Thank you M for your input about 70mm. Your articles and compilations have always been very enriching. I’m surprised to learn that The Star Chamber and Dead Poets Society benefitted from a 70mm release, quite unexpected in my opinion for films like these.
Thanks Al. If it was one of the few having Dolby SR for six-track magnetic sound on 70mm then it was truly a well equipped theater and I would assume the screen wasn’t that small vs auditorium size.
I just posted 3 additional pictures of basement lounges around World War 1 including a saloon which was later converted in the additional screen called Studio Palace. I apologize for the poor quality, it was a difficult scan made from a book about local cinemas. Photographer unknown.
The curtain frame of screen #1 looks quite narrow. How was the screen structured? Was it Cinemascope letterboxed in 1.85? Does anybody remember which aspect ratios the Academy was equipped for in its 3 screens?
Thank you Darron for your reply. Actually, as an example, a user here posted the following link regarding the Swiss Center, allowing to download the cinema plan as PDF from the Westminster.gov website when it was submitted in 2005 for the building plan:
Based on this, I searched the same site for the address 16 Oxford Street but it gave no result. Maybe it’s too old to be available digitally in their online library. I’ll keep searching…
Can somebody point me to a site where it would be possible to find the plans of the building when it was the 5-screen cinema? Maybe some local government site where estate properties are registered? I’m not familiar at all with that kind of service in the UK and don’t know where to start.
The link I provided in my previous post is still valid but the page in question was updated with more pictures since I mentioned it in 2019. Worth seeing.
In the late 80’s, chief projectionist Phil Crawley (if I remember the spelling correctly) gave me a tour of the projection booth for screen #2 (the large one) and, as I was following him in the building for an emergency elsewhere, we happened to enter another auditorium, a small one in blue and green colors with surround speakers on tall tripods. In this auditorium booth, I was surprised to see no Dolby processor in the sound rack but saw a piece of equipment labelled Kintek. I didn’t ask any questions.
Today, as I was searching the web for informations on Kintek cinema equipment, I just came across this interesting article about demonstrating playback on Kintek/Bose equipment at the Warner back then.
Small auditoria but one of them was equipped with CDS (Cinema Digital Sound, the first digital sound technology for movies) and played Flatliners, The Doors and Final Approach in that format. All auditoria had the CHF Cabasse speaker system designed by French engineer Georges Cabasse. CHF meant Cinéma en Haute Fidélité (High Fidelity Cinema). The Cabasse product line for cinemas was using bi-amplified screen speakers with Amix amplifiers. Theatres willing to install CHF were subject to an acoustics study to taylor the system on a case-by-case basis. After installation, the equipped auditorium received a quality certificate. Somehow, Cabasse was a French answer to the Lucas' THX program. CHF was installed mostly in France.
Here are pictures of Le Grand Pavois on Film-Tech.
And here is its profile page in French, with comments from previous customers and projectionists, on Salles Cinémas.
I only saw 2 films there (both in 70mm) and it was still a single-screen theater: Rocky III in 1982 and Return of the Jedi in 1983. I remember that the sound was crystal clear, probably an aging sound system but still in good condition to correctly reproduce the sophisticated sound mix of “Jedi”. And with “Jedi”, an impressive panel had been install on the building front showing not only the film poster bill, but with additional red neon lines that blinked to simulate the spaceships (TIE fighters) laser shots. Good pictures of the single-screen cinema on Flickr here.
Illustrations for this cinema are available on this page, at the time of 35mm technology.
http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/pics/pennyan/pennyan.html
Thank you M for your input about 70mm. Your articles and compilations have always been very enriching. I’m surprised to learn that The Star Chamber and Dead Poets Society benefitted from a 70mm release, quite unexpected in my opinion for films like these.
I’m updating a link I previously posted to Thomas Hauerslev’s in70mm.com website and its article about the ABC Shaftesbury Avenue.
https://www.in70mm.com/news/1998/shaftsbury/index.htm
Thanks Al. If it was one of the few having Dolby SR for six-track magnetic sound on 70mm then it was truly a well equipped theater and I would assume the screen wasn’t that small vs auditorium size.
Was this cinema equipped for 70mm? What was the screen size? Which Dolby processor?
A question for Al Alvarez.
You wrote here on 20 May 2019 “Trump was a Ziegfeld regular. I saw him there many times when my office was there”.
Out of curiosity, which films was he coming to see?
Definitely closed !? sigh
I just posted 3 additional pictures of basement lounges around World War 1 including a saloon which was later converted in the additional screen called Studio Palace. I apologize for the poor quality, it was a difficult scan made from a book about local cinemas. Photographer unknown.
Pictures of the original GCC Burlington 10 here: http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/pics/gcc/gcc.html
The film opened on November 12th, 1982, at The Screen on the Hill then moved over to the Minema on January 20th, 1983, where it stayed for six months.
The curtain frame of screen #1 looks quite narrow. How was the screen structured? Was it Cinemascope letterboxed in 1.85? Does anybody remember which aspect ratios the Academy was equipped for in its 3 screens?
Photo album :
https://flickr.com/photos/oldcinemaphotos/albums/72157604068136284
Short film showing the building, the projection booth and the screen, made in the late nineties:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQv6BIqvfGw
Thank you Darron for your reply. Actually, as an example, a user here posted the following link regarding the Swiss Center, allowing to download the cinema plan as PDF from the Westminster.gov website when it was submitted in 2005 for the building plan:
https://idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk/online-applications/licencingDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=IIUOEERPXJ000
Based on this, I searched the same site for the address 16 Oxford Street but it gave no result. Maybe it’s too old to be available digitally in their online library. I’ll keep searching…
Another picture of the marquee in the 1990s:
https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-image-empire-cinema-london-england-image63186885
Can somebody point me to a site where it would be possible to find the plans of the building when it was the 5-screen cinema? Maybe some local government site where estate properties are registered? I’m not familiar at all with that kind of service in the UK and don’t know where to start.
The link I provided in my previous post is still valid but the page in question was updated with more pictures since I mentioned it in 2019. Worth seeing.
Blob fest 2010 (28-min doc) on YouTube showing commemoration at the Colonial. The auditorium is well shown both outside and inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNCzzHBnPqg
Royal Film Performance 1997 for TITANIC in 70mm. Nice views of the marquee, foyer and projection booth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfquSxcN084&t=1s
When the Sauvenière opened, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL was playing on that screen.
Three-dimensional view of the Grand Eldorado:
Grand Eldorado on Google
In the late 80’s, chief projectionist Phil Crawley (if I remember the spelling correctly) gave me a tour of the projection booth for screen #2 (the large one) and, as I was following him in the building for an emergency elsewhere, we happened to enter another auditorium, a small one in blue and green colors with surround speakers on tall tripods. In this auditorium booth, I was surprised to see no Dolby processor in the sound rack but saw a piece of equipment labelled Kintek. I didn’t ask any questions.
Today, as I was searching the web for informations on Kintek cinema equipment, I just came across this interesting article about demonstrating playback on Kintek/Bose equipment at the Warner back then.
https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Audio/Archive-Studio-Sound-IDX/IDX/80s/Studio-Sound-1989-03-OCR-Page-0086.pdf
Small auditoria but one of them was equipped with CDS (Cinema Digital Sound, the first digital sound technology for movies) and played Flatliners, The Doors and Final Approach in that format. All auditoria had the CHF Cabasse speaker system designed by French engineer Georges Cabasse. CHF meant Cinéma en Haute Fidélité (High Fidelity Cinema). The Cabasse product line for cinemas was using bi-amplified screen speakers with Amix amplifiers. Theatres willing to install CHF were subject to an acoustics study to taylor the system on a case-by-case basis. After installation, the equipped auditorium received a quality certificate. Somehow, Cabasse was a French answer to the Lucas' THX program. CHF was installed mostly in France.
Here are pictures of Le Grand Pavois on Film-Tech.
And here is its profile page in French, with comments from previous customers and projectionists, on Salles Cinémas.
I only saw 2 films there (both in 70mm) and it was still a single-screen theater: Rocky III in 1982 and Return of the Jedi in 1983. I remember that the sound was crystal clear, probably an aging sound system but still in good condition to correctly reproduce the sophisticated sound mix of “Jedi”. And with “Jedi”, an impressive panel had been install on the building front showing not only the film poster bill, but with additional red neon lines that blinked to simulate the spaceships (TIE fighters) laser shots. Good pictures of the single-screen cinema on Flickr here.
Short video made in 1998 by the projectionist showing Titanic in 70mm at the Warner screen #7 :
on YouTube