Cool News
Impassioned Movie Fan The Mysterian Wants To Tell You About A Movie Landmark That’s About To Close!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
If you don’t understand why someone would be upset by a particular theater being closed... why it matters when “you can always just go somewhere else”... then I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know this theater, but it’s obviously important to this guy, and we’ve done the same for theaters in Baltimore... Edinburgh... anywhere a fan sees a truly good theater in danger of closing its doors permanently... because that theatrical experience is one of the most important parts of being a film geek.
If you’re in a position to help this guy... check out his letter... and consider seeing if there’s some way you can get involved:
Hi Harry,
As you are known far and wide as the world’s leading movie geek, I thought this piece of news may be of some importance to you.
Studio 28, which for many years was the gem of Jacks Loeks Theaters, is closing on November 24th. It was the world’s first megaplex and created the environment in which we see films in the theater today.
It was the world’s first 20 screen theater and unless something has changed dramatically, it is still the world’s largest free-standing theater, meaning that it’s not part of a mall or other type of venue. There are larger theaters out there but they are part of larger structures.
Two weeks ago, a local TV station reported that the theater was eliminating most of its matinee shows as a cost cutting measure. In a blog I wrote after discovering this, I had predicted that this was the first step toward the eventual shut down of the building.
The theater opened in 1965 with only one screen, the 905 seat Theater #1. At this time, that screen is the largest in the state of Michigan (to my knowledge). It eventually expanded to 20 screens over the years after upgrading to 6 and then a few years later to 12 screens. With the opening of the 20 screen giant, it sparked a wave of megaplexes across the country.
In 1990, John Loeks took over the family business from his father, Jack, who started it with the Midtown Theater on Pearl street in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1944. The Loeks family owns Celebration Cinema which has four theaters in the Grand Rapids area, as well as Portage, Muskegon, Lansing, and Battle Creek, and runs Studio 28.
This is truly a sad day for West Michigan moviegoers as this 45 years old landmark prepares to shut their doors for the last time.
A press conference revealing this to the public takes place at 10:30 AM EST on Friday morning. The news was revealed to employees on Thursday evening.
– This link goes to my blog where I predicted the shut down two weeks ago.
- Local news coverage announcing the closing as well.
– History of Jack Loeks Theaters with some great pics of the early days of the company.
- A rather extensive collection of images of Studio 28, inside and out.
Regards,
The Mysterian
-
+ Expand All
-
Enfield, Connecticut is where it was located. My mother was the only one in our tiny woodland town that would take me and my friends to the movies every weekend. I can still smell the place. Remember standing in line for tickets and looking at all the posters of the cool movies that were gonna come out. I remember my mom would always see a different movie than me and my friend and we would run around the hallways of the theater talking about cool stuff from the movie we just saw and acting it out, picking what character we wanted to be. That classic smell of stale popcorn and sticky floors. Where I saw films like Terminator 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and one of the defining moments of my young life, the first time I saw Jurassic Park. When they finally shut it down I thought about breaking in before the razed it and stealing the seat I saw Jurassic Park in. I'll never forget it, front row, third seat in from the right if your facing the screen. I never did and now I wish I had at least tried. I feel your pain Mysterian.
-
Hopefully this is not a taste of things to come.
-
A friend and I snuck into it one afternoon before they started construction on the new mall and cut off two large pieces of the screen... The screen where we saw Empire, Superman I & II, Jedi, etc. So much history and so little respect. EVERY non- nation chain movie theater in this country needs to be saved. Does anyone else remember the day when you could buy the movie poster book from the concession stand? I miss when going to the movies was an event... when you kind of got dressed up in the way you would dress up to go to the local Ground Round with your parents on a Friday night... and everyone from your town would be in the theater to check out the latest blockbuster? Multiplexes have ruined the sense of community in film. We're divided even more...
