SPearce
The only non full length CINERAMA movie that I know of was an 18 minute 360-degree screen film “To the Moon & Beyond” shown at the 1964 & 1965 New York Worlds Fair. The first full length CINERAMA movie was “This is CINERAMA”. An interesting site all about the CINERAMA movies and the CINERAMA theaters is http://cinerama.topcities.com/
To perhaps bring back some memories of “CINERAMA Holiday” go to http://www.imdp.com/title/tt0047939/
I notice that Cinema Treasures no longer lists any Chains or Styles as CINERAMA, which is how it should be.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
The Lans Theater now Beggars Pizza is a building that is now 61 years old which means the Lans Theater must have opened in 1947. Lansing was settled by a lot of Dutch folks and those Dutch Reformed are pretty strict so it’s understandable what kind of movies the Lans showed. It’s a wonder they allowed the theater to be open on Sunday!
When it was Pipes and Pizza, Roger Triemstra, the WGN AM720 Radio, Superstation WGN TV9, Meteorologist from 1965 to 1998 was one of the owners. As far as I know a theater pipe organ had never been installed in the theater and the owners installed a 4 manual Barton Theater Pipe Organ. I don’t remember how many ranks and I don’t recall where it came from, but it’s a safe to say it came from Wisconsin cause all Bartons came from Oshkosh.
I don’t know about now, but as of last year Glenn Tallar was playing the Barton each Tuesday and Saturday night for Beggars Pizza. He’s 20, lives out southwest of Chicago in Homer Glen, is a Lockport Township High School graduate and goes to Columbia College. He sure makes it a fun place to eat pizza!
It’s diffucult to read, but as best as I can make out from this newspaper article www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/2184149247
The theater was built in the mid 1940’s by Don George. I think it had marble from Rome on the outside? It had nealy 1300 seats. Gulf State Theaters bought the theater in 1958. I think it closed in 1983? It sat empty for 3 years. It was diffucult to tear down and was torn down to make a parking lot.
Status needs to be changed to CLOSED/DEMOLISHED
Seats 1300
Bryan, thanks, I think those are both errors, or at least have a logical explanation, but I will check that all out with the Manteno Historical Society and some of the old timers here in town. Thanks for making the entry which is sorta forcing me to check into this.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Bryan Krefft, What do you think of a guy who adds theaters on the Atlantic Coast but dosen’t add a theater that’s just a mile away from his house? That’s me. Shame on me! Course I’ve known about the Darb Theater but always wanted to get more facts before I added it to CT. I volunteer for the local community cable TV station and have taped over 80 programs (not counting sports) in the last 4 years and I want to do one with the Manteno Historical Society and some old timers talking about the businesses on Main Street and especially the Darb Theater but haven’t got to it yet. I think another theater was over near the American Leigion parking lot. Of course you always get a good argument going whenever they start talking about what business was in what building, which I think is a riot. Alas I haven’t got to it yet so I have never made an entry yet and you so to speak beat me to the punch, so let me add what I do sorta know.
This is what I know from talking with a former long time Manteno mayor and life long resident of Manteno whose son is President of the Manteno Historical Society and form my own observations. Although some think the theater burned down it did not and I can’t remember for sure (the former mayor is in Florida right now), but after it closed someone else was going to remodel the theater but after about 10 years never did finish and finally I think a Mr. Owens took the building over, put a “new” front on the building which is 2 storefronts wide, made offices on the first floor and appartments on the second floor. An addition was added to the back of the building. A stone in the brick in the front of the building states “OWENS BUILDING 1972”. 2 lawyers (including mine)and a CPA are in the offices. I understand that Mr. and Mrs. Owens had moved to Florida and that Mr. Owens has died.
The address is 33 North Main. I’m sure this was the theater because when you look at the roof from the alley you can still see the big vents up at the front of the building up on the roof for the projectors.
In the Manteno office of the Kankakee Daily Journal they have a nice photo on the wall labeled “St. Aubin Hardware Fire January 1951” (no mention of a Darb Theater Fire)
which shows this hardware store on fire, but to the south of it is the DARB it’s marquee reads
“MR MUSIC WITH BING CROSBY (release date 28 Dec 1950)
ALSO DALLAS IN TECHNICOLOR (release date 30 Dec 1950)
WITH GARY COOPER"
The flames are blowing to the north so the theater seems to be safe?
The address 417 Chestnut Street is located 4 miles east of "downtown” Manteno out in the “country” at the former Manteno State Hospital which at one time was an over 8,000 patient psychiatric hospital. It closed in 1985. Now it’s called Diversatech, part of it is Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno, an industrial park, housing developments, a resdential treatment center and good buildings just deserted or demolished. http://www.urbanlens.com/files/msh/msh.html
the building at 417 Chestnut Street the Mitchell Cottage was a 1 story brick H shapped building that took up an entire block and was built in the early 1930’s and would never have been a theater. It was torn down about 2 years ago. I have thought about listing Hinton Hall out at the hospital as a theater, but I have to check into that alot more.
