Uptown Theatre

This has been reopened as a live theatre.

Do any Twin Cities residents remember when the Uptown ran a 70mm double feature of Kubrick’s “2001” and Spielberg’s “Close Encounters”? I wish to confirm the playdate(s) of this booking. I’ve seen an un-dated photo of the marquee and have been unsuccessful in locating any newspaper advertising for such a screening.

February 2020 video tour of the Uptown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbM9GX4bBY

Address in 2906 Hennepin Avenue, confirmed via Google Street View & Wiki. Opened as Lagoon Theatre on Saturday June 3, 1916, not 1913. Also confirmed. Grand Opening print ad added to gallery. Below is a January 2022 article about a potential restoration with blue prints and planned seating for 2500. Not sure if the plan went forward.

https://www.kare11.com/article/entertainment/major-overhaul-in-the-works-for-uptown-theater-in-mpls/89-eb720e31-fd8c-4f1c-bf2d-e2eca82e4bce

Updated website: https://www.landmarktheatres.com/minneapolis/uptown-theatre

The Uptown will reopen on September 14, 2012; it now features all-digital projection and a larger screen. Seating has been reduced to 350, and new carpeting has been laid. The balcony was retained with love seats installed. The theater now serves alcohol. An article about the renovations can be read here.

Here is a 1938 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2jnfea

Here is another photo, circa 1980:
http://tinyurl.com/2npgls

I wish the current owners would put in an effort to restore the lights and street appearance of the Uptown. They did such a great job on the Edina Theater. It sometimes seems as if it is a kind of neglect that precedes closing and demolition. I think that they should even restore the beacon that once topped the mast. The anti “light polution' crowd would go nuts I am sure. There seems to have been a minor attempt to light some of the bulbs recently. We passed it by assuming it was closed. Darkness comes on fast here in the Great White North and we need lights to welcome us in. The same people who admire the French and Paris sometimes hate lights in their own neighborhood and, I thought that some radical element may have burrowed in to influence the run down look the Uptown was beginning to take on.

So many dates with my wife ended up there. She nearly papered a closet with the wonderful weekly handbills of the wide ranging film program there. I especially loved the Italian fims there…from “Bread and Chocolate” to “Salo” to “Down and Dirty” to all of those Samurai Nights… Mifune and Kurosawa every night.. fun. This place along with the Suburban World down the block was the art house Vatican of Minneapolis. I saw all of the Astaire/Rogers films there…. a wonderful mix. The Rainbow cafe was always nearly next door for Onion Rings after 9:00 PM. You NEVER went down the block withouth reaching into the wooden box to pull out the playbill showing the dozens of films to be shown that month…marking the ones you intended to see. I miss that. ahhhh senile rapture.

I’m thrilled to hear that the Uptown is still in business. I went there often during grad school in the early 1980s to see foreign films as well as old classics that somehow look better on the big screen than on your tv at home.

During my college years (1979-1983) it showed double features of classic, foreign and cult movies. Quite a fun place for a college crowd.

The theater before the fire:
View link

In this shot, the Granada or Suburban World is visible down the street just before the trees:

View link

And Now:
http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/881

You should have something about the Terrace Theatre in suburban Minneapolis. In the 50s and 60s it was a lavish venue—maybe it sill is.