-
I wish I had done just that. And I agree with you and miss the days of yore. Although I wasn't around in the 70's to see those classic films you mentioned on the screen and my town was too remote for me to see all that many people I knew when I went a few towns away, I do remember that palpable sense of the magic of the theater. I can literally connect my life through dates I went to see movies on. I still feel that way and it still gives me great comfort. I live in LA and I couldnt afford to go home last Thanksgiving so I went, by myself, to see Into the Wild at this amazing low fi 2 dollar theater in Pasadena. It sounds sad but it made me feel so much better just being in there, just like when I was a kid. I often prefer to go see films by myself because no one else I know, even the film lovers, seem to really understand that connection one has to the screen. It's one of the reasons why I love the talkbacks, you can tell there are others like that out there.
-
I was in mid-30s, when the passage of time really hit me as I realized that all the theaters that I had gone to up through high school were now piles of rubble. In their place now are Jiffy-Lubes and Ground Rounds and Home Depots and other stupid strip mall stores.
When they tore the last one down - General Cinema's free-standing three screen satellite theater at the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre - I managed to poke through the rubble and rescue a small corner of one of the screens where I had seen m first David Lynch movie (DUNE), T2, Jurassic Park, The Abyss and countless other films. -
Really have it tough these days, and I try my best to support them whenever I can. It's sad, but many are closing right before out eyes. In some aspects, I thought there would be more of an outcry from the public, but these days people have other, more important things on their minds.
-
and a member of their corporate training team, I can't help but look at those pictures of the booth and the projectors and get all tingly inside. I can almost hear the film as it passes through the gate.
I hope someone can help prevent this wonderful theater from closing... -
For you guys in the States - I really mean that from the heart! In the UK our independent cinemas are closing, however, not at the rate as they are across the pond. If you're in the sticks in the UK you can still find brilliant, restored cinemas in Victorian listed buildings which were music halls before the moving picture was even invented. As a child mine was The Royalty, in Bowness-on-Windermere. Like Kirby, this was where I first fell in love with cinema. My Dad took me to see the greats in the infancy of blockbusters: Star Wars, Superman, ET and many more are milestones in my life from an age where I didn't have many more (or, any I can remember so colourfully). I went to see Superman fourteen times there and the manager would let me have all the promo posters which I plastered all over my bedroom. God, I can even remember the smoke being picked up in the stream from the projector, looking like some eerie ghost or the FX from Poltergeist! Obviously, back then you could still smoke cigarettes whilst watching a movie. If I'm honest I miss that too. I even miss needing to take a blanket, there was no heating so in the Winter your KiaOra could freeze right next to you.
But, I'm lucky. I still go there occasionally with my ten year old Son who watches with the same kind of intense passion I still have.
So, I do feel sorry for all those who are losing their own history. It must feel like a part of you is being erased.
-
Nov 14, 2008 7:29:42 AM CST
I wish I had the money to re-open one of my favourites.
by derlanghaarige
The 'Capitol' in Recklinghausen/Germany. A wonderful theatre that even had a bar in its screening room! Yes, that's right! While the movie was running you could get up from your seat, walk to the end of the theatre, order your drinks and snacks and even eat them there (if you don't wanna return to your seat). And trust me: This was much less annoying than it sounds! (Which means: I could never hear any loud or disturbing noises from the bar behind me!)
It's been closed since a few years. I've heard that someone tried to re-open it, but obviously he failed. (He bought another theater and re-opened that one, but had to close it again pretty quick. :P) It looks like shit from the outside, with graffiti on its doors and a stripbars and sex shops right next to it (I should mention that it's right on the main street and not in some dark alley where nobody dares to walk after dark!) but damn, pretty much everytime I see it, I dream of running it. Or at least watching a movie in it again. :'( -
"Hopefully this is not a taste of things to come."
Of course it is, more's the pity. Ottawa's seeing it's oldest cinema (dating back to 1932 http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1869/) closing down this month. All the glorious old places from the 30s, 40s and 50s are pretty much gone, save The ByTowne from 1947. All gone in favour of those dull gargantoplexes. -
Great Theater, I live closer to a theater on alpine but i have always went to studio 28 instead. The ownership ran studio 28 perfectly. I am happy with the other theaters they own, but damn Studio 28 is a classic. I wish it was not closing. I have worked in the Movie theatre industry for half my life and i have seen and been a part of way too many theaters closing....The Mai Kai, QuoVadis and all the other Schaeffer/Clark Theaters in Detroit area. North Kent & Woodland and others in Grand Rapids. Also i thought the Fox theater in Detroit had the biggest screen. But it don't matter. Studio 28 will be truely missed. It truely is a sad day. Thanks AICN for giving this some due respect.