It’s possible Main Street used to be Chestnut Street, but 417 would put it in the grain elevators of the Farmers Elevators Company of Manteno. Perhaps sometime ago the streets and numbering system in town got changed all around?
I would be interested to know where you got the address and that it was demolished.
Alas, the story can no longer be read at the Daily Journal unless you subscribe, but the complete story, but without pictures is on the CT Watseka Theater site on January 5, 2008.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Well as you know if you now click the above you now can no longer read the article or see the photos. I don’t really expect anyone to subscribe to the Journal just to read this one article. I guess there must be some some way to scan the article and photos, but I don’t know how to do that so I will just type it out. Is that legal? My typing isn’t the greatest, sorry for any mistakes, wish we had spell check. Sorry about the photos.
From the Kankakee, Illinois, Daily Journal, Friday, December 28,2007
Local couple restores an art deco theater
Watseka—On New Year’s Eve, when the restored Watseka Theatre will reopen to the public after nine years, guests won’t get popcorn and a movie.
Instead they will get a look at what a former Cissna Park music teacher has been daydreaming about for 30 years—a hub for art and culture.
That former teacher, Chuck Gormez, and Debra Liddell, a dentist, will reopen The Watseka Theatre not as a movie house, but as a performing arts center available to rent.
The 1931 structure, which Gomez called an art deco treasure, is much more than a theater now. The building has a new bar, cafe, lounge and banquet room complete with closed-circuit television to watch the acts next door.
So far, the only other event (besides the New Year’s Eve Party) nailed down is a March 29 (2008) benefit by the Iroquois County Historical Society that will feature a singing act called the Sweethearts of Branson, Mo. But Gomez says that many local organizations are interested in bringing performers to Watseka or in using the building for their own dances, concerts and recitals.
The restoration has even attracted the attention of a filmaker who is working on a documentary about the project and will include interviews with local people, Gomez said.
A ‘brutal’ job
Gomez makes a living as a special events producer and produces the Columbia College graduation in Chicago each year. However, he has never restored a theater.
This isn’t just any theater, though. Gomez said that Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), the architect for the Hancock Center and the Sears Tower, designed the building.
It’s also seeped in local history. Gomez has heard stories from local couples who met and fell in love there, and even of a small group of men who pledged to enlist after hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor moments before the movie started.
Liddel and Gomez, who live in Watseka, bought the theater last spring and began cleaning it out. The basement was practecally filled with debris.
“We spent two month just cleaning,” Gomez said, “It was brutal.”
Since then. the theater partners have used “ever contractor in Watseka”
While he had copies of the original blueprints, some elements were too expensive to restore. Take the crowns and sconces inside the theater. The original crowns were made from horsehair and plaster and were mounted atop columns of black-painted brick on either side of the theater. They would have been prohibitively expensive to replace, so FP Fiberglass' Fred Cahoe and Scott Burdick turned out replicas of these and other plaster decor that had fallen victims to water damage.
Cahoe said it was a challenging job because the goal was to make the fiberglass look like plaster, not a smooth, contemporary looking surface. “You want to make sure the flaws are back in it,” said Cahoe. “Plaster doesn’t have a certain design.”
Painting a new era
The theraer has been downsized from more than 600 seats to 425 new, wider theater chairs.
The auditorium originally had a shallow stage in front of the movie screen for vaudeille acts. The theater was built as the movies were eclipsing the older style of live entertainment. In a way, the renovation project is a throwback because the movie screen has been relocated to the rear wall of the stage area opening up a much larger space for singer, dancers, actors and musicians.
Several original murals are also in the process of being redone. Watseka artist Kathy Blunk created an impressionistic vision of the princess Watch-e-kee (after whom Watseka is named) for the lobby. Liddell painted a new Native American warrior to replace the faded one on the right-hand side of the stage. The image has been emlarged to about 20 feet high and is being hung this week. Originally, there was another male on the left hand side of the stage. However, Liddell is replacing him with a female Native American bearing a dream catcher, instead of a weapon.
In the lobby, art deco touches can be seen in the original terazzo floor, original floor-to-ceiling columns and in the original houndstooth crown moulding, which meets a scalloped design around the edge of the ceiling. The lobby color scheme is teal, nougat and rust — an art deco color scheme, according to Gomez.
The houndstooth is reminiscent of arrows, a design element that was present on the sconces and on the valance over the stage. The black vlance had to be mostly reconstructed, although it’s ready to to put up. In addition to arrowheads, it bears images of large water birds native to this area, which migrate in arrow formations.
And while the marquee still awaits transformation into a white-on-black neon sign, Gomez said Monday that 90 percent of the planned restortation will be finshed by New Year’s Eve.
