The Stella Cinema, Rathmines, Dublin. I haven’t been since it became all dolled up, but I believe it’s a nice experience.
I remember it as an old fleapit that showed the Rocky Horror every Friday.
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I’ll toss the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, AL into the mix - it was my second home before I moved away from 'Bama in the 90s. Their programming was fantastic, especially around Halloween, when they would do a yearly screening of Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera, accompanied by the gorgeous original Wurlitzer pipe organ from 1927. Never missed it. That’s not to mention all the wonderful film series they’d run during the rest of the year. Can’t count the number of classics I saw on its enormous screen, that I would never otherwise have had a chance to see - lots of silent films, including Wings, still one of my favorite movie-going experiences.
Haven’t been there in decades, so I can’t speak for it now, but I’d imagine it’s just as wonderful as it always was.
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We have a few old theater complexes that have been renovated and are primarily movie venues, but the most interesting venues have been converted to live theaters. The Ohio (Loews), and Allen (Independent) started their lives as movie houses. A few of the other theaters in the complex were converted to movies in the 30s and 40s, like the Palace (RKO). A few times a year they switch back from live theater to films. The Cedar Lee and Capital are the renovated full time theaters. The Variety (in progress) and LeSalle are rehabbed silent movie houses that are serving other roles.
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These lists always need Galerie Cinema Kino Essen. It’s tiny (4 or 5 rows), but amazing. What it lacks in grandeur, it make up for with a cosy love of film.
And it’s shown Harold and Maude at least once a week since 1975, which tells you a lot.
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The theater in my hometown in Central California was a grand movie theater complete with the typical twinkle ceiling lights and an East Indian theme. It was remodeled into three sections/screens after a new multiplex (6 screens) was built across town in the late 70s.
I just looked it up and it looks like they’ve restored it back to one huge venue for live acts.
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I wonder if it’s the same architect as the Music Box Theatre. Same barrel ceiling with twinkling constellations, for example.
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There are those that say nitrate film provides a better experience, more vibrant etc. Personally, I’m suspicious of that claim, just like I am with people that insist on listening to vinyl amplified through vacuum tubes, but having never seen any films projected from nitrate stock, I can’t really deny the claim.
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my preschool and my elementary school were about equidistant from those theaters but on opposite sides from each other . soooo many memories of the Michigan and the State.
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The theaters sound so similar, but I think their design similarities look to be coincidental. The music box theater was designed by Louis I. Simon¹ and the Arlington was designed by Edwards and Plunkett². Bothe theaters were built in 29-30.
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Something made that THE theater style of the late 1920s though, right? It’s too similar to have spontaneously occurred to architects in different parts of the country.
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They’re all gone in Downtown Boston MA. The ones that are left are either a nightclub or theaters for plays. We used to have over a dozen within walking distance of each other. I miss the opulence. Chandeliers, opera boxes, marble staircases, the whole works.
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Hey, I’ve been there! Not actually to the theatre, but was in the neighborhood a few times mumble years ago…
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