The Ranch Drive In in Magna, Utah was located on 2100 South, which later became Utah State Route 201. This advertisement is for a drive in on U.S. 30 (the number is a bit blurry.) We have a U.S. 30 in northern Utah, between Riverside and Logan, but I’ve never found a drive-in along it. There is a Kimo on Central and 5th in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The murals were painted over. The murals had been neglected and damaged over the years. I don’t know how much it would have cost to restore them, but this is a rug gallery now and the rugs hang on the walls.
I like the new columns on the outside of the building. They look so much nicer than the crumbling concrete pilars that were there before. Although I worry that the columns that help support the entrance canopy might detract from the entrance.
The sign is still in place, but the neon has been simplified a little. The city now has an easement on the front of the property and if they decide to widen the street then the sign will have to go. (I can’t imagine them widening the street without demolishing a few other buildings that are currently right up to the edge of the road.)
I run the villatheatre.com web site and have spent a lot of time trying to save the Villa Theatre. I was not happy to hear that the Villa would become a rug gallery, since I very much wanted to see it return to use as a theater. I think I would really like to have just walked away from the theater the night that it closed and never have come back – so that I could just remember it the way it was. I have been back many times, however, to take photos of the changes. It’s been hard to see the seats removed, the screen and curtains gone, the ticket booth and concession stand taken out, the murals painted over, etc. On the other hand, the building is still here, which is more than we can say for the Centre. Hamid Adib, the new owner, has a genuine interest in saving and preserving the Villa and has takens some extra steps to preserve some of the elements of the theater. But he also has a business to run. The building has had some much needed repairs and it has been brought up to current earthquake codes. It’s going to be around for a long time and there’s always a possibility it can return to use as a theater. So even though the Villa hasn’t been preserved the way I wanted it to be (as a theater), it has been preserved. And I have to admit that it’s a marvelous rug gallery.
Was “Brokeback Mountain” distributed by Universal Studios or Focus Features?
Can theater owners really choose to book or not book any movie they want? I’ve heard that the multiplexes have to carry contracts with all the major distributors and that the contracts require them to show R-rated movies and open on Sundays.
This theater is taking a lot of flak because they canceled the controversial “Brokeback Mountain” while they are continuing to show more graphic movies from major distributors. But do they really have a choice on the other films?
It looks like whoever was building this web site never finished. Eight of the nine pages on the site say “Content coming soon…” They probably didn’t have an actual photo of the theater to use, so they did a search on the web and picked one that looked good to use as a placeholder.
I went by the Murray a few days ago and the theater is up for sale. It appears to be still operating as a church at the moment. It’s too bad this theater doesn’t still have a parking lot.
Here is part of an e-mail I received from Hamid Adib this morning:
“I salute people like you who also recognize the value of our historical land marks and actually do something about it… You and the rest of the Villa fans are more than welcome to visit and enjoy the Villa atmosphere anytime. We will create a museum like environment that members of the community can visit and won’t feel like they have to purchase something every time they come in. I would also like to tell you that we will have a section in the Villa that will be dedicated to the Villa information and history… The Villa is beautiful but unfortunately is in a very poor condition. I will do everything in my power to preserve it as much as possible and yes Villa will stay in place for a long time. I am receiving a few calls a day from developers that have many destructive intensions for the building. Some of the other groups that competed against us were also thinking to demolish the building to develop office buildings. We completely reject that idea and I would like to assure you this will not happen… ”
One of the newspaper articles on this controversy indicated that it is very common (in this area, anyway) for profanity to be removed or toned down in copywrited plays. It almost appears that this theater ran into trouble because a couple newspaper reporters wanted a good story. The one who was cast as a lead in the play apparently never expressed any objection to removing the profanity during rehearsals. The other, who was later fired for ethics violations because of all this, got involved in the issue and then waited to write an article until after the theater was forced to cancel the production. He started the article off with the line, “A local theater has learned the hard way that one must do what Simon says.” Rather than take their concerns to the theater managment, they set the theater up for a hard fall.
The theater was still vacant when I drove past it on June 30th, but it will be some time before I drive past there again. (I live about 30 minutes south of it). There was a semi parked in front of it for some reason. I don’t think the theater was ever for sale, just for lease, but if it’s been vacant since February then the owners might be willing to sell.
This really is a great theater, but it was sadly neglected during nearly 20 years of management by Cineplex Odeon/Plitt. I went there last for X-Men and the picture was dim and the sound, although digital, was very underwhelming. I’m sure the sound system had the barest upgrade possible to get DTS into the theater.
I think the theater has about the most perfect layout in the auditorium. They have huge screens, 50 to 70 feet wide, with a deep curve. The Villa in Salt Lake is the only other theater in Utah with a deeply-curved screen. The projection booth is not so high that there is any really obvious distortion on the screen. It really deserves to be a first-run theater again, and not a private club.
The Ranch Drive In in Magna, Utah was located on 2100 South, which later became Utah State Route 201. This advertisement is for a drive in on U.S. 30 (the number is a bit blurry.) We have a U.S. 30 in northern Utah, between Riverside and Logan, but I’ve never found a drive-in along it. There is a Kimo on Central and 5th in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This photo belongs to Grant Smith and the license should be All Rights Reserved.