Photo: Both the original chandelier and scoces survive in the lobby of the Watseka Theatre. An even larger, original chandelier hangs in the auditorium.
Photo: Debra Liddell holds up some of the artwork she had hand crafted for the Watseka Theatre.
Photo: Mike Brubach, of Bradley, and Dave Gudeman, of Dave’s Carpentry in Watseka, hang the crowns above the columns in the Watseka Theatre on Monday morning.
For Thanksgiving, THANKS to Ross for hopefully putting an end to the trash that keeps showing up on this Paxton site. I live in Manteno 55 miles north of Paxton. Every one of the 86 times an entry is made on this site, I read it to see what is going on in “my neighborhood”. Most times I think of that quote you show biz folks in Paxton must know, from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” when Mayor Shinn states
“WILL YOU MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD QUIT BICKERING IN PUBLIC?!"
I would have liked to have read about taking the letters from a production a couple of years ago off of the marquee, or comments about Paxton Foundation Vice President Judy Jensen-Popel (no relation) in the Kankakee Daily Journal 10/21/2007 "Next on the preservation wish list,is the Paxton Theater building, we are worried about it, noting that the south wall needs to be tuckpointed and the roof needs repair. (not that it matters now)
After the fire, the impression was left on this site that it was deserted and that arson was for insurance. It could have been arson, but I don’t know if we know that yet. In fact the building as I understand it, had 3 occupied apartments, the 4 tenants got out safely but of course were left homeless. Also the bookstore was completly destroyed, the owner was safe, but of course out of business. I don’t recall something important as human life not even being mentioned here.
IMHO this site should stick to facts on reports on what caused the fire. Goldern memories of the theater. Reports on a Paxton II.
Paxton Theater R.I.P.
How bout doing something like the Phoenix Theatres, Union Station 9 in Washington DC and giving each theater the name of a former theater in the Loop with a nice photo of that late great theater next to it’s entrance?
MUVICO CINESTAGE 7 THEATRES (Chicago folks will get the Cinestage)
United Artists
Roosevelt
State Lake
Woods
Garrick
McVickers
Clark
Michael Todd (Sorry Mike Todd your theater is #8 and they only plan 7 theaters, but I did get Cinestage in. R.I.P.)
Monroe, Loop, Today (also out of luck)
VITO,
I’ve always read and enjoyed your posts on this and other theater sites. Here’s a few things you might want to write about. I can’t remerber if you ever worked at a 3 strip CINERAMA site. What was the longest any movie was ever shown at any theater you ever worked at? What was the record number of times you used the same print? Was it 70mm? Did you have 2 in the booth when you had 70mm? Did you always have a curtain? Did the curtain ever not open, what did you do? Etc., etc., etc.?
Thanks for all the fun info you always give!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!"
Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
sam_e…
I knew one of the Kensington Theaters was a Shea’s, but I didn’t know which one. I was in hope that someone would know and fill that part in.
Thanks
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
The WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ was sold in May of 1967. It is supposed to be playable in a private residence in Buttonville a suburban community within the town of Markham, which is directly north on Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Somewhere I saw that the Senaca had 1750 seats?
The WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ, Opus 2085, was shipped to the theater on May 12, 1929. The organ then went to the Haven Roller Rink in Lackawanna, New York and then to a private owner in Lancaster, New York. In the mid 70’s it went to Scooby’s Pizza in Dallas Texas. In the mid to late 80’s it was sold off as parts with the console going to the Avalon Theater in the former village of Bay View which is now a neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The theater closed in 2001. The organ was removed in 2004 because the theatre was no longer heated, the organ was being ruined by water, mold, mildew, plaster and the chance of vandalism. The organ is now stored either in Milwaukee or Racine, Wisconsin. I have no idea if the Seneca console is still with the organ. The Avalon is supposed to be restored, but the new owner says it is unlikly the organ will be reinstalled.
EDWARD SUMMER,
SAM_E,
PATSY…About the WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ, I find it interesting that WurliTzer shipped it on November 13, 1920 and WurliTzer didn’t reposess it untll March 27, 1926, over 5 years. It of course then went to the Lyric Theater in Lousiville, Kentucky. It then went to a privare owner in Albany, New York where the organ was installed and played.
I’m not sure if the organ is still all together. The owner of the above organ also had/has a 3 manual 11 rank Wurlizer Theater Pipe Organ Opus 2114 from the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York, shipped June 12,1939. He then sold the console to a private owner in Agoura Hills, California and it is now the console at the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. So these organs do get around!
I’ve also seen the theater listed as the Bailey AVENUE Theater.