-
The hardest to watch was The Coral, in downtown Coral Gables, FL - that was in 83, I think. The second-hardest was a totally funky-cool twin at the Asheville Mall, NC. (We caught movies there during summer vacations at our cabin.) Also, the Wometco Dadeland Theater in Miami. First a large twin, then bastardized.
-
...i've been lucky enough to see two gorgeous old movie palaces in the greater NYC metropolitan area -- the paramount in peekskill, ny and loew's in jerssey city -- dodge the bullet and keep themselves from being bulldozed into the dustbin of history. the paramount is now a full-fledged arts presentation organization with a kickass second-run indie/foreign film series. loew's, which was boarded up and ready for that dustbin in the 80's, was saved by a grassroots coalition who did an incredible job to renovate the decades-long closure against a generally hostile and corrupt political machine in jc. it's still struggling to continue its grassroots support, while occasionally showing monster cinemascope prints of hitchcock, ford, etc., when not having outta-left-field concerts by people like beck and yo la tengo.
sad but true, y'all -- as "home entertainment" and other "personal" electronic devices bring the noise right at ya and on demand, the incomparable communal experience of watching the same screen in the same room at the same time and hundreds of people becomes remote and almost quaint, like opera or federal guidlines against torture. bravo aicn for giving a platform to something more important than sneak peeks at early marketing campaigns for superhero films, mourning our collective cinematic experience as it morphs into a blue ray or twelve... -
But Albuquerque has a 24 screen "free-standing" theatre.
But anyway--
It's very sad to see childhood memories systematically torn down, but it's also inevitable. Bigger and better things must come along (even if that's usually just somebody's narrow perspective).
The power of the mighty dollar must prevail! -
Lots of theaters are saved - it's up to the community, for the large part. The architectural significance of the structure has a lot to do with it, of course. Unfortunately, appreciation for 60s architecture is only starting to make its way into the preservation arena. About 75% will be lost before the eggheads make it a priority - that's usually the case with the conservation groups...often 20 years behind the curve.
-
I saw Phantom Menace there (Theater One). Only time I've ever had "assigned seating" for a movie. Tremendous experience. Sad, sad loss for GR and West Michigan.
-
no i go to the megaplex that ran it out of business..life is so much better now, small theatres suck ass, they have sloped floors and tin sound, plus you gotta wait in line out side..i mean what is this, russia?
-
And as a kid my dad and I went to The Midtown, the Majestic, the Savoy, The Eastown and eventually the Studio 28. I remember when it was a dual screen theater, with the big room and then the small narrow auditorium sized "Studio #2" with a smaller screen. others came along later - the Alpine Twin, the Eastbrook - and others like the one on Plainfield that I've forgotten, and others that converted to porn or small concert venues or nightclubs. Plus the drive-ins - the vista, the Beltline and the Plainfield, the Woodland, the Cascade Twin - later a triple screen drive-in.I remember when they demolished the Beltline on 28th street to pave it over to expand the Studio 28s parking lot. i think the Alpine may still be a third run matinee theater, all the rest are gone, some long gone, and now the Studio 28 joins them.It's not really "60s architecture" worth preserving, the original 2 screen version is long gone when the enormous 20 screen structure now stands.It's weird how some memories stick with you, like where you saw certain movies. Good bye Rocketeer, Goodbye Roger Rabbit. Goodbye, Bonnie and Clyde, Lion In Winter. Goodbye, Cool Hand Luke.Either Rocketeer or The Net was the last film I saw in a theatre. I think most of the theaters in Grand Rapids now are places I've never been to or only went to once or twice. With no nostalgia and no memories connected to them, what's the draw?(And here's the cranky old man channeling my dad speaking, but with what used to cost $1.75 for admission and under a buck for candy, pop or popcorn now running close to ten bucks, who can afford to go any more? Plus there's that whole ratio of hip width to seat size thing...)
