@ WarnerChatham:
I just showed Polanski’s TESS to a class on Wednesday morning! And now you’ve reminded me that I saw it first at the Chatham. I, too, would love to see what the space of both it and the old Fiesta look like because neither are being used for anything. That’s a genuine waste. The Mayor keeps saying he’d like to have movies downtown again and hinted that he’d like the Warner to be overhauled (don’t hold your breath – the grandeur of that palace is gone and can never be replaced or duplicated). But the Chatham and the Fiesta are there for the renovation, and would be much, much cheaper to do.
In 1989, when the full restoration print of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was touring the country, this was the last remaining theater in the entire Greater Pittsburgh region able to show it because it was the last to have the appropriately sized screen and projection system. Then, within three months, it, too, was gone. I sat with George Romero for that LAWRENCE screening. So glad we needed that Circuit City.
You’ll possibly be happy to know that ONE of these original theaters is now The George R. White Theater of Point Park University, a fully equipped digital theater with fully-wired individual seat fibre-optic capacities and a large screen.
I am a professor in the Cinema and Digital Arts department and all of my classes take place in this theater. Many of the greatest films ever made are screened here regularly, in-full, for courses such as The History of American Cinema, the History of International Cinema, American Cinema of the 1970s, American Cinema of the 1990s, International Masters, American masters, The French New Wave … many more.
The space which Bank II occupied is now four converted classrooms.
It wasn’t the largest — that was the Hollywood, with 999 seats and a cavernous space. The Hollywood was one of the three largest auditoriums between Pittsburgh and Maryland/D.C.
I have always heard nice things about this theater, but never anything about it being ‘grand’ or ‘opulent.’
I saw YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and GANDHI at this theater. I’m with Ed — it was a great place to see movies, and a wonderful time in which to see them, too. I hope somebody posts some pix.
csepe
commented about
Cinema 22on
Nov 27, 2010 at 2:30 am
I saw a rotten Disney movie at this theater about Vikings and orcas (the title was something about the top of the world?). The front facade looked like a barn. I’m having a hard time believing it had 775 seats because even as a kid it didn’t look all that big to me, and I knew big theaters at that time.
This was another gigantic theater in southwestern Pennsylvania (there were two others — the State, also in Uniontown, bigger and grander, and directly across the street from this building; and the Hollywood in California, Pa., with 999 seats).
This theater had the appearance of being about as long as a football field when you entered the doors to the actual auditorium. And down at the left of the screen, just above an exit door, was a rather large clock that glowed blue at all times. We used to joke it was sending out radioactive waves into our eyes.
The basement had two very large lounges, mens' and womens,‘ and as late as the 1980s were still kept very clean and stylish. The building ceased as a theater in the late 1980s and became a church of sorts for some vagabond religious cult before finally being demolished. It is now a large parking lot.
I saw quite a few films here while I was growing up, including REDS on the day after Christmas, 1981, during which a blizzard began outside and we all barely got home. Plus, if memory serves, the heat was either off or low, making us really feel the experience of that revolutionary Russian winter. That was an experience, but not half as fun as THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS later that summer.
The theater has been closed since early 1978. Ulu Grossbard’s STRAIGHT TIME starring Dustin Hoffman was the last film to play. The number of seats totaled 999 (one more and it would have sent it into the next tax/fire code bracket!). The architect was a local town resident, Alfred Harris. His grandson still has the original blueprints. For a brief period of my childhood, I lived right next to the building, and an exit door opened right into my back yard. Aside from beginning my movie-loving life there, i also got to know the building in an intimate way only a growing boy could.
In the Fall of 2008 I was asked to return to California Pa. to see if anything could be done with the building. The Redevelopment Authority of Washington County wants to see it demolished to provide more parking spaces for the growing college population of California University of Pennsylvania. My first question was if anyone had actually been IN the building to see what kind of shape it’s in, as my last time within its walls was way back with Dustin in 1978.
We toured the building with masks and hardhats. It was like entering a raised Titanic. After years of neglect, the concrete parapet roof is failing in many, many places, especially along its sides, where the roof meets the exterior walls. Huge sections of plaster walls are now on the floors. One can only guess at the asbestos contained within. Plus, because someone left the projectionist’s fire escape hatch in the projection room open sometime during the 30-year hiatus, the entire building is now a condominium for about 100,000 pigeons. It is not the most pleasant place to be in, nor even close to being the most sanitary. Again, however, the sheer size of the space is still amazing.