A 3/15 WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ Opus 1950 was shipped all the way from North Tonawanda, New York (14 miles) on August 31, 1928, The theater then opened on September 28, 1928, which gave them less than a month to get it installed! Did they get it all running in time? Parts of the organ went to Leon C. Berry a famous roller rink organist in the Chicago Illinois area. Other parts went to the Oaks Park Roller Rink which was supposed to be in Chicago, but I think was really in Portland Oregon. The Console went to the Paramont Theater in Middletown, New York where it is in use today.
After the Teck showed it’s last CINERAMA movie “How the West Was Won” in the spring of 1963, Buffalo had no CINERAMA theatre untill United Artists' Century CINERAMA Theatre, Carl E. Schaner, was the managing director, showed MGM’s “Gran Prix” on 03/23/67. A new semicircular CINERAMA 74ft by 33ft 26ft radius screen was installed in front of the present screen. The projection booth was brought down to the main floor and new single-lens CINERAMA process 70mm single-projectors were installed. With the new projectors they were “able to present motion pictures in any possible projection process”. All the seats were reupholsted and new drapes and carpeting were installed.
CINERAMA Releasing Corp.’s “Custer of the West” filmed in Super-Technirama and Technicolor in the CINERAMA widescreen process was to open in February of 1968, but I don’t know if that ever happened. A number of widescreen films had been booked and there was a possibility that some of the older CINERAMA hits would be brought back for presentation in the single-projector process, but I don’t know if that ever happened either.
The wall hollowed out of the building behind the stage reminds me of a lot of old theatres that have been “restored” recently and need to have a deeper stage, such as the Oriental in Chicago.
Anyone know if the pipes of the Moeller Theatre Pipe Organ were saved?
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
The builing is really something to see from the outside. If you are northbound on the tri-state tollway, look to the east just past those rusty I beams of the building they never finished.
JON LIDOTT, the smell of flowers in the Cypress Gardens sequence, how interesting, I never heard of that before, but Michael Todd was connected with CINERAMA and SMELL-O-VISION so it sorta makes scents.
The program for the Buffalo Premire of This Is CINERAMA reads simply TECK THEATRE Wed. Mar 16, 1955, 8:30 p.m.
I found another address of 760 Main Sreeet.
The 3-strip dates listed above are a little mixed up it should be:
From 03/16/55 to 02/17/58 and in 1958 the equipment was returned to Oyster Bay, New York (CINERAMA’s Headquarters) and then to Melbourne.
I don’t know where the equipment came from, but 3-strip CINERAMA was on again from 08/22/62 to 07/28/63, A strike action caused a six month closure in 1963.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
TODD-AO Concept Tests
On June 23, 1953 TODD-AO tests were done at the Regent in both 20 and 30 frames per second. Photographic equipment was Thomascolar 65mm cameras rebuilt by American Optical Corporation and Mitchell Camera Corporation. More tests were done on August 14, 1953 with 30 frames per second. (More 30 frames per second were done on June 23, 1954 on MGM Stage 2 in Los Angeles.)
I just noticed this theatres listing today. For Christmas of 2004 my wife and I took our grandchildren to see “The Polar Express; An IMAX 3D Experience”. A great movie to see in IMAX and 3D! We have never got around to going back to see another movie. I notice no mention of an IMAX theatre on their website. Is the IMAX really gone or just not in use right now? If it’s gone, when did that happen and how many theatres did they get in it’s place? I drove down La Grange Road the other day and never even thought to go into the lot and get a closer look at the theatre,
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Ed Wilke could perhaps check this out, he dosen’t live to far from Oshkosh. I have an address of 522 North Main Street? The building was built in 1927 and the Strand opened in 1928. The building is a Neo-Gothic style, features glazed terra cotta tracery and Jacobean and Tudor elements. It was the citys leading movie palace. It was named the Raulf Theatre in the 1950’s and the Plaza in 1967. It finaly closed in 1986. Shortly afterward the theatre space was converted to housing units as part of a complete rehabilitation of the hotel. Each summer I would go to the BIG Expermintal Aircraft Association Fly-In at Oshkosh and it must have been about ‘86 or '87 that I could see the solid brick wall of the auditorium because either low buildings or a parking lot are to the south of theatre. Anyway I could see construction workers breaking through the brick to put in windows. I haven’t been up to Oshkosh since 1990, but I woud guess it still stands. It might still be a hotel, but I think it might be apartments, perhaps for senior citizens? I wonder if it had a Barton Theatre Pipe Organ in it, seeing that Bartons were built in Oshkosh?
