CineArts at Hyatt

Joe Vogel on December 1, 2012 at 10:37 pm

Here is an architectural rendering of the Hyatt Music Theatre. The theater was designed by architects Vincent G. Raney and Robert M. Blunk.

Raney, of course, was a well-known Northern California theater architect who designed dozens of movie theaters. Robert Blunk was a Burlingame architect who, as far as I’ve been able to discover, designed only one other house, the Hillbarn Theatre at Foster City, California, (1966) which, like the Hyatt, was a stage venue.

stevenj on July 12, 2015 at 5:46 pm

The (single screen) Hyatt Cinema never showed Cinerama films. I saw a production of South Pacific (with Mary Martin) there when it was a theater in the round in the mid 60’s. After it became a single screen theater in ‘67 or '68 I saw Doctor Zhivago there on it’s very impressive large curved screen. After it was twinned I never went back.

1KBrad on October 13, 2015 at 3:54 am

I started working at the Hyatt Cinema in 1973 as a doorman. I was the manager from 1976-1977.

By the time I started working there, it was already a two-screen theater. As I recall, 720-seats in the large cinema and 189-seats in the small theater, which we called, “The Abortion.”

It was not well done. There was little sound isolation in the small theater and it was an odd, two-tiered seating configuration.

The large cinema was a delight. It was a very large, curved screen and was set-up for 70mm, 6-channel magnetic sound (although it was never used while I was there) and I don’t think all of the five speakers behind the screen were operational. As I recall, number 2 never worked.

I did borrow a print of Funny Lady from the Burlingame Drive-In one night as it had a 4-channel magnetic soundtrack. We had a crew party and turned the volume up after hours. It sounded pretty darn good (even if the movie was not all that).

A lot of memories there. Sorry to see it in the shape it is now.

stevenj on July 29, 2017 at 9:06 pm

An April 2017 Google map street view shows the theater building still there and just a few weeks ago I drove down the Bayshore Freeway and it is still standing.

1966gt350h on January 11, 2022 at 9:30 am

My Father and Grandfather took me to see Grand Prix in 1966, I was only 4 ½. I don’t remember much of the movie, but I do remember the theater being so big. I didn’t know until many years later watching the movie for a second time that James Gardener was driving a 1966 Shelby GT350H with a 4 speed.There is 2 or 3 scenes with the car in the movie. Here’s the funny thing, the night I saw that movie with my dad and grandfather I was driving in a 1966 GT350H with a 4 speed (out of a 1001 made only 85 are 4 speeds). I still own the car today and live approximately a mile from the movie theater.