I am devastated – within minutes of tbear’s posting, I went out (at night) to photograph the site.
The curved Cinerama screen with its purple curtain, the old stage (where kids competed for prizes at the Saturday matinees), the six track stereophonic speakers are all rubble now – the only thing that is not lost are the memories I have – which I will post later along with photos to my website.
Rochester needs theaters of this size and they tear them down for a Duane Reade that will only be torn down 10 years from now. How tragic.
and sadly the theater will be torn down for a drug store – this is really heartbreaking since so many people in Rochester claim they need a 500-700 seat theater for performance –
Here is a link to the story and another photo of the building –
The theatre listed on this page was torn down and replaced by Xerox Tower for the Xerox Company.
The Loew’s NEW Theatre built in 1965 was located in Pittsford (a suburb of Rochester) – across from what is today Pittsford Plaza. The building still stands but is now a retail outlet – Marshalls I think.
Sadly the only photos I have been able to find of the old Loews are the ones I found at the George Eastman archives.
I had completely forgotten about the Coronet — I’m pretty sure I saw “West Side Story” there in 1962.
The Riviera was the Monroe Theater’s sister movie house – run by the Schein Organization. The Riviera was a huge theater – very plain – probably an old neighborhood theater reconverted like the Monroe for 70mm. At the Riviera — I saw “My Fair Lady,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “El Cid,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and paid an extra 25 or 50 cents to sit in their “Golden Loge” -aka the balcony with a gold fabric head rest on top of the seat — to see “Lawrence of Arabia” — Pricing the balcony extra and billing it as “The Golden Loge” was a great marketing idea!
The Waring’s sister movie house was the Lyell on Lyell Road in the Lyell Shopping Center — the theater has been converted into some store – I forget the name — but I do recall seeing the marquee for “Pete Kelly’s Blues” (back in 1955 or 56) and actually seeing a lot of movies there – including “Helen of Troy” with Bridget Bardot in 1956.
Like the Monroe and Riviera — the theater became a place to show pornographic movies.
Thanks to NittyRanks – I’m going to make a sentimental excursion by the Coronet this week.
I grew up on Sumner Park — btw.
It went from a neighborhood theater to a first run theater showing films, such as “Can-Can,” the re-release of “Fantasia” in the Wide-Screen process (a misguided moment), ditto “Gone with the Wind” in 70mm…..and then in the early 60s was converted to Cinerama with the first show being “This is Cinerama,” going through all the Cinerama travelogue type films (Windjammer, Cinerama Holiday, etc.) and moving on the “How the West Was Won,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” “Grand Prix,” “Circus World,” and then in 1964 – Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins” followed soon after by “The Sound of Music” — which as I mentioned played over 18 months at that theater.
From there, it became a theater that showed porn and eventually turned into a store that rents and sells porn videos, etc.
My dream is to win the lottery and buy the building back from the current owners and restore it to the wonderful theater so many people in Rochester remember.
Just a quick comment on the status of the Monroe Theater (now Show World).
This was my neighborhood theater and one that I knew inside out – since I figured out the ushers schedules as was able to sneak into the theater to see the movies that played there. I really overdosed on “The Sound of Music” since it played there for a year and a half (they had to replace the film with a new print, since it had just about worn out toward the end).
If you enter Show World today, you can still see the curved Cinerama screen with the massive purple curtain covering it — the interior is painted solid black and the lighting fixtures in the ceiling (kind of a Monticello dome) are still there. Along the walls are the massive 6-Track or 8-Track Stereophonic speakers. So if you don’t mind entering a porn shop, you can see what was one of the great old neighborhood theaters of Rochester.
It went from a neighborhood theater – where in the 1950s one could still see a double feature with cartoons, Three Stooges comedies and newsreels PLUS a ‘contest for kids in the audience’ held on the stage or in front of the auditorium —ALL FOR 25 CENTS! — and if you were one of the first ten kids in line for that Saturday matinee, you got a coupon for a FREE ice cream!
I remember going to see a Saturday matinee of King Kong and a Zombie film and receiving a FREE PASS to the next week’s show, just for being brave enough to sit through the movies.
Now here’s something most people don’t know.
When the owners converted the theater to Cinerama — they did not touch the original screen, curtain or stage! It’s all still there behind the great curved screen!
I’d love to hear from others about your memories of the Monroe.
Enjoy these great photos — all I remember about the Loews is that I saw films like Cimmaron, The Gian Claw, Godzilla and Gorgo there and that Gone With the Wind came back in 1962 for the Centennial of the Civil War — there were also bats in the theater that added to the effects of a scary movie!
The movie theater was not as gorgeous as the RKO Palace down the street, but it was very impressive and HUGE!
Thanks to tbear and Lost Memory for the postings – I will be posting the pics by this weekend.
I am devastated – within minutes of tbear’s posting, I went out (at night) to photograph the site.
