Pantages Theater

I know doctor doolittle was remade many times but not sound of music which has been remade as a live version.

New Showcase Presentations in Minneapolis article includes mention of the numerous 70mm (and roadshow) engagements here at the Mann and other Twin Cities area cinemas.

Also another grand opening ad in the photo section for the Pan

Ted Mann article

Found on Newspapers.com

and

Found on Newspapers.com

1987-88 photo added © James Orndorf.

Winter `68 partial marquee photo added. Photo credit Denny Schwartz, courtesy of Gary Schwartz.

Like it or not, the huge silver & lavender tiered curtain Ted Mann installed over the proscenium opening was one of the most spectacular ever created, with color intensity increasing gradually from the pale center to its left & right edges. He followed Boston’s Ben Sack playbook, remodeling old downtown theatres into first-run 70mm roadshows.

Back in the 80’s I had friends who lived in this building, quite illegally. It was by then a half abandoned third-rate office building.

My friends had to pretend that they were “artists” with “studios” (they were, actually)—but slept there too. The problem was, there were no showers, and only a regular office type bathroom down the hall.

The mann company screening room was still intact, but Mann were simply waiting for the city to buy them out. and didn’t care a whit what happened to any of it.

I must come to the defence of Ted Mann. It’s true Mann had no interest in restoring his cinemas back to the world of the 1920s. But one needs to remember the times. The 1950s and 60s were an age when anything old and classy was targeted to be razed.
No where was this more true than in the movie house business. Mann took over the Shubert in 1957 (it was called the Alvin in those days). He renamed it the Academy and equipped it for Todd-AO. Yes he ripped out the old 1910 boxes and all.
He did the same with the Pantages in 1961 (then called the RKO Pan).
But the bottom line was that Mann kept the theatres of downtown Minneapolis alive during a decade when the wrecking ball was just around the corner.
From what I read, there was NO INTEREST in Minneapolis in restoring any buildings in the 1950s and 60s.
Had Mann not done the remodels et al, I expect that the Shubert, Pantages, and Orpheum theatres would have been razed by the end of the 1960s. I haven’t read about any other Minneapolis theatre owners much interested in the downtown scene.
So even though Mann didn’t plan it this way, Minneapolis today has the Orpheum, State, Pantages and Shubert because he kept downtown alive long enough for the houses to survive into the age of restoration.
So I think we should give Ted Mann credit for that.

I have a feeling that I might get run out of here for saying so, but I think the 1957 lobby is pretty cool. I’m sure the original was as well. But this is not a bad redesign.

Starring the immortal Tempest Storm as Herself. I miss Russ Meyer. I saw Attack of the Supervixens when I was 12, sitting on the railroad tracks behind my local drive-in (See Absecon Drive-In on this site). It was an educational experience.

There is a pix of the downtown Mann in the book Show Houses: Twin Cities Style by Kirk J. Besse. ISBN 1-883141-02-8. I just bought a second hand copy off Amazon.

The photo is on page 118. It shows Ted Mann in front of the theater where The Sound Of Music is showing in its second year.

1920s pic-
View link This shows the recently replicated vertical. The beaux arts glass and iron marquee was not replicated, rather they opted for a modern one.

A later marquee-
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The horrible lobby redesigned by Jack Liebenberg. All of that aluminum in shades of blue and gold-
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1957- You can see the whole scope of the Stimson bldg. It does look very odd because it lacks its intended upper floors-
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