Guild 45th Theatre
2115 N. 45th Street,
Seattle,
WA
98103
2115 N. 45th Street,
Seattle,
WA
98103
5 people
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I saw The Boy and the Beast
As of October 10, 2022 the Guild #2 has been demolished. the guild #1, contrary to a previous report, is still standing. However, there is a large demolition company banner attached to the upper area of the front of the building.
Seems both Guild 45th theatres are still standing, with no demolition permits filed. Only the marquee of the original theatre, which had been damaged by a truck, has been removed: https://twitter.com/marcstilespsbj/status/1482933849222905857?s=21
A 3 minute long documentary on The Guild from 2015 can be found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4A20aP_4D4 It has many shots of both the interior and the exterior along with an interview with the long time manager.
The Guild #1 (the pink theater) was demolished ¼/2022. So far, Guild #2 (Blue theater) remains standing.
I haven’t seen or heard of anything action being take to reopen either property. Both buildings remain boarded up and covered in graffiti.
Randy Finley, owner of the original Guild tried but was unable to purchase the adjacent property in order to expand. It was a pizza restaurant at the time. He instead purchased and demolished the building two doors down the street to build Guild II. Guild II opened in 1984.
There is a Guild & Guild II.. And an old home type structure is between them.. Interesting!!
It would be great if Amazon follows Netflix’s model of acquiring these classic theatres and using them for screenings of their productions.
As of June 5th the Guild 45th is closing. According to website stay tuned for remodel plans.
Have attended many films at the Guild but must say this place has seen better days. Landmark has not spent any money on this house in years. To bad as it once was a nice neighborhood house. Now uneven floors, dark and dirty, Hopefully someone someday will fix and keep the Guild 45th around for a long time to come. Great marquee.
I worked at this theater for almost 4 years, in addition to most of the other Landmark Theaters in Seattle. The employees (myself included, I suppose) tended to be quirky and one of the ways that manifested was on the marquee. Near the end of a theatrical run we really had fun thinking up funny stuff to put on the marquee. At least in the late 1990s the manager OK’d and/or helped think up the jokes.
What goes up depends entirely on the particular manager. A few of the managers around town had no sense of humor, so only titles and times went on their marquees. I remember when The Neptune, down the street, played Das Boot: one suggestion was to put WHAT’S LONG AND HARD AND FULL OF SEAMEN? on one side of the marquee, and DAS BOOT on the other… Needless to say that was a little too vulgar ; )
Regarding putting funny comments on the movie below the actual movie title on the marquee: This has also long been an amusing policy at Landmark’s Aquarius, in Palo Alto, CA. sometimes they do it at the little Guild in nearby Menlo Park as well. They used to do it at the now-closed Park, also in Menlo Park. I’ll always remember when “Cold Comfort Farm” played at the Park, and they put “I saw something nasty in the woodshed” on the marquee. When the Guild played the Afghani film “Osama,” they wrote underneath, “No, not THAT one!”
Just saw “Doubt” here. A bit dingy inside, but good sound and picture, and a decent crowd. Nice place! Worth a look.
The programmers at Landmark have hit a new low: The Love Guru starts there today. Why not put it at the Metro??? Considering the history of these 2 theaters and the great films that have played there, it is an insult.
It may be the same peron who does (or did) the marquee changing at he Neptune in Seattle; similar humorous commentary used to (perhaps still does) appear on that marquee.
That is the smaller house. (seperate building) The older big house has the big marquee.
This theater was also called Bruen’s 45th St. Here’s a photo from 1934.
There’s a photo of the marquee at this site:
View link
There’s a partial illustration/photograph of a portion of the exterior of the Guild 45th Theatre under the month of May in the 2005 Landmark Theatres calendar. Even at this incredibly late time of the year, I’d think it’s worth a shot, Mark, to see if your neighborhood Landmark Theatre has an extra copy kicking around or to perhaps contact the corporate office of Landmark and find out if they have one to spare.
Does anyone have pictures of the Guild 45th theatres, inside or out?
The second screen is just west of the original Guild. They both sandwich a pizza place. (or pizza a sandwich place). The second screen has about 200 seats with steep stadium seating. This must have been a really original idea in 1983. The design accomodates the lobby under the auditorium to make up for the lack of depth in the building. Although the old Guild is still a great place to see a film, one usually hopes it is in the smaller, newer Guild. It has the most comfortable high-backed seats I have ever sat in at a theatre. Landmark actually installed 70MM capacity in BOTH of the Guild Theatres and actually had 2 70MM engagements at once in 1993. (Remains of the Day and Short Cuts). I saw Short Cuts in the smaller Guild in 70MM and the presentaion was superb!
During the 50’s the 45th Street Theatre seated 490 people.