The curved Cinerama screen with its purple curtain, the old stage (where kids competed for prizes at the Saturday matinees), the six track stereophonic speakers are all rubble now – the only thing that is not lost are the memories I have – which I will post later along with photos to my website.
Rochester needs theaters of this size and they tear them down for a Duane Reade that will only be torn down 10 years from now. How tragic.
and sadly the theater will be torn down for a drug store – this is really heartbreaking since so many people in Rochester claim they need a 500-700 seat theater for performance –
Here is a link to the story and another photo of the building –
View link
Hi Ron –
The theatre listed on this page was torn down and replaced by Xerox Tower for the Xerox Company.
The Loew’s NEW Theatre built in 1965 was located in Pittsford (a suburb of Rochester) – across from what is today Pittsford Plaza. The building still stands but is now a retail outlet – Marshalls I think.
Sadly the only photos I have been able to find of the old Loews are the ones I found at the George Eastman archives.
WOW!
I had completely forgotten about the Coronet — I’m pretty sure I saw “West Side Story” there in 1962.
The Riviera was the Monroe Theater’s sister movie house – run by the Schein Organization. The Riviera was a huge theater – very plain – probably an old neighborhood theater reconverted like the Monroe for 70mm. At the Riviera — I saw “My Fair Lady,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “El Cid,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and paid an extra 25 or 50 cents to sit in their “Golden Loge” -aka the balcony with a gold fabric head rest on top of the seat — to see “Lawrence of Arabia” — Pricing the balcony extra and billing it as “The Golden Loge” was a great marketing idea!
The Waring’s sister movie house was the Lyell on Lyell Road in the Lyell Shopping Center — the theater has been converted into some store – I forget the name — but I do recall seeing the marquee for “Pete Kelly’s Blues” (back in 1955 or 56) and actually seeing a lot of movies there – including “Helen of Troy” with Bridget Bardot in 1956.
Like the Monroe and Riviera — the theater became a place to show pornographic movies.
Thanks to NittyRanks – I’m going to make a sentimental excursion by the Coronet this week.
I grew up on Sumner Park — btw.
Addendum to my comment —
It went from a neighborhood theater to a first run theater showing films, such as “Can-Can,” the re-release of “Fantasia” in the Wide-Screen process (a misguided moment), ditto “Gone with the Wind” in 70mm…..and then in the early 60s was converted to Cinerama with the first show being “This is Cinerama,” going through all the Cinerama travelogue type films (Windjammer, Cinerama Holiday, etc.) and moving on the “How the West Was Won,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” “Grand Prix,” “Circus World,” and then in 1964 – Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins” followed soon after by “The Sound of Music” — which as I mentioned played over 18 months at that theater.
From there, it became a theater that showed porn and eventually turned into a store that rents and sells porn videos, etc.
My dream is to win the lottery and buy the building back from the current owners and restore it to the wonderful theater so many people in Rochester remember.
Just a quick comment on the status of the Monroe Theater (now Show World).
This was my neighborhood theater and one that I knew inside out – since I figured out the ushers schedules as was able to sneak into the theater to see the movies that played there. I really overdosed on “The Sound of Music” since it played there for a year and a half (they had to replace the film with a new print, since it had just about worn out toward the end).
If you enter Show World today, you can still see the curved Cinerama screen with the massive purple curtain covering it — the interior is painted solid black and the lighting fixtures in the ceiling (kind of a Monticello dome) are still there. Along the walls are the massive 6-Track or 8-Track Stereophonic speakers. So if you don’t mind entering a porn shop, you can see what was one of the great old neighborhood theaters of Rochester.
It went from a neighborhood theater – where in the 1950s one could still see a double feature with cartoons, Three Stooges comedies and newsreels PLUS a ‘contest for kids in the audience’ held on the stage or in front of the auditorium —ALL FOR 25 CENTS! — and if you were one of the first ten kids in line for that Saturday matinee, you got a coupon for a FREE ice cream!
I remember going to see a Saturday matinee of King Kong and a Zombie film and receiving a FREE PASS to the next week’s show, just for being brave enough to sit through the movies.
Now here’s something most people don’t know.
When the owners converted the theater to Cinerama — they did not touch the original screen, curtain or stage! It’s all still there behind the great curved screen!
I’d love to hear from others about your memories of the Monroe.
Hi Ziggy et al —
Here’s a link with 8 photos of the interior of the LOEWS in downtown Rochester – does anyone know of an exterior shot?
View link
Enjoy these great photos — all I remember about the Loews is that I saw films like Cimmaron, The Gian Claw, Godzilla and Gorgo there and that Gone With the Wind came back in 1962 for the Centennial of the Civil War — there were also bats in the theater that added to the effects of a scary movie!
The movie theater was not as gorgeous as the RKO Palace down the street, but it was very impressive and HUGE!