Century Theaters who built the Plainview was one of the last chains to built large single screen theaters. these were amazing venues to see epic style pictures such as “This is Cinerama”, “how The West was Won”, etc.
The Hicksville had the marvelous style of the old time theaters. Even though it was mostly a second run house showing double features for 75 cents to $1, it has a sculpted ceiling and assorted gingerbread and tapestry curtains. As a kid it was fun to browse at the Trading Post next door.
What made theaters great such as the Vagabond and Tiffany was the efforts of their owner/operators to find and program unusual films. Tom Cooper was a master at this. He would pester the studios to let him play old 35mm nitrate prints that he had the projection booths specially converted to so they met the fire codes. When I was at Universal we were able to get him copies of the Howard Hughes RKO films, Scarface and Hell’s Angels. They opened to large crowds for a limited engagement in the 80’s.
Century Theaters who built the Plainview was one of the last chains to built large single screen theaters. these were amazing venues to see epic style pictures such as “This is Cinerama”, “how The West was Won”, etc.
The Hicksville had the marvelous style of the old time theaters. Even though it was mostly a second run house showing double features for 75 cents to $1, it has a sculpted ceiling and assorted gingerbread and tapestry curtains. As a kid it was fun to browse at the Trading Post next door.
What made theaters great such as the Vagabond and Tiffany was the efforts of their owner/operators to find and program unusual films. Tom Cooper was a master at this. He would pester the studios to let him play old 35mm nitrate prints that he had the projection booths specially converted to so they met the fire codes. When I was at Universal we were able to get him copies of the Howard Hughes RKO films, Scarface and Hell’s Angels. They opened to large crowds for a limited engagement in the 80’s.