Comments from jdhouston

Showing 5 comments

jdhouston
jdhouston commented about Lansdowne Theatre on Nov 19, 2006 at 5:56 am

oh yeah, those fun “blue laws”. You also couldn’t buy some types of food, like pizza and hand-made sandwiches.

jdhouston
jdhouston commented about Pacific's Hastings 8 on Sep 17, 2006 at 7:07 pm

yes, the theater is still open. It no longer attracts crowds and the marque
no longer lists the movies showing there. You have to check local listings.
The big 60' screen room is still intact and was not split as mentioned above.
The big theater is still one of the largest rooms where you can see a movie in that
area.

jdhouston
jdhouston commented about Barclay Square II on Sep 17, 2006 at 6:51 pm

This theater was in the corner building of an L-shaped shopping center (Barclay Square). The
screen were in the ‘shoebox’ style popularized by the AMC chain and were relatively small. The
rooms were cinderblock construction with long hanging blue curtains and a slight rake to the
seats.

Probably more responsible for it’s demise were the multiplexes that opened at Granite Run Mall
and the Springfield Marple.

jdhouston
jdhouston commented about Lansdowne Theatre on Sep 17, 2006 at 6:46 pm

The theater interior was in really bad shape in the early ‘80s. There were big holes in the theater
roof that let light and rain in. Buckets were underneath portions of the holes to catch rain,
and some seating areas were roped off because of plaster that looked like it would fall.

After years of second-run movies and $1 special days, the wear on the seats and floor was
really high with a lot of leftover bubble gum and dirt.

Despite all that, I still have fond memories of matinees and the organ playing in this theater.

jdhouston
jdhouston commented about Pacific's Hastings 8 on Feb 17, 2006 at 2:11 pm

This theater looks like it closed this week. A for lease sign is up and the marque has been taken down. Too bad, it had the largest screen in the area.