ED WILKE, PLEASE CHECK IT OUT
SPearce
The only non full length CINERAMA movie that I know of was an 18 minute 360-degree screen film “To the Moon & Beyond” shown at the 1964 & 1965 New York Worlds Fair. The first full length CINERAMA movie was “This is CINERAMA”. An interesting site all about the CINERAMA movies and the CINERAMA theaters is
http://cinerama.topcities.com/
To perhaps bring back some memories of “CINERAMA Holiday” go to
http://www.imdp.com/title/tt0047939/
I notice that Cinema Treasures no longer lists any Chains or Styles as CINERAMA, which is how it should be.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
The Lans Theater now Beggars Pizza is a building that is now 61 years old which means the Lans Theater must have opened in 1947. Lansing was settled by a lot of Dutch folks and those Dutch Reformed are pretty strict so it’s understandable what kind of movies the Lans showed. It’s a wonder they allowed the theater to be open on Sunday!
When it was Pipes and Pizza, Roger Triemstra, the WGN AM720 Radio, Superstation WGN TV9, Meteorologist from 1965 to 1998 was one of the owners. As far as I know a theater pipe organ had never been installed in the theater and the owners installed a 4 manual Barton Theater Pipe Organ. I don’t remember how many ranks and I don’t recall where it came from, but it’s a safe to say it came from Wisconsin cause all Bartons came from Oshkosh.
I don’t know about now, but as of last year Glenn Tallar was playing the Barton each Tuesday and Saturday night for Beggars Pizza. He’s 20, lives out southwest of Chicago in Homer Glen, is a Lockport Township High School graduate and goes to Columbia College. He sure makes it a fun place to eat pizza!
“Gee Dad, it’s a Barton!”
It’s diffucult to read, but as best as I can make out from this newspaper article
www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/2184149247
The theater was built in the mid 1940’s by Don George. I think it had marble from Rome on the outside? It had nealy 1300 seats. Gulf State Theaters bought the theater in 1958. I think it closed in 1983? It sat empty for 3 years. It was diffucult to tear down and was torn down to make a parking lot.
Status needs to be changed to CLOSED/DEMOLISHED
Seats 1300
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
Bryan, thanks, I think those are both errors, or at least have a logical explanation, but I will check that all out with the Manteno Historical Society and some of the old timers here in town. Thanks for making the entry which is sorta forcing me to check into this.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Bryan Krefft, What do you think of a guy who adds theaters on the Atlantic Coast but dosen’t add a theater that’s just a mile away from his house? That’s me. Shame on me! Course I’ve known about the Darb Theater but always wanted to get more facts before I added it to CT. I volunteer for the local community cable TV station and have taped over 80 programs (not counting sports) in the last 4 years and I want to do one with the Manteno Historical Society and some old timers talking about the businesses on Main Street and especially the Darb Theater but haven’t got to it yet. I think another theater was over near the American Leigion parking lot. Of course you always get a good argument going whenever they start talking about what business was in what building, which I think is a riot. Alas I haven’t got to it yet so I have never made an entry yet and you so to speak beat me to the punch, so let me add what I do sorta know.
This is what I know from talking with a former long time Manteno mayor and life long resident of Manteno whose son is President of the Manteno Historical Society and form my own observations. Although some think the theater burned down it did not and I can’t remember for sure (the former mayor is in Florida right now), but after it closed someone else was going to remodel the theater but after about 10 years never did finish and finally I think a Mr. Owens took the building over, put a “new” front on the building which is 2 storefronts wide, made offices on the first floor and appartments on the second floor. An addition was added to the back of the building. A stone in the brick in the front of the building states “OWENS BUILDING 1972”. 2 lawyers (including mine)and a CPA are in the offices. I understand that Mr. and Mrs. Owens had moved to Florida and that Mr. Owens has died.
The address is 33 North Main. I’m sure this was the theater because when you look at the roof from the alley you can still see the big vents up at the front of the building up on the roof for the projectors.
In the Manteno office of the Kankakee Daily Journal they have a nice photo on the wall labeled “St. Aubin Hardware Fire January 1951” (no mention of a Darb Theater Fire)
which shows this hardware store on fire, but to the south of it is the DARB it’s marquee reads
“MR MUSIC WITH BING CROSBY (release date 28 Dec 1950)
ALSO DALLAS IN TECHNICOLOR (release date 30 Dec 1950)
WITH GARY COOPER"
The flames are blowing to the north so the theater seems to be safe?
The address 417 Chestnut Street is located 4 miles east of "downtown” Manteno out in the “country” at the former Manteno State Hospital which at one time was an over 8,000 patient psychiatric hospital. It closed in 1985. Now it’s called Diversatech, part of it is Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno, an industrial park, housing developments, a resdential treatment center and good buildings just deserted or demolished.
http://www.urbanlens.com/files/msh/msh.html
the building at 417 Chestnut Street the Mitchell Cottage was a 1 story brick H shapped building that took up an entire block and was built in the early 1930’s and would never have been a theater. It was torn down about 2 years ago. I have thought about listing Hinton Hall out at the hospital as a theater, but I have to check into that alot more.
It’s possible Main Street used to be Chestnut Street, but 417 would put it in the grain elevators of the Farmers Elevators Company of Manteno. Perhaps sometime ago the streets and numbering system in town got changed all around?
