Great little theater! This is a non-profit art cinema. Much of the help is volunteer. It has a membership who gets discount in the prices. Every time I go there, I see at least one other person I know in town. It’s more like a community center/living room than just a movie theater. Right next to it is the Spark Museum, which is another treasure in this town!
This is the place at which I have discovered my homosexuality.
I have such fond memories of this place! I was a 20 year old student when I discovered this place. Some of the men there; I wonder where they are now??
Well aside from that, here is what I remember:
First of all, it was on right hand side of the building. What is tricky is the fact they subleased the front right hand corner (about 100 square feet) to a sandwich shop. So, the very corner of that building was the sandwich
shop. The theater itself, however, surrounded the sandwich shop and the
projection boot was on top of the sandwich shop.
Inside, the restrooms were not astride the screen as someone else mentioned
but in the back.
As you enter, there is a bulkhead hard on your right (that is the side of the
sandwich shop). On your left is the entrance of the mens restroom. It was down
a short flight of about four stairs.
Going past that, both the left and right bulkhead open up to the theater itself. If you proceed around to the left (which is behind the left hand
section of seats, you would see the entrance to the womens restroom.
What was frustrating was that there was no vestibule. The front entrance doors were directly exposed to the screen. Whenever someone entered or left, there would be a HUGE splash of light on the screen and the picture would be wiped out.
An the reason that you heard the projector was that the projection booth, if
you want to call it that, was not fully enclosed. It had partial wall, similar to the cubicles found in offices today.
Perhaps modern cubicle offices go the idea from the Stuart’s projection booth???
And the sound system? It had less power than the mp3 player I use while riding my bicycle (I am a 40 mile per day bicycle commuter in Portland, Oregon). You had to strain to hear the movie.
Of course, about 70 percent of the people there did not care whether the
sound or projection even worked.
I would go there on Sunday afternoons (I went to college in Worcester, so Sundays were the only times I could go there). No matter the season; Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall; the Stuart was crowded on Sunday afternoons.
Aside from myself, on some of those days, the average age would be pushing 50 to 55.
And, by the way, the admission in the early 70’s was 50 cents. And it was
older movies.
Cleara www.clearplastic.com
Portland, Oregon
Sewer, Welder, Engraver, Light, Metal, an Fabric artist
I have created a video using Blender of my childhood memories of this theatre. This is an animated tour of the theatre’s lobby and auditorium.
https://vimeo.com/706616269
Great little theater! This is a non-profit art cinema. Much of the help is volunteer. It has a membership who gets discount in the prices. Every time I go there, I see at least one other person I know in town. It’s more like a community center/living room than just a movie theater. Right next to it is the Spark Museum, which is another treasure in this town!
This is the place at which I have discovered my homosexuality.
I have such fond memories of this place! I was a 20 year old student when I discovered this place. Some of the men there; I wonder where they are now??
Well aside from that, here is what I remember:
First of all, it was on right hand side of the building. What is tricky is the fact they subleased the front right hand corner (about 100 square feet) to a sandwich shop. So, the very corner of that building was the sandwich
shop. The theater itself, however, surrounded the sandwich shop and the
projection boot was on top of the sandwich shop.
Inside, the restrooms were not astride the screen as someone else mentioned
but in the back.
As you enter, there is a bulkhead hard on your right (that is the side of the
sandwich shop). On your left is the entrance of the mens restroom. It was down
a short flight of about four stairs.
Going past that, both the left and right bulkhead open up to the theater itself. If you proceed around to the left (which is behind the left hand
section of seats, you would see the entrance to the womens restroom.
What was frustrating was that there was no vestibule. The front entrance doors were directly exposed to the screen. Whenever someone entered or left, there would be a HUGE splash of light on the screen and the picture would be wiped out.
An the reason that you heard the projector was that the projection booth, if
you want to call it that, was not fully enclosed. It had partial wall, similar to the cubicles found in offices today.
Perhaps modern cubicle offices go the idea from the Stuart’s projection booth???
And the sound system? It had less power than the mp3 player I use while riding my bicycle (I am a 40 mile per day bicycle commuter in Portland, Oregon). You had to strain to hear the movie.
Of course, about 70 percent of the people there did not care whether the
sound or projection even worked.
I would go there on Sunday afternoons (I went to college in Worcester, so Sundays were the only times I could go there). No matter the season; Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall; the Stuart was crowded on Sunday afternoons.
Aside from myself, on some of those days, the average age would be pushing 50 to 55.
And, by the way, the admission in the early 70’s was 50 cents. And it was
older movies.
Cleara
www.clearplastic.com
Portland, Oregon
Sewer, Welder, Engraver, Light, Metal, an Fabric artist