-
in philly, there were rallies in front of the beautiful sameric/boyd theater, periodically, for years, to prevent it being tore down. last i heard, the main building had been bought and was going to be restored (mmm, hotel/entertainment complex?)--rather than turned into a parking lot as has too often been the trend in philly. i hate to see a theater go....in my hometown, we lost the drive-in, then the little 5-screen where i spent summers in junior high (and where i worked my first job), and then the second run $1 theater turned into a kinko's. Good luck to you West Michigan!
-
all the great, lost theaters in D.C.!!! (snarl)
-
You sound JUST like me... I had the same thing happen to me last year. Stayed here in L.A. for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas (I'm from CT and missed the snow) and went to the movies by myself. I'll be around for Christmas again this year if you'll be. We can go to the movies together but sit in different rows. :)
-
Holy shit! I'm from Waterbury. Strange!
-
The theater will be closing on November 23rd. After it closes they are planning on auctioning off a lot of items from the facility to people who collect such things.
This is just terrible news. -
But in Lancaster CA, (most northern part of LA County) we have a 22 screen cineplex that is purely stand alone, like a monolith off the freeway. I do believe it is still the most screens in LA County. That could have changed but that is what was touted back when it first opened.
-
I believe initially the claim to largest theater in the world was based on number of screens. At this point I think it may come down to square footage.
Studio 28 sits on 20 acres of property, with the theater taking up roughly 25% of that area. The rest is parking. -
Always good to see a fellow Nutmeg dweller here. I'll be back on the best coast for Christmas, but I'll def be around on Thanksgiving. In fact a few friends and I were planning a gathering for any wayward souls who would like to join. Give me your e-mail if you're interested.
-
I'm from Clinton, but was born/raised in Pawcatuck. I remember the sad day the United Theatre in Westerly, RI closed down, and when they closed the Westerly Drive-in. I'm with both of you guys. There used to be a lot of great "local theaters" when I was a kid. The United used to replay Disney movie matinees every Suinday afternoon. I saw both Empire and Jedi there, along with the Goonies, Lost Boys, Explorers, and just about every "coming of age" (in this sense, meaning movies you "grow up to") 80's flick you can name.
My heart goes out to this guy. It's definately the end of an era.
The Mystic Cinema, however, is still up and running, and seems to be doing okay, surprisingly enough.
Only time will tell I guess... -
Don't want to burst the blokes bubble, but the Century Rio 24 owned by the Syufy Brothers in Albuquerque, NM is a stand alone theatre not connected to any thing and it has four screens more then Studio 28.
-
Hit me up, pal: cromwellian@hotmail.com
Oh and my name is Jeff. -
This summer I was in Münich. We went out for a movie, and as our German is not very good we went looking for a cinema which was playing movies in English.
We went to Museum Lichtspiele, and that was really great. Very small, the smell of popcorn, employees knew everything about the movies, old posters, nostaligic atmosphere.
The movie (Wanted) was shit, but still this was my greatest cinema experience in ten years.
Really miss this kind of places.... -
I guess then it was predestined to happen... nevermind... local humor.
-
Michigan has some great places to see movies. The State Theater in Traverse City is really fantastic. I remember seeing City of God at the State Theater in Ann Arbor. The celebration cinema in Lansing was always super busy when I used to go there (although I think now there is a NCG theater that might get some of their business.)
-
Maybe they can fix it by hiring real writers and actual actors. And Maybe make a film that is actually set in the U.S, and filmed in the U.S! And how about making a pro-American movie too. That never hurts..... But what do I know right? Im just your typical movie buff, whos tired of being ripped off and insulted! Screw Hollywood!!!
-
About four blocks down you'll find an Art Deco indie cinema that hosted Miyazake festivals and served beer before the show ... and just became offices.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts