I can’t believe they closed it.. As a former employee, I’d hate to see it torn down; not only is it a piece of our city’s cinematic history, it’s one of only 12 (? I think 12) cinemascope screens in the world. Between the huge events Mr. Crawford sponsored and the unique build of the theater… FYI, the screen is currently new and in one piece, but it was originally in strips. There are two “dead” projection houses in the wings of the main theater, on either side of the mezzanine (it has a spectacular mezzanine) because it used to require three projectors to run cinemascope. Today, it runs just like the theaters in the cam (house 1, added in the 70’s) and houses 3 & 4 (added in the 80’s), but can take both 35mm and 70m film (the projector has switching gates and rollers) in both scope and flat print (it has a normal aperture plate, just like the other projectors). It also contains a lot of antiqued equipment – next to the normal building and tearing tables are old fashioned tables with hand-cranks. It’s really an amazingly place, and deserves to be preserved.
I can’t believe they closed it.. As a former employee, I’d hate to see it torn down; not only is it a piece of our city’s cinematic history, it’s one of only 12 (? I think 12) cinemascope screens in the world. Between the huge events Mr. Crawford sponsored and the unique build of the theater… FYI, the screen is currently new and in one piece, but it was originally in strips. There are two “dead” projection houses in the wings of the main theater, on either side of the mezzanine (it has a spectacular mezzanine) because it used to require three projectors to run cinemascope. Today, it runs just like the theaters in the cam (house 1, added in the 70’s) and houses 3 & 4 (added in the 80’s), but can take both 35mm and 70m film (the projector has switching gates and rollers) in both scope and flat print (it has a normal aperture plate, just like the other projectors). It also contains a lot of antiqued equipment – next to the normal building and tearing tables are old fashioned tables with hand-cranks. It’s really an amazingly place, and deserves to be preserved.