated other area theaters.
The River-Vue closed for the final time on September 3, 1995 with “Babe”, “Nine Months” and “Apollo 13” as a triple feature.
The Holyoke Plaza Cinema opened its doors on August 10, 1973 with “Fiddler On The Roof” at Screen 1 and “The Poseidon Adventure” at Screen 2. The twin-screener was operated by C.F. Theaters of Braintree and housed 468 seats in total (234 seats in each auditorium). It was closed in March 1977.
Both the Holyoke Mall and its eight-screen Holyoke Mall Cinemas opened at the same time in July 1979. The theater was first managed by Kendall McClintock.
The Jet Drive-In closed on September 5, 1982 with a dusk-to-dawn show following refusal to reopen for the 1983 season after a major agreement on the theater not to show obscene or lewd films.
The Southgate Cinema World was originally planned by Tom Moyer, the owner of General American Theatres who operates almost all Salem theaters at the time, in August 1975 featuring three screens and a capacity of 775 seats (with 400 seats in Screen 1 and 175 for the other two auditoriums) occupying 10,000 square feet on a six-acre site. The theater was set to be named Southgate Cinema Center, but was changed a bit shortly after construction was finished.
General American Theatres opened the Southgate Cinema World on June 16, 1976 but was still under repairs at the time. Its first two screens opened with “The Bad News Bears” in Screen 1 and “Baby Blue Marine” and “Drive-In” in Screen 2. Screen 3 opened on July 1, 1976 with “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Prior to opening, the movies “Farewell My Lovely” and the reissue of the 1939 classic “Gone With The Wind” were originally scheduled to be shown in Screen 2 and Screen 3, but both turned it down for unknown reasons at Screen 2 and major repairing inside Screen 3.
The 10,000 square-feet building is similar in construction and design to the Lancaster Quad at the Lancaster Mall but features a rain canopy in front. The $100,000 in equipment and interior furnishings at the theater features air conditioning and a motorized masking device which adjusts the amount of screen exposed for different sized films. Fred Maurer, who has been at the time the assistant manager and projectionist at Lancaster Quad, was also the manager of the Southgate. The seats of the theater are dipped in different colors in each auditorium. Screen 1 features brown seats, Screen 2 features purple seats, and Screen 3 features blue seats, with a patterned brown carpeting throughout.
There are two South Salem Drive-Ins in its history.
The original South Salem Drive-In, located on South Commercial Street near Wiltsey Road, opened on July 15, 1953 with Carlton Heston in “Pony Express” and Jane Powell in “Small Town Girl” with no extra short subjects. It was operated by Forman Theaters and was managed by Frank Schultz. The original drive-in originally housed 450 cars and features a 40x60ft screen.
The original location closed in 1961, followed by destruction by a fire in 1964, and the removal of its original sign in February 1966, leaving the North Salem the only drive-in theater operating in Salem. The original South Salem Drive-In will have its own Cinema Treasures page soon.
It wasn’t until 1969 when W.M. Hayes, the operator for General American Theatres, announced that a newer and much larger drive-in will be built on Lancaster Drive Southeast (which is formerly nothing at site) featuring a 45x100 screen and a planned capacity of 1,140 cars. Groundbreaking occurred during late-February 1970 on almost 13 acres of an 18-acre site. During the final touches of construction, they already had enough room to expand up to 1,200 cars. So without incident, they did expand their capacity from 1,140 to 1,200 just in time before grand opening.
The newer South Salem Drive-In opened its gates on August 19, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet Of The Apes” and “One Million Years B.C.”. Some of those attendees include local then-Top 40 (now oldies) radio station KBZY-AM doing a live broadcast on opening night. It opened with 1,200 cars for the start, and according to General American vice-president William M. Hays, said that an additional 200 cars will be added in time bringing a total to 1,400 cars but unfortunately it never expanded to 1,400. Instead it left as a standalone 1,200-car single-screener.
In August 1975, Tom Moyer of Tom Moyer Theaters, who operated much of Salem’s theaters and owned the General American Theatres chain, took a major turn in Salem’s theaters. He announced the construction of the Southgate Cinema Center, a 3-screen 800-seat (400-200-200) triplex at the Southgate Shopping Center. During that same announcement, he also planned the expansion of the South Salem Drive-In by converting a single to a quad drive-in.
