Wow!!! Wasn’t the Renel Theatre a “Wonderful Place” when we were kids… Yes, it did had a Sunrise Procenium that we associate w/ Radio City Music Hall. I remember the ceiling was a blue and gray tile with an aluminum/stanless steel lighting fixture running straight from the back to the front procenium. The procenium it self was painted a dark pink/mauve. The stage curtin was deep red with two green swatches of material on either side of the center, and there were always those 3 white stripes stitched near the bottom.
Can’t forget the red, blue, orange & yellow foot lighting. The side walls of the auditorium were a dark maroon textured fabric. The side lighting was actually resessed into the wall with a black marbelized glass panel that ran from about 4 to 5 feet from the floor extending to the ceiling. There were 6 of these, 3 on each side of the audi-
torium and were lit up in orange lighting before the show and a dim green when the movie was running. I remember so vividly because from about 1957 to 1960 I attended practically EVERY Saturday Matanee. When the movie started they projected it right onto the curtin, as the curtin opened there was always this “Loud SCREAM” from the kids, popcorn, candy wrappers, soda cups were tossed so high that you could see them on the screan.
In the early sixtys when I started going on Sundays the movie was continuous from 12:00 Noon till the last show at 8 or 9:00 PM and probably ran till about mid-night. What a difference, quiet, no screams…
My father took me to Radio City Music Hall as a child and in later years this became my neighborhood theatre. I now live in Center City Philadelphia today and now only have the old “Boyd” or SamEric that we’re waiting to be restored.
But nothing was better than my childhood home in West Oak Lane living right around the corner from the good old “Renel Theatre.”-BJ
Wow!!! Wasn’t the Renel Theatre a “Wonderful Place” when we were kids… Yes, it did had a Sunrise Procenium that we associate w/ Radio City Music Hall. I remember the ceiling was a blue and gray tile with an aluminum/stanless steel lighting fixture running straight from the back to the front procenium. The procenium it self was painted a dark pink/mauve. The stage curtin was deep red with two green swatches of material on either side of the center, and there were always those 3 white stripes stitched near the bottom.
Can’t forget the red, blue, orange & yellow foot lighting. The side walls of the auditorium were a dark maroon textured fabric. The side lighting was actually resessed into the wall with a black marbelized glass panel that ran from about 4 to 5 feet from the floor extending to the ceiling. There were 6 of these, 3 on each side of the audi-
torium and were lit up in orange lighting before the show and a dim green when the movie was running. I remember so vividly because from about 1957 to 1960 I attended practically EVERY Saturday Matanee. When the movie started they projected it right onto the curtin, as the curtin opened there was always this “Loud SCREAM” from the kids, popcorn, candy wrappers, soda cups were tossed so high that you could see them on the screan.
In the early sixtys when I started going on Sundays the movie was continuous from 12:00 Noon till the last show at 8 or 9:00 PM and probably ran till about mid-night. What a difference, quiet, no screams…
My father took me to Radio City Music Hall as a child and in later years this became my neighborhood theatre. I now live in Center City Philadelphia today and now only have the old “Boyd” or SamEric that we’re waiting to be restored.
But nothing was better than my childhood home in West Oak Lane living right around the corner from the good old “Renel Theatre.”-BJ