I found the Cinedome listed for sale for $6,300,000:
View link
It’s listed as land and office, no other details.
Photos of the remodeling:
http://villatheatre.com/photos/Remodeling.html
Photos of the finished rug gallery:
http://villatheatre.com/photos/Adibs.html
The murals were painted over. The murals had been neglected and damaged over the years. I don’t know how much it would have cost to restore them, but this is a rug gallery now and the rugs hang on the walls.
I like the new columns on the outside of the building. They look so much nicer than the crumbling concrete pilars that were there before. Although I worry that the columns that help support the entrance canopy might detract from the entrance.
The sign is still in place, but the neon has been simplified a little. The city now has an easement on the front of the property and if they decide to widen the street then the sign will have to go. (I can’t imagine them widening the street without demolishing a few other buildings that are currently right up to the edge of the road.)
I run the villatheatre.com web site and have spent a lot of time trying to save the Villa Theatre. I was not happy to hear that the Villa would become a rug gallery, since I very much wanted to see it return to use as a theater. I think I would really like to have just walked away from the theater the night that it closed and never have come back – so that I could just remember it the way it was. I have been back many times, however, to take photos of the changes. It’s been hard to see the seats removed, the screen and curtains gone, the ticket booth and concession stand taken out, the murals painted over, etc. On the other hand, the building is still here, which is more than we can say for the Centre. Hamid Adib, the new owner, has a genuine interest in saving and preserving the Villa and has takens some extra steps to preserve some of the elements of the theater. But he also has a business to run. The building has had some much needed repairs and it has been brought up to current earthquake codes. It’s going to be around for a long time and there’s always a possibility it can return to use as a theater. So even though the Villa hasn’t been preserved the way I wanted it to be (as a theater), it has been preserved. And I have to admit that it’s a marvelous rug gallery.
Was “Brokeback Mountain” distributed by Universal Studios or Focus Features?
Can theater owners really choose to book or not book any movie they want? I’ve heard that the multiplexes have to carry contracts with all the major distributors and that the contracts require them to show R-rated movies and open on Sundays.
This theater is taking a lot of flak because they canceled the controversial “Brokeback Mountain” while they are continuing to show more graphic movies from major distributors. But do they really have a choice on the other films?
It looks like whoever was building this web site never finished. Eight of the nine pages on the site say “Content coming soon…” They probably didn’t have an actual photo of the theater to use, so they did a search on the web and picked one that looked good to use as a placeholder.
I went by the Murray a few days ago and the theater is up for sale. It appears to be still operating as a church at the moment. It’s too bad this theater doesn’t still have a parking lot.
There was a Salt Lake Tribune article on Sunday:
View link
You can also check the villatheatre.com article list:
http://villatheatre.com/History/ArticleList.asp
Here is part of an e-mail I received from Hamid Adib this morning:
“I salute people like you who also recognize the value of our historical land marks and actually do something about it… You and the rest of the Villa fans are more than welcome to visit and enjoy the Villa atmosphere anytime. We will create a museum like environment that members of the community can visit and won’t feel like they have to purchase something every time they come in. I would also like to tell you that we will have a section in the Villa that will be dedicated to the Villa information and history… The Villa is beautiful but unfortunately is in a very poor condition. I will do everything in my power to preserve it as much as possible and yes Villa will stay in place for a long time. I am receiving a few calls a day from developers that have many destructive intensions for the building. Some of the other groups that competed against us were also thinking to demolish the building to develop office buildings. We completely reject that idea and I would like to assure you this will not happen… ”
One of the newspaper articles on this controversy indicated that it is very common (in this area, anyway) for profanity to be removed or toned down in copywrited plays. It almost appears that this theater ran into trouble because a couple newspaper reporters wanted a good story. The one who was cast as a lead in the play apparently never expressed any objection to removing the profanity during rehearsals. The other, who was later fired for ethics violations because of all this, got involved in the issue and then waited to write an article until after the theater was forced to cancel the production. He started the article off with the line, “A local theater has learned the hard way that one must do what Simon says.” Rather than take their concerns to the theater managment, they set the theater up for a hard fall.
Original article:
View link
Editorial from executive editor of the paper:
View link
I don’t know the status of this theater, but here are some links to newspaper articles and city council minutes about the theater:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
The theater was still vacant when I drove past it on June 30th, but it will be some time before I drive past there again. (I live about 30 minutes south of it). There was a semi parked in front of it for some reason. I don’t think the theater was ever for sale, just for lease, but if it’s been vacant since February then the owners might be willing to sell.
This really is a great theater, but it was sadly neglected during nearly 20 years of management by Cineplex Odeon/Plitt. I went there last for X-Men and the picture was dim and the sound, although digital, was very underwhelming. I’m sure the sound system had the barest upgrade possible to get DTS into the theater.
I think the theater has about the most perfect layout in the auditorium. They have huge screens, 50 to 70 feet wide, with a deep curve. The Villa in Salt Lake is the only other theater in Utah with a deeply-curved screen. The projection booth is not so high that there is any really obvious distortion on the screen. It really deserves to be a first-run theater again, and not a private club.