I saw a couple of movies in that twin-screen indoor facility back in the mid 80s. I’m pretty sure it was in that big building attached to the snack bar. It looks like the building is still there, so I’m not sure where the extra parking came from for the outdoor screen. Maybe there were some parking spots reserved for the indoor screens that they freed up?
The two movies I remember seeing on the indoor screens were “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, and “Flash Gordon” with Topol. Both were made in 1980, but I saw them in 1985 or 1986, so the indoor screens were definitely showing second run films back then.
I saw “The Natural” here in 1984 with some friends. Even then, years before it was torn down, the mall was pretty empty. We walked past a lot of empty store fronts to get to the theater. The theaters seemed small to me, and narrow, and not very cozy. It seemed like they had a sort of industrial look, with exposed concrete, steel beams, and plastic seats. The screens seemed small to me as well. It was a long time ago and my memory may be failing, but anyway that’s how I remember it.
Responding to javert; the inside of the Westgate back in the 1970s was pretty awful. The colors were oranges and earth tones, as I remember them. There were these huge chandeliers in the lobby. They were made from several orange plastic globes hanging down on wires at different heights. They were covered with that sparkly stuff they used to put on things. The globes were not solid, more like they were made with strips of plastic molded together kind of randomly, so there were holes through them in places. In the 80s or 90s when they split the large auditorium up into smaller ones, they remodeled and took all that out. I google a bunch of things trying to find an image of something similar, but I could not find anything close.
I was looking at the grand opening ad someone posted, and I noticed it clearly states there were two auditoriums. In the 1970s and early 1980s there were three; two on the left, and one big one on the right. At some point the one on the left must have been a single larger one.
I also saw “Chariots of Fire” at the Westgate. It was a great big-screen experience. That cool electronic music sounded really good cranked up loud in the biggest theater in the area.
This has been used as a community theater since I think 1969.
I have performed in a couple of plays there. Men’s bathrooms are downstairs. Women’s are upstairs near the old projection room, which is now used as sound and light booth. The stage is fairly large and deep for the size of the building, but since it was built as a cinema, there is little room for things that would be found in a purpose-built live theater. For instance, there is no fly space, no green room, and the dressing rooms are smaller than would usually be considered optimal.
The Hill was showing movies until at least 1974. I remember going to see Grizzly Adams there. The first time we went to see it, the lines were really long, so we walked around the corner to the Town theater and saw “That’s Entertainment” instead.
Back in the early 1990s, they had a special event to re-open this theater. I went with a friend. They did some live vaudeville acts, and then showed the 1925 silent file “The Phantom of the Opera” with Lon Chaney. The film was accompanied live by an organist and a few other instruments.
It’s a really beautiful theater. The company that was responsible for the renovation has a nice photo of the interior.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my brother and I used to take Tri-Met in to Beaverton to see movies at the Westgate because it was the nicest one in the area. At that time it was only three auditoriums — one large one to the right, and two smaller ones to the left. Later they renovated it and divided the large auditorium into three, for a total of five screens.
I saw a double feature at this drive in, on the opening night of “A View to a Kill”, which would have made it 24 May 1985, according to IMDB. It was followed by “Red Dawn”. Four of us drove over from college, crammed in a teeny car. Watching back to back movies from the back seat of a small car is very uncomfortable.
The photos I mentioned previously (see Apr 8, 2014 post), are no longer there. However, they can still be found on the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200301074009/https://cplinc.com/work/projects/columbia-theatre-performing-arts-renovation/
Active link to the 1952 photo.
There is a decent article about the old Tanasbourne Mall here, which mentions the cinemas: http://tanasbournemall.blogspot.com/
I saw a couple of movies in that twin-screen indoor facility back in the mid 80s. I’m pretty sure it was in that big building attached to the snack bar. It looks like the building is still there, so I’m not sure where the extra parking came from for the outdoor screen. Maybe there were some parking spots reserved for the indoor screens that they freed up?
The two movies I remember seeing on the indoor screens were “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, and “Flash Gordon” with Topol. Both were made in 1980, but I saw them in 1985 or 1986, so the indoor screens were definitely showing second run films back then.
I saw “The Natural” here in 1984 with some friends. Even then, years before it was torn down, the mall was pretty empty. We walked past a lot of empty store fronts to get to the theater. The theaters seemed small to me, and narrow, and not very cozy. It seemed like they had a sort of industrial look, with exposed concrete, steel beams, and plastic seats. The screens seemed small to me as well. It was a long time ago and my memory may be failing, but anyway that’s how I remember it.
Responding to javert; the inside of the Westgate back in the 1970s was pretty awful. The colors were oranges and earth tones, as I remember them. There were these huge chandeliers in the lobby. They were made from several orange plastic globes hanging down on wires at different heights. They were covered with that sparkly stuff they used to put on things. The globes were not solid, more like they were made with strips of plastic molded together kind of randomly, so there were holes through them in places. In the 80s or 90s when they split the large auditorium up into smaller ones, they remodeled and took all that out. I google a bunch of things trying to find an image of something similar, but I could not find anything close.
I was looking at the grand opening ad someone posted, and I noticed it clearly states there were two auditoriums. In the 1970s and early 1980s there were three; two on the left, and one big one on the right. At some point the one on the left must have been a single larger one.
I also saw “Chariots of Fire” at the Westgate. It was a great big-screen experience. That cool electronic music sounded really good cranked up loud in the biggest theater in the area.
This has been used as a community theater since I think 1969.
I have performed in a couple of plays there. Men’s bathrooms are downstairs. Women’s are upstairs near the old projection room, which is now used as sound and light booth. The stage is fairly large and deep for the size of the building, but since it was built as a cinema, there is little room for things that would be found in a purpose-built live theater. For instance, there is no fly space, no green room, and the dressing rooms are smaller than would usually be considered optimal.
The Hill was showing movies until at least 1974. I remember going to see Grizzly Adams there. The first time we went to see it, the lines were really long, so we walked around the corner to the Town theater and saw “That’s Entertainment” instead.
Back in the early 1990s, they had a special event to re-open this theater. I went with a friend. They did some live vaudeville acts, and then showed the 1925 silent file “The Phantom of the Opera” with Lon Chaney. The film was accompanied live by an organist and a few other instruments.
It’s a really beautiful theater. The company that was responsible for the renovation has a nice photo of the interior.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my brother and I used to take Tri-Met in to Beaverton to see movies at the Westgate because it was the nicest one in the area. At that time it was only three auditoriums — one large one to the right, and two smaller ones to the left. Later they renovated it and divided the large auditorium into three, for a total of five screens.
I saw a double feature at this drive in, on the opening night of “A View to a Kill”, which would have made it 24 May 1985, according to IMDB. It was followed by “Red Dawn”. Four of us drove over from college, crammed in a teeny car. Watching back to back movies from the back seat of a small car is very uncomfortable.