I also disagree with Ron S. about The Hollywood not being a thing of any beauty, and I’m not stating this out of any personal prejudice or bias. This building’s design is CLASSIC 1930s Art Deco, and especially in its use of the inclined plane as its structural flow component. It had stadium seating before anyone had ever coined the concept! Further, what Ron may have missed in the 1960s was how prominent the use of specialized lighting and of fabrics were in the theater’s original years. Stories from those who were there and photos from town archives show a sense of style and beauty akin to Jean Harlow’s boudoir. Flambeaux lighting in reds and blues licking the walls when the theater was darkened, stratified cove lighting in the elliptical ceiling, potted palms, velvet curtains — all added up to something very grand and very special, especially for a town like California.
And the original screen which would drop from the fly on the full-sized stage had a fabric border of red velvet and wide swaths in Deco style of SILVER piping, making it, indeed, the silver screen!
Years of high school and college graduations took place there, as well as hundreds of civic events for California and many of its surrounding communities. 999-seats don’t just pop up everywhere.
If the building is to be restored for any use, it is going to require a very high price tag. Structurally it is very strong, but everything from clean-up to modernization, including ADA regs of bathrooms on all levels, etc., is going to have to be addressed. It is a titanic structure, but it needs a ton of work.
Further, the Borough of California has already posted RSPs for demolition. No real schedule has been released as yet, but it is going to be soon.
I am a college professor and teach in the cinema department of a University in Pittsburgh. What I did get to do was take an entire film crew through the building last year and we have it all documented on both video and stills (the lamps we took in to light the place made it glow, even in its decrepit state. I doubt those walls have seen that much light since the roof went on!). Whatever happens, we are planning on cutting a documentary about the building.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions or answers, now is the time to make them. This great old building’s fate is ticking away.
I remember the Denis and Encore theaters being “connected” somehow, but I never knew the whole history. Plus, in my head I always remember the Encore to be more associated with the Forum theater in Squirrel Hill because, as mentioned, movies played in BOTH theaters and were always advertised as ‘Forum&Encore’ (did they have the same private owner negotiating the deals?). Anyhow, the first film Iever saw at the Encore was HARRY AND TONTO in the winter of 1975 with my grandfather. It was to be the first of many … Apocalypse Now … Missing … The Big Chill … Boogie Nights …
@ WarnerChatham: I just showed Polanski’s TESS to a class on Wednesday morning! And now you’ve reminded me that I saw it first at the Chatham. I, too, would love to see what the space of both it and the old Fiesta look like because neither are being used for anything. That’s a genuine waste. The Mayor keeps saying he’d like to have movies downtown again and hinted that he’d like the Warner to be overhauled (don’t hold your breath – the grandeur of that palace is gone and can never be replaced or duplicated). But the Chatham and the Fiesta are there for the renovation, and would be much, much cheaper to do.
In 1989, when the full restoration print of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was touring the country, this was the last remaining theater in the entire Greater Pittsburgh region able to show it because it was the last to have the appropriately sized screen and projection system. Then, within three months, it, too, was gone. I sat with George Romero for that LAWRENCE screening. So glad we needed that Circuit City.
You’ll possibly be happy to know that ONE of these original theaters is now The George R. White Theater of Point Park University, a fully equipped digital theater with fully-wired individual seat fibre-optic capacities and a large screen.
I am a professor in the Cinema and Digital Arts department and all of my classes take place in this theater. Many of the greatest films ever made are screened here regularly, in-full, for courses such as The History of American Cinema, the History of International Cinema, American Cinema of the 1970s, American Cinema of the 1990s, International Masters, American masters, The French New Wave … many more.
The space which Bank II occupied is now four converted classrooms.
It wasn’t the largest — that was the Hollywood, with 999 seats and a cavernous space. The Hollywood was one of the three largest auditoriums between Pittsburgh and Maryland/D.C.
I have always heard nice things about this theater, but never anything about it being ‘grand’ or ‘opulent.’
I saw YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and GANDHI at this theater. I’m with Ed — it was a great place to see movies, and a wonderful time in which to see them, too. I hope somebody posts some pix.
I saw a rotten Disney movie at this theater about Vikings and orcas (the title was something about the top of the world?). The front facade looked like a barn. I’m having a hard time believing it had 775 seats because even as a kid it didn’t look all that big to me, and I knew big theaters at that time.
This was another gigantic theater in southwestern Pennsylvania (there were two others — the State, also in Uniontown, bigger and grander, and directly across the street from this building; and the Hollywood in California, Pa., with 999 seats).