During that time, then-35-year-old Phillip Lyle Woodland was the manager of the South Salem. Unfortunately, he was once robbed the following year. On the early morning hours of July 10, 1976 at approximately 4:20 AM PT, Woodland was depositing that night’s receipts when all of the sudden, a man wearing dirty khaki pants and a blue ski parka told Woodland to drop the U.S. National Bank bag that he was about to deposit according to police. The man was also intoxicated and had a birthmark on his right cheek, who told Woodland to “get out of here” before robbing.
Salem’s drive-ins during the mid-1970s were under a major shakedown on movies at the time. During the late-1970s and early-1980s, the South Salem Drive-In showed mostly first-run and second-run major-studio Hollywood fare, while the North Salem Drive-In went towards the more minor-studio/low-budget exploitation and adulty fare (but the North Salem did show a bit of Hollywood fare but only in rare occasions such as “Blazing Saddles”).
The South Salem Drive-In ended its 1,200-car single-screener days after the 1977 season when GAT started remodeling the drive-in and converting it into a 900-car quad drive-in, with 225 cars in each of the four screens. When the 1978 season rolled along, it reopened back as a single-screener with the three additional screens still under finishing touches. Finally on August 9, 1978, the three additional screens opened, marking it Oregon’s first four-screen drive-in. Several years later, the South Salem Drive-In became the only drive-in theater in Salem following the closure of the North Salem Drive-In on October 24, 1982.
Last operated by Act III Theatres, the South Salem Drive-In in its final years of operation had a total of 1,040 cars (with 260 cars in each screen) and immediately continued to entertain residents until closing the curtains at the end of the 1993 season despite the theater’s stereo sound suffered severe problems for several months during the final season.
The South Salem Drive-In closed for the final time on September 12, 1993 with the following in screen order: “Hard Target” and “Jurassic Park” in Screen 1, “Father Hood” and “Needful Things” in Screen 2, “Son In Law” and “Hocus Pocus” in Screen 3, and “Sleepless in Seattle” and “In The Line Of Fire” in Screen 4.
The concession and projection buildings sustained severe damaged from a fire on May 7, 1994, which later determined to be arson. Act III announced the following month that they decided to close the theater for good to avoid any injury. And on July 17 of that same year, another fire finished off the structure.
The Uptown Theatre opened with Jack Oakie in “Rise And Shine” (unknown if extras added) featuring installations of RCA sound and screen equipment, and was first owned by the Gasconade Theatre Company. It opened two days after Pearl Harbor.
Like most theaters in Rolla, the Uptown Theatre operated for many decades. Throughout its history, the Uptown went into several chains over the years, including Commonwealth Theatres, United Artists, Crown Theatres, Hollywood Theaters, and lastly Wallace Theaters before closing in 1998.
The Ritz Theatre opened its doors on July 19, 1941 with a one-day showing of Jackie Moran in “The Gang’s All Here” along with a few short subjects featuring sound installations by Western Electric.
Like most theaters in Rolla, the Ritz operated for many decades. Throughout its history, the Ritz went into several chains over the years, including Commonwealth Theatres, United Artists, and Crown Theaters.
The Ritz Theatre closed for the final time on June 18, 1995 with “Braveheart” and was demolished on May 30, 1998.
Closed on July 1, 1957 with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in “Hollywood Or Bust”.
Speaking of Starline, I wonder how many drive-ins in the United States have that name. I know that there’s not a lot, just like Starnite and Starway.
The Knights Of Pythias actually operated as early as 1888 at a different location inside a lodge, but members from the Pythias purchased a vacant lot on Main Street in February 1889 with an estimate $2,500.
The Cathay Theatre had several name changes over the years. When it opened on January 1, 1932 with Lionel Barrymore in “A Free Soul” (unknown if any extra short subjects were added), it first went under the name “Cathay Grand Theatre”. The Grand part of the name was dropped soon after. It originally housed 1,080 seats featuring a special ear-phoning system for Chinese audio translation over American first-run features. Without those special earphones are just normal English audio with Chinese subtitles below on-screen.
In 1966, the Cathay Theatre’s name was changed to “People’s Cinema”, but in 1979, the Cathay name was restored and was renamed the “Cathay Cinema”. The Cathay Cinema originally used projection equipment from Simplex until 1964 when it switched on over to Sempres, and it would later install Dolby optical stereo sound in 1986, followed by DTS surround digital stereo in 1997 and reinstallations in 1999. During the early-1990s, the seating capacity was downgraded from 1,080 to 978 seats.
The Cathay Theatre was tripled in 2003 after reconstruction, downgrading its total capacity to 584 seats. At the same time, a 150-square-meter lounge was added as well. Inside all three screens goes as follows: Screen #1 has a capacity of 225 seats with red dipping. Screen #2 has 236 seats with blue dipping, and Screen 3 accommodates 123 people with gray dipping.
This first went with the name “Xinxin Grand Theater” with funds raised by Peking opera actor Ma Lianliang when it was built in 1937, but was renamed Capital Cinema in 1950. It also officially became China’s first widescreen stereo theater on July 1, 1957.
The Capital Cinema closed on June 15, 2003.
Last operated by StarNet Cinemas.
Last operated by Hollywood Theaters.
Opened in 1935.
The Pearis Theater opened in 1939 and closed as a movie house in March 1986. It reopened a few years later as a concert/live/community center.
Closed in November 1992.
This started life as the Royal Theatre in 1924. It was renamed the Plaza Theatre in September 1927, and renamed the Civic Theatre on March 6, 1935.
The Sky-Line opened its gates on March 20, 1953 with Tony Curtis in “Son Of Ali Baba” and Robert Ryan in “Horizons West” along with a cartoon, featuring an original 68x50ft screen. The projection booth was located 584ft away from the screen. It was first operated by Skyline Theaters of Newport and was first managed by Ray DiLorenzo.
Midstate Amusement opened the 1,200-seat Uptown Theatre on October 26, 1950 with Robert Cummings in “The Petty Girl” and Walt Disney’s “Beaver Valley” with no extra short subjects. The building had an estimate $300,000 in construction.
It was closed on February 12, 2006.
The River-Vue Drive-In opened its gates on March 5, 1953 with “The Story Of Robin Hood” and “Montana Territory” with no extra short subjects. It was first operated by Midstates Amusement Corp. and was managed by Wally Barsley who also operated other area theaters.
The River-Vue closed for the final time on September 3, 1995 with “Babe”, “Nine Months” and “Apollo 13” as a triple feature.
The Holyoke Plaza Cinema opened its doors on August 10, 1973 with “Fiddler On The Roof” at Screen 1 and “The Poseidon Adventure” at Screen 2. The twin-screener was operated by C.F. Theaters of Braintree and housed 468 seats in total (234 seats in each auditorium). It was closed in March 1977.
Both the Holyoke Mall and its eight-screen Holyoke Mall Cinemas opened at the same time in July 1979. The theater was first managed by Kendall McClintock.
Flicks ‘n’ Foam is short-lived, closing in July 1987 following alcohol concerns.
Closed on October 15, 1998 due to lack of business.
Opened on September 22, 1967 with “Divorce American Style” and “Trouble With Angels”, and closed on January 16, 1976 with “Challenge To Be Free”.
Closed on August 28, 1975 with “Blazing Saddles”.
The Jet Drive-In closed on September 5, 1982 with a dusk-to-dawn show following refusal to reopen for the 1983 season after a major agreement on the theater not to show obscene or lewd films.
The Southgate Cinema World was originally planned by Tom Moyer, the owner of General American Theatres who operates almost all Salem theaters at the time, in August 1975 featuring three screens and a capacity of 775 seats (with 400 seats in Screen 1 and 175 for the other two auditoriums) occupying 10,000 square feet on a six-acre site. The theater was set to be named Southgate Cinema Center, but was changed a bit shortly after construction was finished.
General American Theatres opened the Southgate Cinema World on June 16, 1976 but was still under repairs at the time. Its first two screens opened with “The Bad News Bears” in Screen 1 and “Baby Blue Marine” and “Drive-In” in Screen 2. Screen 3 opened on July 1, 1976 with “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
The 10,000 square-feet building is similar in construction and design to the Lancaster Quad at the Lancaster Mall but features a rain canopy in front. The $100,000 in equipment and interior furnishings at the theater features air conditioning and a motorized masking device which adjusts the amount of screen exposed for different sized films. Fred Maurer, who has been at the time the assistant manager and projectionist at Lancaster Quad, was also the manager of the Southgate. The seats of the theater are dipped in different colors in each auditorium. Screen 1 features brown seats, Screen 2 features purple seats, and Screen 3 features blue seats, with a patterned brown carpeting throughout.