I would be interested to know where you got the address and that it was demolished.
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
Alas, the story can no longer be read at the Daily Journal unless you subscribe, but the complete story, but without pictures is on the CT Watseka Theater site on January 5, 2008.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Well as you know if you now click the above you now can no longer read the article or see the photos. I don’t really expect anyone to subscribe to the Journal just to read this one article. I guess there must be some some way to scan the article and photos, but I don’t know how to do that so I will just type it out. Is that legal? My typing isn’t the greatest, sorry for any mistakes, wish we had spell check. Sorry about the photos.
From the Kankakee, Illinois, Daily Journal, Friday, December 28,2007
Local couple restores an art deco theater
Watseka—On New Year’s Eve, when the restored Watseka Theatre will reopen to the public after nine years, guests won’t get popcorn and a movie.
Instead they will get a look at what a former Cissna Park music teacher has been daydreaming about for 30 years—a hub for art and culture.
That former teacher, Chuck Gormez, and Debra Liddell, a dentist, will reopen The Watseka Theatre not as a movie house, but as a performing arts center available to rent.
The 1931 structure, which Gomez called an art deco treasure, is much more than a theater now. The building has a new bar, cafe, lounge and banquet room complete with closed-circuit television to watch the acts next door.
So far, the only other event (besides the New Year’s Eve Party) nailed down is a March 29 (2008) benefit by the Iroquois County Historical Society that will feature a singing act called the Sweethearts of Branson, Mo. But Gomez says that many local organizations are interested in bringing performers to Watseka or in using the building for their own dances, concerts and recitals.
The restoration has even attracted the attention of a filmaker who is working on a documentary about the project and will include interviews with local people, Gomez said.
A ‘brutal’ job
Gomez makes a living as a special events producer and produces the Columbia College graduation in Chicago each year. However, he has never restored a theater.
This isn’t just any theater, though. Gomez said that Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), the architect for the Hancock Center and the Sears Tower, designed the building.
It’s also seeped in local history. Gomez has heard stories from local couples who met and fell in love there, and even of a small group of men who pledged to enlist after hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor moments before the movie started.
Liddel and Gomez, who live in Watseka, bought the theater last spring and began cleaning it out. The basement was practecally filled with debris.
“We spent two month just cleaning,” Gomez said, “It was brutal.”
Since then. the theater partners have used “ever contractor in Watseka”
While he had copies of the original blueprints, some elements were too expensive to restore. Take the crowns and sconces inside the theater. The original crowns were made from horsehair and plaster and were mounted atop columns of black-painted brick on either side of the theater. They would have been prohibitively expensive to replace, so FP Fiberglass' Fred Cahoe and Scott Burdick turned out replicas of these and other plaster decor that had fallen victims to water damage.
Cahoe said it was a challenging job because the goal was to make the fiberglass look like plaster, not a smooth, contemporary looking surface. “You want to make sure the flaws are back in it,” said Cahoe. “Plaster doesn’t have a certain design.”
Painting a new era
The theraer has been downsized from more than 600 seats to 425 new, wider theater chairs.
The auditorium originally had a shallow stage in front of the movie screen for vaudeille acts. The theater was built as the movies were eclipsing the older style of live entertainment. In a way, the renovation project is a throwback because the movie screen has been relocated to the rear wall of the stage area opening up a much larger space for singer, dancers, actors and musicians.
Several original murals are also in the process of being redone. Watseka artist Kathy Blunk created an impressionistic vision of the princess Watch-e-kee (after whom Watseka is named) for the lobby. Liddell painted a new Native American warrior to replace the faded one on the right-hand side of the stage. The image has been emlarged to about 20 feet high and is being hung this week. Originally, there was another male on the left hand side of the stage. However, Liddell is replacing him with a female Native American bearing a dream catcher, instead of a weapon.
In the lobby, art deco touches can be seen in the original terazzo floor, original floor-to-ceiling columns and in the original houndstooth crown moulding, which meets a scalloped design around the edge of the ceiling. The lobby color scheme is teal, nougat and rust — an art deco color scheme, according to Gomez.
The houndstooth is reminiscent of arrows, a design element that was present on the sconces and on the valance over the stage. The black vlance had to be mostly reconstructed, although it’s ready to to put up. In addition to arrowheads, it bears images of large water birds native to this area, which migrate in arrow formations.
And while the marquee still awaits transformation into a white-on-black neon sign, Gomez said Monday that 90 percent of the planned restortation will be finshed by New Year’s Eve.
Photo: Both the original chandelier and scoces survive in the lobby of the Watseka Theatre. An even larger, original chandelier hangs in the auditorium.
Photo: Debra Liddell holds up some of the artwork she had hand crafted for the Watseka Theatre.
