Don Pancho's Art Theatre
2108 Central Avenue SE,
Albuquerque,
NM
87106
2108 Central Avenue SE,
Albuquerque,
NM
87106
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While researching the description I decided not to post as I mentioned in my February 16th, 2023 comment, I encountered Ranjit Sandhu’s/rjbuffalo’s voluminous informative website about Albuquerque cinemas. His first chapter on the Don Pancho’s includes a color photo at the top, while a black and white photo is in the upper right-hand corner of a collage of Albuquerque theaters in his second chapter.
Compare these to a photo of mine I have uploaded of the storefront as it was during my trip to New Mexico in July 2019 – the marquee is still there!
The description I never posted was to end with:
“In 2019 Iron Cafe, an Asian restaurant, became the latest business to occupy the theatre’s former space – but the rectangular sign that was the Don Pancho’s marquee still projects over the sidewalk.”
In April 2022 it is still viewable on Google Maps.
In addition, I appreciate Ranjit’s paragraphs on “The Demise of Cinema” about the sense of community small art cinemas could invoke in the 1960’s and 70’s that in today’s age of smartphones is mostly gone.
On Ranjit’s webpage there is also a list of and some descriptions for Albuquerque cinemas that are yet to have entries on Cinema Treasures.
Hi David, thanks for the compliment. I hope more people pitch in with their memories not just of movies attended, but of the personnel, the businesses, the finances, and any peculiar happenings, and heaven knows there were a few! Yes, eventually I’ll write up some more cinemas. I know of 22 that are not yet on Cinema Treasures. I regret not having done all this research in the 1970’s when so many important people were still alive.
rjbuffalo/Ranjit Sandhu,
Thank you for creating this listing.
While preparing to visit the Guild Cinema during a trip to New Mexico in July 2019, I saw the Don Pancho’s Art Theatre mentioned on the Guild’s Cinema Treasures page.
In January 2020 I attempted to write a description myself using what I could find on the internet but felt dissatisfied with how it was turning out, so I put it aside and life went on.
Yours is much better, detailed and based on firsthand experience.
I hope you create listings for other Albuquerque cinemas that are still missing from Cinema Treasures.
The March 1977 date cited by the Rocky Horror Wiki is a bit off. The Rocky Horror Picture Show had its Albuquerque premiere at The Guild on Friday, April 8, 1977, and it ran two weeks through Thursday, April 21, 1977, regular shows only, not midnights. The midnight showings began at Don Pancho’s on Fri/Sat, January 27/28, 1978, and continued every Friday and Saturday until the cinema was closed. Its last show there was Sat/Sun, January 16/17, 1988, a decade-long run. By that time, I had left the state and did not keep up with things. I understand that RHPS went to The Mall at the Wyoming shopping center for a while and that it then moved to the Lobo, but I never witnessed any of that and, by that time, I no longer cared.
My first viewing was Sat/Sun, April 15/16, 1978. The audience members were extremely rowdy, nearly all were dressed as various characters in the film, a few of them so perfectly that they were indistinguishable from the characters on screen. Everybody was puffing marijuana the whole time, and, because of the way the building was ventilated, I got the draft. That is how I learned that what our teachers taught us in school is false: second-hand marijuana smoke is not psychoactive at all, but it does stink like all get-out. Staffers suggested that I not lower the lights ahead of starting the movie. I took their advice and then I understood why they had made that suggestion. The instant the image hit the screen, there was a reflexive synchronized 238-person roar that could be heard in the next county.
The Rocky Horror Wiki lists Don Pancho’s Art Theatre as the eighth known house to launch a weekly midnight showing of that now-classic movie. Don Pancho’s run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show began in March, 1977. Let’s do the time warp again.
teaser grand opening ad posted.