There are two South Salem Drive-Ins in its history.
The original South Salem Drive-In, located on South Commercial Street near Wiltsey Road, opened on July 15, 1953 with Carlton Heston in “Pony Express” and Jane Powell in “Small Town Girl” with no extra short subjects. It was operated by Forman Theaters and was managed by Frank Schultz. The original drive-in originally housed 450 cars and features a 40x60ft screen.
The original location closed in 1961, followed by destruction by a fire in 1964, and the removal of its original sign in February 1966, leaving the North Salem the only drive-in theater operating in Salem. The original South Salem Drive-In will have its own Cinema Treasures page soon.
It wasn’t until 1969 when W.M. Hayes, the operator for General American Theatres, announced that a newer and much larger drive-in will be built on Lancaster Drive Southeast (which is formerly nothing at site) featuring a 45x100 screen and a planned capacity of 1,140 cars. Groundbreaking occurred during late-February 1970 on almost 13 acres of an 18-acre site. During the final touches of construction, they already had enough room to expand up to 1,200 cars. So without incident, they did expand their capacity from 1,140 to 1,200 just in time before grand opening.
The newer South Salem Drive-In opened its gates on August 19, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet Of The Apes” and “One Million Years B.C.”. Some of those attendees include local then-Top 40 (now oldies) radio station KBZY-AM doing a live broadcast on opening night. It opened with 1,200 cars for the start, and according to General American vice-president William M. Hays, said that an additional 200 cars will be added in time bringing a total to 1,400 cars but unfortunately it never expanded to 1,400. Instead it left as a standalone 1,200-car single-screener.
In August 1975, Tom Moyer of Tom Moyer Theaters, who operated much of Salem’s theaters and owned the General American Theatres chain, took a major turn in Salem’s theaters. He announced the construction of the Southgate Cinema Center, a 3-screen 800-seat (400-200-200) triplex at the Southgate Shopping Center. During that same announcement, he also planned the expansion of the South Salem Drive-In by converting a single to a quad drive-in.
During that time, then-35-year-old Phillip Lyle Woodland was the manager of the South Salem. Unfortunately, he was once robbed the following year. On the early morning hours of July 10, 1976 at approximately 4:20 AM PT, Woodland was depositing that night’s receipts when all of the sudden, a man wearing dirty khaki pants and a blue ski parka told Woodland to drop the U.S. National Bank bag that he was about to deposit according to police. The man was also intoxicated and had a birthmark on his right cheek, who told Woodland to “get out of here” before robbing.
Salem’s drive-ins during the mid-1970s were under a major shakedown on movies at the time. During the late-1970s and early-1980s, the South Salem Drive-In showed mostly first-run and second-run major-studio Hollywood fare, while the North Salem Drive-In went towards the more minor-studio/low-budget exploitation and adulty fare (but the North Salem did show a bit of Hollywood fare but only in rare occasions such as “Blazing Saddles”).
The South Salem Drive-In ended its 1,200-car single-screener days after the 1977 season when GAT started remodeling the drive-in and converting it into a 900-car quad drive-in, with 225 cars in each of the four screens. When the 1978 season rolled along, it reopened back as a single-screener with the three additional screens still under finishing touches. Finally on August 9, 1978, the three additional screens opened, marking it Oregon’s first four-screen drive-in. Several years later, the South Salem Drive-In became the only drive-in theater in Salem following the closure of the North Salem Drive-In on October 24, 1982.
Last operated by Act III Theatres, the South Salem Drive-In in its final years of operation had a total of 1,040 cars (with 260 cars in each screen) and immediately continued to entertain residents until closing the curtains at the end of the 1993 season despite the theater’s stereo sound suffered severe problems for several months during the final season.
The South Salem Drive-In closed for the final time on September 12, 1993 with the following in screen order: “Hard Target” and “Jurassic Park” in Screen 1, “Father Hood” and “Needful Things” in Screen 2, “Son In Law” and “Hocus Pocus” in Screen 3, and “Sleepless in Seattle” and “In The Line Of Fire” in Screen 4.
The concession and projection buildings sustained severe damaged from a fire on May 7, 1994, which later determined to be arson. Act III announced the following month that they decided to close the theater for good to avoid any injury. And on July 17 of that same year, another fire finished off the structure.