SoNo Cinema
15 Washington Street,
South Norwalk,
CT
06851
15 Washington Street,
South Norwalk,
CT
06851
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Last showtimes appeared on December 9th, 1999, and announced closed in March 2000. Article posted.
The Horace McMahon theatre opened on July 30th, 1972 and taken over by new management and renamed Penthouse Cinema showing adult movies on October 5th. It closed on February 14th, 1979 and reopened as the Sono Cinema on March 9th, 1979. Grand opening ads posted.
Brian was cool…really hands-on owner. I believe he relocated to North Carolina. They rented videos in their lobby, and this was the only video outlet I was ever able to find a copy of “Antonio das Mortes” in.
Great theatre. The Sono would have great double bills, like the one I saw in late 1982, “Cutter and Bone” and “Winter Kills”, foreign films like “Hail Mary” which played for weeks despite the protests, smoke and stink bombs, bomb threats, etc. I spent an even with Kevin, one of the employees, drinking beers and listening to threat after threat as they were left on the answering machine, hours after hours.
And of course midnight movies like “Rocky Horror,” “Liquid Sky” (particularly popular in Connecticut), “The Forbidden Zone” and many, many others I am so lucky to have seen.
Kudos to the owner/programmer Brian Fox, and his great staff starting with Kevin!
Ken Jacowitz
Here is the link to a pay NY Times article about the SoNo in 1980 trying to stay in business while showing various films.
View link
The SoNo Cinema received some coverage in a June 1987 Newsweek article, discussing the struggles of revival cinemas across the U.S. in the face of the then-VCR boom.
This theater had 350 seats.