Fall Creek Pictures

Fall Creek Pictures represents a triumph of imagination, good taste, and dedicated showmanship. It occupies the site of an abandoned supermarket building in a non-commercial neighborhood a couple of blocks away from the photogenic Ithaca Falls whose picture graces many a NYS travel brochure. As far as I know, no supermarket ever materialized in the structure that was raised for it in the 1960s (it was considered too small and outmoded for the mega-marts that were beginning to sprout up at the time). In the winter of ‘85-’86, the operators of Cinemapolis on the Ithaca Commons Richard Szanyi and Lynne Cohen joined the arts and ecology entrepreneur Tsvi Bokaer in taking out a lease on the building. Within a few months they partitioned the interior into two theaters with comfortably-sized screens, deep-cushioned and well-staggered seats, and powder-blue fabric-covered walls with modern lighting.

At first Fall Creek Pictures dedicated one screen to classic revivals and move-over foreign films from his recently opened Cinemapolis on the Ithaca Commons, and the second screen to sub-runs of H’wood product from Hoyt’s (now Regal) Pyramid Mall megaplex. But business proved so successful that the theater soon eliminated sub-runs and began booking prestige openers from North America and around the world. Today the hallway leading from the box-office and refreshment stand (home-baked brownies, chocolate-chip cookies, herbal teas, and dark roast coffees, as at Cinemapolis) to the auditoriums is lined with posters from wonderful films shown there over the past two decades. They’re a wonderful reminder of the great stuff we’ve seen at this theater.

The Fall Creek Picture’s most distinctive touch came in 1989-90 with the addition of a third screen in a small room carved out from the side of the building. Here, in a space the size of a generous home living-room, and with about eighteen theater seats and (at first) a few upholstered easy chairs with large throw-pillows, one could see on a large wall-sized screen the very last sub-runs of the best films from Fall Creek, Cinemapolis, and even the Mall megaplex. I often wait until films played in that room, valuing it for its intimacy and sheer comfort. It’s like viewing the best of the best at home.

Closed earlier this year as a new Cinemapolis opened.

Visited last week and took pics of the building, now a flower shop, Pilates studio and live music bar. Flower shop still recognizable as the lobby, bathroom signage still movie stars, and hallways still recognizable albeit stripped of posters.