This theater had the appearance of being about as long as a football field when you entered the doors to the actual auditorium. And down at the left of the screen, just above an exit door, was a rather large clock that glowed blue at all times. We used to joke it was sending out radioactive waves into our eyes.
The basement had two very large lounges, mens' and womens,‘ and as late as the 1980s were still kept very clean and stylish. The building ceased as a theater in the late 1980s and became a church of sorts for some vagabond religious cult before finally being demolished. It is now a large parking lot.
I saw quite a few films here while I was growing up, including REDS on the day after Christmas, 1981, during which a blizzard began outside and we all barely got home. Plus, if memory serves, the heat was either off or low, making us really feel the experience of that revolutionary Russian winter. That was an experience, but not half as fun as THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS later that summer.
The theater has been closed since early 1978. Ulu Grossbard’s STRAIGHT TIME starring Dustin Hoffman was the last film to play. The number of seats totaled 999 (one more and it would have sent it into the next tax/fire code bracket!). The architect was a local town resident, Alfred Harris. His grandson still has the original blueprints. For a brief period of my childhood, I lived right next to the building, and an exit door opened right into my back yard. Aside from beginning my movie-loving life there, i also got to know the building in an intimate way only a growing boy could.
In the Fall of 2008 I was asked to return to California Pa. to see if anything could be done with the building. The Redevelopment Authority of Washington County wants to see it demolished to provide more parking spaces for the growing college population of California University of Pennsylvania. My first question was if anyone had actually been IN the building to see what kind of shape it’s in, as my last time within its walls was way back with Dustin in 1978.
We toured the building with masks and hardhats. It was like entering a raised Titanic. After years of neglect, the concrete parapet roof is failing in many, many places, especially along its sides, where the roof meets the exterior walls. Huge sections of plaster walls are now on the floors. One can only guess at the asbestos contained within. Plus, because someone left the projectionist’s fire escape hatch in the projection room open sometime during the 30-year hiatus, the entire building is now a condominium for about 100,000 pigeons. It is not the most pleasant place to be in, nor even close to being the most sanitary. Again, however, the sheer size of the space is still amazing.
I also disagree with Ron S. about The Hollywood not being a thing of any beauty, and I’m not stating this out of any personal prejudice or bias. This building’s design is CLASSIC 1930s Art Deco, and especially in its use of the inclined plane as its structural flow component. It had stadium seating before anyone had ever coined the concept! Further, what Ron may have missed in the 1960s was how prominent the use of specialized lighting and of fabrics were in the theater’s original years. Stories from those who were there and photos from town archives show a sense of style and beauty akin to Jean Harlow’s boudoir. Flambeaux lighting in reds and blues licking the walls when the theater was darkened, stratified cove lighting in the elliptical ceiling, potted palms, velvet curtains — all added up to something very grand and very special, especially for a town like California.
And the original screen which would drop from the fly on the full-sized stage had a fabric border of red velvet and wide swaths in Deco style of SILVER piping, making it, indeed, the silver screen!
Years of high school and college graduations took place there, as well as hundreds of civic events for California and many of its surrounding communities. 999-seats don’t just pop up everywhere.
If the building is to be restored for any use, it is going to require a very high price tag. Structurally it is very strong, but everything from clean-up to modernization, including ADA regs of bathrooms on all levels, etc., is going to have to be addressed. It is a titanic structure, but it needs a ton of work.
Further, the Borough of California has already posted RSPs for demolition. No real schedule has been released as yet, but it is going to be soon.
I am a college professor and teach in the cinema department of a University in Pittsburgh. What I did get to do was take an entire film crew through the building last year and we have it all documented on both video and stills (the lamps we took in to light the place made it glow, even in its decrepit state. I doubt those walls have seen that much light since the roof went on!). Whatever happens, we are planning on cutting a documentary about the building.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions or answers, now is the time to make them. This great old building’s fate is ticking away.
I remember the Denis and Encore theaters being “connected” somehow, but I never knew the whole history. Plus, in my head I always remember the Encore to be more associated with the Forum theater in Squirrel Hill because, as mentioned, movies played in BOTH theaters and were always advertised as ‘Forum&Encore’ (did they have the same private owner negotiating the deals?). Anyhow, the first film Iever saw at the Encore was HARRY AND TONTO in the winter of 1975 with my grandfather. It was to be the first of many … Apocalypse Now … Missing … The Big Chill … Boogie Nights …