Photo: Mike Brubach, of Bradley, and Dave Gudeman, of Dave’s Carpentry in Watseka, hang the crowns above the columns in the Watseka Theatre on Monday morning.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!”
Another of P.J. Chmiel’s photo’s of his hometown theater:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjchmiel/305200874/in/photostream
For Thanksgiving, THANKS to Ross for hopefully putting an end to the trash that keeps showing up on this Paxton site. I live in Manteno 55 miles north of Paxton. Every one of the 86 times an entry is made on this site, I read it to see what is going on in “my neighborhood”. Most times I think of that quote you show biz folks in Paxton must know, from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” when Mayor Shinn states
“WILL YOU MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD QUIT BICKERING IN PUBLIC?!"
I would have liked to have read about taking the letters from a production a couple of years ago off of the marquee, or comments about Paxton Foundation Vice President Judy Jensen-Popel (no relation) in the Kankakee Daily Journal 10/21/2007 "Next on the preservation wish list,is the Paxton Theater building, we are worried about it, noting that the south wall needs to be tuckpointed and the roof needs repair. (not that it matters now)
After the fire, the impression was left on this site that it was deserted and that arson was for insurance. It could have been arson, but I don’t know if we know that yet. In fact the building as I understand it, had 3 occupied apartments, the 4 tenants got out safely but of course were left homeless. Also the bookstore was completly destroyed, the owner was safe, but of course out of business. I don’t recall something important as human life not even being mentioned here.
IMHO this site should stick to facts on reports on what caused the fire. Goldern memories of the theater. Reports on a Paxton II.
Paxton Theater R.I.P.
POLAND
Krakow, Kino Kijow Centrum, 3D
How bout doing something like the Phoenix Theatres, Union Station 9 in Washington DC and giving each theater the name of a former theater in the Loop with a nice photo of that late great theater next to it’s entrance?
MUVICO CINESTAGE 7 THEATRES (Chicago folks will get the Cinestage)
United Artists
Roosevelt
State Lake
Woods
Garrick
McVickers
Clark
Michael Todd (Sorry Mike Todd your theater is #8 and they only plan 7 theaters, but I did get Cinestage in. R.I.P.)
Monroe, Loop, Today (also out of luck)
Not only is Block 37 the site of the former Balaban & Katz United Artists Theater, but Balaban & Katz Roosevelt Theater was also on Block 37.
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
VITO,
I’ve always read and enjoyed your posts on this and other theater sites. Here’s a few things you might want to write about. I can’t remerber if you ever worked at a 3 strip CINERAMA site. What was the longest any movie was ever shown at any theater you ever worked at? What was the record number of times you used the same print? Was it 70mm? Did you have 2 in the booth when you had 70mm? Did you always have a curtain? Did the curtain ever not open, what did you do? Etc., etc., etc.?
Thanks for all the fun info you always give!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!"
Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
sam_e…
I knew one of the Kensington Theaters was a Shea’s, but I didn’t know which one. I was in hope that someone would know and fill that part in.
Thanks
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
The WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ was sold in May of 1967. It is supposed to be playable in a private residence in Buttonville a suburban community within the town of Markham, which is directly north on Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“Gee Dad, it’s a WurliTzer!”
Somewhere I saw that the Senaca had 1750 seats?
The WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ, Opus 2085, was shipped to the theater on May 12, 1929. The organ then went to the Haven Roller Rink in Lackawanna, New York and then to a private owner in Lancaster, New York. In the mid 70’s it went to Scooby’s Pizza in Dallas Texas. In the mid to late 80’s it was sold off as parts with the console going to the Avalon Theater in the former village of Bay View which is now a neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The theater closed in 2001. The organ was removed in 2004 because the theatre was no longer heated, the organ was being ruined by water, mold, mildew, plaster and the chance of vandalism. The organ is now stored either in Milwaukee or Racine, Wisconsin. I have no idea if the Seneca console is still with the organ. The Avalon is supposed to be restored, but the new owner says it is unlikly the organ will be reinstalled.
“Gee Dad, it WAS a WurliTzer!”
EDWARD SUMMER,
SAM_E,
PATSY…About the WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ, I find it interesting that WurliTzer shipped it on November 13, 1920 and WurliTzer didn’t reposess it untll March 27, 1926, over 5 years. It of course then went to the Lyric Theater in Lousiville, Kentucky. It then went to a privare owner in Albany, New York where the organ was installed and played.
I’m not sure if the organ is still all together. The owner of the above organ also had/has a 3 manual 11 rank Wurlizer Theater Pipe Organ Opus 2114 from the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York, shipped June 12,1939. He then sold the console to a private owner in Agoura Hills, California and it is now the console at the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. So these organs do get around!
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
I’ve also seen the theater listed as the Bailey AVENUE Theater.
