The Pros and Cons of CSAs
Washington Leads the Country in Troubled Banks
Seattlest Pix 09Nov08
Seattlest Pix 09Nov09
Seven facts in honor of Little Miss Seattlest's first-ever movie, WALL-E, which we saw at the Cinerama—one of three three-panel Cinerama theaters left in the world.
FACT: The Seattle Cinerama is not Seattle's original Cinerama. That'd be the Paramount, which sacrificed 1600 seats to fit the screen and three projection booths required. They screened Cinerama films from September 1, 1956, to January 26, 1958. The Cinerama we know and love today opened January 24, 1963, as the Martin Cinerama. (The Paramount twice installed and removed CineMiracle, a rival technology that never took off.)
FACT: The first Cinerama film screened at the Cinerama: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. The final first-run 70mm Cinerama film screened there: Krakatoa, East of Java, a film notorious for the glaring geography error in its title.
FACT: Even at the height of the Cinerama-in-the-Cinerama era, it could be difficult getting people to sit in the front few rows. Except when they screened 2001: A Space Odyssey. People wanted to get as close as possible, the better to be enveloped by the experience. In October 2001, a restored 70mm print of 2001 debuted at the Cinerama, showing on the seldom-used deeply curved true Cinerama screen. That was fucking trippy.
FACT: In 1988, the Cinerama was the local venue for The Last Temptation of Christ. 400 protesters showed up to register their displeasure with Martin Scorsese's life of Christ, and to suggest the loving concern that filmgoers may find themselves munching popcorn in hell. "We predicted the harangue would start at 6:30. They're 20 minutes late," commented the ACLU's Ed Estes.
FACT: Science fiction has always been popular at the Cinerama. In addition to 2001, it played the (classic) Star Wars trilogy, The Black Hole, Blade Runner, the Star Wars trilogy 2.0, and more (such as WALL-E). In 1997, when the theater was on the verge of closure, the tinkered-with version of Return of the Jedi (the last halfway-decent Star Wars movie) was slated to be the last film ever shown there. The lease was specially extended to make that possible.
FACT: Three fates the Cinerama avoided: Dinner theater. Rock climbing venue. Five-story apartment building. Instead, Paul Allen signed a petition to save the Cinerama—then decided a week later to buy the building (from a division of Diamond Parking!). AMC runs the day-to-day operations, but it's really part of Allen's Vulcan, Inc., which makes it a kissing cousin to other Allen endeavors such as the Experience Music Project, SpaceShipOne, and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Cinerama reopened in 1999 with a festival of Cinerama classics.
FACT: The Cinerama and Star Wars remain intertwined: Back in '99, the Cinerama hosted a charity screening of The Phantom Menace three days before the film's official debut. In 2002, two guys waited in line in the Cinerama parking lot for 136 days to see Attack of the Clones, from January 1 to opening day. And the Cinerama's been a venue for the Seattle International Film Festival almost every year since it reopened—except for 2005, when it decided to show Revenge of the Sith instead. (Nooooo!)
Want 7 astounding yet true facts about your favorite Seattle institution? We take requests. Make your suggestion in the comments.
The lovely photo is of course from our Flickr pool, courtesy of cpkatie.
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consistenly, one of my favorite features on the -est James!
I hope little Miss Seattlest enjoyed her first movie.
Mine? The Jungle Book. At the Original Bay Theater in Ballard.
Thanks!
The first movie I remember seeing was the Disney Robin Hood, and I'm sure it was at some theater in Wisconsin's Fox Valley but I don't remember which one.
And LMS ended up actually seeing about 2/3 of WALL-E. The stuff in outer space made the theater "too dark," so we spent some time outside watching Pride.
My first movie in a theater was Disney's Snow White, which has some terrifying parts... Lord!
my first movie in a theater was star wars: the empire strikes back. which explains EVERYTHING.
Fucking West Coasters these days simply don't do enough to save seemingly unimportant old shit that actually ends up having tons of historic, nostalgic, and kitsch value.
Cf. Ballard.
FACT: the seats are long overdue for an overhaul.
FACT: at the SIFF closing gala, a representative for Vulcan claimed that this was in the works.
FACT: the crowd rejoiced.
Continuing proof that Paul Allen can do some right.
Big fan of Paul Allen.