A 3/15 WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ Opus 1950 was shipped all the way from North Tonawanda, New York (14 miles) on August 31, 1928, The theater then opened on September 28, 1928, which gave them less than a month to get it installed! Did they get it all running in time? Parts of the organ went to Leon C. Berry a famous roller rink organist in the Chicago Illinois area. Other parts went to the Oaks Park Roller Rink which was supposed to be in Chicago, but I think was really in Portland Oregon. The Console went to the Paramont Theater in Middletown, New York where it is in use today.
“Gee Dad, it was a WurTlizer!”
After the Teck showed it’s last CINERAMA movie “How the West Was Won” in the spring of 1963, Buffalo had no CINERAMA theatre untill United Artists' Century CINERAMA Theatre, Carl E. Schaner, was the managing director, showed MGM’s “Gran Prix” on 03/23/67. A new semicircular CINERAMA 74ft by 33ft 26ft radius screen was installed in front of the present screen. The projection booth was brought down to the main floor and new single-lens CINERAMA process 70mm single-projectors were installed. With the new projectors they were “able to present motion pictures in any possible projection process”. All the seats were reupholsted and new drapes and carpeting were installed.
CINERAMA Releasing Corp.’s “Custer of the West” filmed in Super-Technirama and Technicolor in the CINERAMA widescreen process was to open in February of 1968, but I don’t know if that ever happened. A number of widescreen films had been booked and there was a possibility that some of the older CINERAMA hits would be brought back for presentation in the single-projector process, but I don’t know if that ever happened either.
The wall hollowed out of the building behind the stage reminds me of a lot of old theatres that have been “restored” recently and need to have a deeper stage, such as the Oriental in Chicago.
Anyone know if the pipes of the Moeller Theatre Pipe Organ were saved?
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
The builing is really something to see from the outside. If you are northbound on the tri-state tollway, look to the east just past those rusty I beams of the building they never finished.
“Gee Dad it was a WurliTzer!”
JON LIDOTT, the smell of flowers in the Cypress Gardens sequence, how interesting, I never heard of that before, but Michael Todd was connected with CINERAMA and SMELL-O-VISION so it sorta makes scents.
The program for the Buffalo Premire of This Is CINERAMA reads simply TECK THEATRE Wed. Mar 16, 1955, 8:30 p.m.
I found another address of 760 Main Sreeet.
The 3-strip dates listed above are a little mixed up it should be:
From 03/16/55 to 02/17/58 and in 1958 the equipment was returned to Oyster Bay, New York (CINERAMA’s Headquarters) and then to Melbourne.
I don’t know where the equipment came from, but 3-strip CINERAMA was on again from 08/22/62 to 07/28/63, A strike action caused a six month closure in 1963.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
TODD-AO Concept Tests
On June 23, 1953 TODD-AO tests were done at the Regent in both 20 and 30 frames per second. Photographic equipment was Thomascolar 65mm cameras rebuilt by American Optical Corporation and Mitchell Camera Corporation. More tests were done on August 14, 1953 with 30 frames per second. (More 30 frames per second were done on June 23, 1954 on MGM Stage 2 in Los Angeles.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, This is TODD-AO!
I just noticed this theatres listing today. For Christmas of 2004 my wife and I took our grandchildren to see “The Polar Express; An IMAX 3D Experience”. A great movie to see in IMAX and 3D! We have never got around to going back to see another movie. I notice no mention of an IMAX theatre on their website. Is the IMAX really gone or just not in use right now? If it’s gone, when did that happen and how many theatres did they get in it’s place? I drove down La Grange Road the other day and never even thought to go into the lot and get a closer look at the theatre,
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Ed Wilke could perhaps check this out, he dosen’t live to far from Oshkosh. I have an address of 522 North Main Street? The building was built in 1927 and the Strand opened in 1928. The building is a Neo-Gothic style, features glazed terra cotta tracery and Jacobean and Tudor elements. It was the citys leading movie palace. It was named the Raulf Theatre in the 1950’s and the Plaza in 1967. It finaly closed in 1986. Shortly afterward the theatre space was converted to housing units as part of a complete rehabilitation of the hotel. Each summer I would go to the BIG Expermintal Aircraft Association Fly-In at Oshkosh and it must have been about ‘86 or '87 that I could see the solid brick wall of the auditorium because either low buildings or a parking lot are to the south of theatre. Anyway I could see construction workers breaking through the brick to put in windows. I haven’t been up to Oshkosh since 1990, but I woud guess it still stands. It might still be a hotel, but I think it might be apartments, perhaps for senior citizens? I wonder if it had a Barton Theatre Pipe Organ in it, seeing that Bartons were built in Oshkosh?
ED WILKE, PLEASE CHECK IT OUT
“Gee dad it was a BARTON!”
I’m pretty sure I saw The Blue Lagoon at the Time, so that would have been about 1980.
“Ladies and Gentleman, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas