Cool News
The Cinerama Theater in Dayton, Ohio..... Closing..... :(
Hey folks, I've got sad news today. It seems that the Cinerama Theater up in Dayton is set to be closed up. Sigh... Personally, it'd be very cool if the city of Dayton was to do something to keep this treasure open. This would simply be... This is a theater and a process that needs to be seen. Hopefully, John Harvey and his equipment will find a home somewhere in this universe... so this extraordinary format will continue to be preserved. Read on...
Hey Harry,
I wrote you late last year about Quentin Tarantino being in Dayton to check
out Cinerama. The folks that own the theater have asked that John Harvey
(who runs and owns most, if not all, of the equipment and film) remove the
everything from the theater--the owners don't really make any money from the
shows and most of the revenue generated goes to the Cinerama Preservation
Society. At any rate, they are planning on making two weekends in April the
last two Cinerama shows at the Neon--a final farewell of sorts.
So once again, I'd like to extend an invitation to you, your cohorts, and
lovers of cinema everywhere to come to Dayton and witness three-projector
Cinerama before it disappears again. I'll provide specific information about
exact dates, time, shows, etc. when I get it if there's any interest.
So to not ruffle anyone's feathers in Seattle, it is my understanding that
the Cinerama theater there has yet to show any three-projector films, but
only the 70mm stuff that came later. I could be wrong however. Wouldn't be
the first time...
For more information about Cinerama and its history:
Thanks,
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+ Expand All
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I wish I could joke about this,but this theater was reaaaally great.When I visited it I was stunned.Now I can't see it no more..sigh.
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test
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I make it a point to check AICN every day, and when I saw the news about the New Neon Movies closing Cinerama, I grabbed the phone and called. Larry Smith, who is John Harvey's cohort in crims at Neon, was not in, but the person I spoke with verified that the Cinerama portion of the theatre is indeed closing. I have had the pleasure of seeing all the Cinerama titles John owns several times at Neon, and it is an experience that will astound you. HOW THE WEST WAS WON will never be the same to you again...even on LBX Laserdisc, there is still a loss of image on both sides. You can see everything in great detail..the stitching on the costumes...the gravel in the streets. You feel you can look around the corner in the scenes going up the trail or down the street of a town. It is not like IMAX. There is only one Cinerama! Please listen to Harry...if you can get to Dayton, Ohio before they pull it, DO SO! Get a group together and come on down. We have the USAF Museum and a few other attractions that make it a nice weekend trip..if I hear any other news, I'll let you know! (If anybody becomes a MILLIONAIRE and wants to donate to a worthy cause, remember CINERAMA at the New Neon Movies! You would be saving a masterpiece!).
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I am deeply saddened to hear of the closing of the Neon Movies in Dayton. I am an avid Cinerama fan and this comes as a shock. I have not had the chance to attend the Dayton Cinerama screenings. This is a sad event, but it is lightened by the fact that THREE theatres are or will soon be capable of showing full spec,THREE strip Cinerama films. Many of these prints will in fact be John Harvey's own prints. The three theatres I speak of are the Seatle Cinerama, the CineramaDome in Los Angeles, and the Cinerama Theatre in Bradford, England. Cinerama lovers still have places and chances to experience the format that helped change the shape(literally!)of motion pictures forever.
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and now this.. Why didnt they mention this in the weekly newsletter. They never did play The Wizard of Oz technicolor three strip. Oh well, Pour out a little liquor. Especially all my Ohio peoples because we are losing something truly cool.
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I remember spending a number of afternoons at the Neon seeing their classic film series. The Maltese Falcon and Father of the Bride come immediately to mind...But I have never made it there to see the Cinerama. Looks like I will have to head home to Dayton sometime here in the near future and check it out....What a damn shame.
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Now that Page Manor is dead, and the Neon Movies is making a move towards boredom, what is to be done in Dayton on Sat night?
Dayton is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into downtown development, with the new minor league stadium & Riverscape etc etc...and what do we get?
The Canal St. Tavern bitching and moaning about disappearing parking and the Neon crisply executing an art form that screams _COME TO DOWNTOWN DAYTON_!
Fuck, I think I'll go to the Showcase, God forbid. If it's challenging, I'll rent it on DVD and watch it on the big screen TV.
What's the point of going downtown if it is a reasonable copy of Beaverville?
I may never leave Huber Heights again. I have been assimilated. -
Dammit. I've never seen a Cinerama picture as it was meant to be seen; now it looks as though I've got one less chance to do it. What a damn shame. But I'll still dream of the day when I can watch "How the West Was Won" in its full Cinerama glory. Someday.
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Feb 16, 2000 12:39:28 AM CST
With all the updates to downtowns all accross this great country
by spike lee
Even if it is just a one or two screen theater to show art films. Look at the success of the drafthouse in Austin. If you build it, they will come.
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What a shame!!! I've never seen a Cinerama film, but I had intended to, living within driving distance of Dayton. Now, I have no reason to visit Dayton at all. It reminds me of another lost cinema in Columbus Ohio, the great (albeit small) Drexel North theatre. I spent many a cool weekend in Columbus at 24 hour horror and scifi movie marathons. The kind owners even let us in with loaves of bread to throw during the screening of the bread zombie spoof "Night of the Living Bread". Now, Drexel North is a drug store. It breaks my damn heart!
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Many years ago, the midway came to my town. One of the features was "Cinema 180," a sort of Cinerama-type experience. The screen was huge, and sort of wrapped around the sides of the tent (yes, it was a cheap carnival). The 20-minute movie was POV-type stuff (roller-coasters, dune-buggys, that sort of thing). However, I will never forget the last segment: a high-speed car chase along a winding forest road. The camera was mounted on the front bumper of the car being chased, and you were practically on the pavement during the chase. It really felt like you were moving at 80 mph. Suddenly, a roadblock appears in the distance. A cop car is parked across the road. The movie abruptly ends a split second before the chase car slams into the roadblock. I almost fell on the floor! The speed just felt so real to me...
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To follow up on the note in the story and the above post, there has been a three projector preview at the Seattle Cinerama. Public showings will begin when a restoration project for the original Cinerama films is complete. The original plan had been to premiere the restored films at this year's Seattle International Film Fest in May, but there hasn't been an announcement about whether the deadline will be met and this will actually happen. That being said, it's a sad day for all film geeks when one of the old cinemas closes.
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Hey folks. I'm responsible for the news above and I guess I wasn't clear in my email to Harry that the Neon in Dayton is not closing. It just won't be a venue for Cinerama after the April shows. The owners have some pretty interesting ideas on the burner for the Neon's future. And the Neon will continue its regular film tradition. There'll still be Rocky on Saturday nights.
I apologize for the confusion. See you at the Neon! -
The wife and I have been to see all of the Cinerama films shown at the New Neon. All of the movies were incredible - after a minute or two you get sucked into the screen and feel like you are in the picture yourself. The last one we went to was The Seven Wonders of the World with a newly-made sound track in english. The new sound was adapted from the sound track from an un-viewable australian print to replace the original german language soundtrack of John Harvey's print. We sat near the sweet-spot to get the full 3-D effect and Tarantino was in the row just behind us. The film was pink (faded Eastman process) but was still amazing. A special treat was the showing of two clips of three frame - an australian panoramic test film with no sound track and a piece of a Russian film from the 1960's. The russian film was GREAT: bad acting: bad dialog: hackneyed story line and some of the most amazing, spectacular, incredible motorcycle racing footage I have ever seen. The racing scenes in 'Days of Thunder' cannot touch this movie. (A movie with bad acting, bad dialog, a hackneyed story line, and spectacular auto racing footage.)
In other words, if you can get to the New Neon Movies in Dayton OH to see Cinerama before it leaves - do it. High praise for films with typically lame story telling but which provide a memorable visual experience.
Regards,
Flames will be summarily ignored. -
It is not closing- I was there
just the other day and I heard nothing of such magnitude. Although, I do have some advice for the owner- you know who you are. Keep the prices low- I am a film student (emphasis on film) and I am in need a financial break to attend the pictures. -
I haven't seen a cinerama movie at the neon yet, but that curved screen drives me nuts. I saw Cradle will Rock there last week and with all those tracking shots in the beginning I thought I was tripping balls.
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I agree that the Cinerama in Seattle is great. It was the ultimate place to see Episode 1 opening night, and I recently saw Titus there (Paul Allen is the executive producer of the movie, and owner of the Cinerama, so Seattle was able to see it). But I think the spy is correct - as far as I know the remodeled theater has not yet shown movies in the proper 3 projector Cinerama process. Unless Lawrence of Arabia is in Cinerama? I know that was the first movie after the remodel. I also know that although they had a Kubrick festival, they did not show 2001. Anyway, the process *hopefully* will live on in Seattle, but I haven't seen any proof yet.
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I would like to take the time to set the record straight. I am the manager of THE NEON MOVIES.
WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!!
We are discontinuing our showings of Cinerama, however. After debating long and hard we have come to the conclusion that in order for us to stay open we need increase our revenues. OK, I know how that sounds but, in the long run we are a business and we have to be able to pay the bills.
In order for us to put in Cinerama we had to remove seats and those seats are revenue. If those seats would have been in place back in September, when we broke records with The Blair Witch Project, they would have made more money than Cinerama has made in the last two years! Just those seats! While I love Cinerama and would love to play it here forever, it is just not economicaclly feasable.
The income from the ticket sales of a Cinerama presentation goes to the Cinerama Preservation Society (C.P.S.). They use it to cover costs and if there is any left they put it toward having new prints struck or new soundtracks recorded (as they did just recently for Seven Wonder of the World). It would be great if there were someone out there that had lots of money to spend on Cinerama.
Which brings me to Seattle. I think what they are doing is great I wish them the best of luck. But, let me break the bad news to everyone. As I understand it they plan to do Cinerama only once or twice a year. They can not just go from playing there regular films to playing Cinerama. They must shut down to put up a Cinerama screen and then they must shut down again to remove it. As far as we have been told there are no intentions of restoring or making new prints. They will be playing John Harvey's prints and prints that are available in Bradford. If there were some sort of guarantee that new prints were going to be made things might have been different. But, as it stands there are only 4 of 7 films available to play and audiences are getting smaller. As for The Cinerama Dome in L.A., I understand it will be at least two years before they do their thing. It is true that Bradford, England is up and running monthly screenings, if you have the means I highly reccommend going but, that's a long way from the U.S.A. and quite expensive.
Meanwhile, we have the screenings in April. For more details see our website at www.neonmovies.com . And if you have any questions or comments you can direct them to:
about the theater
suggestions@neonmovies.com
about cinerama or C.P.S.
cinerama@neonmovies.com
We will continue to bring in the best (non-cinerama) films available to us as well as providing the same spectacular service you have been accustomed too. There will also be some great changes coming in the future. But, you'll just have to wait to see what those will be.
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Feb 17, 2000 1:38:21 PM CST
Is the equipment in need of a home? I might have a home for it.
by kentucky colonel
I am definatly not the person who is capable of making the call, but the theater (www.louisvillepalace.com) I work at has had a classic movie series for the past two years and will again (probably) this summer. The thing is, our equipment is in fair shape and some movies were just plain awful because of our equipment. I know only very little of what goes on behind the wall of $$$, but I do know that the powers that be are considering upgrading the projection system. Maybe someone might be interested in talking informally about this? PS- seeing another old theater bite the dust really sucks. My theater is 73+years old and has been saved from the wrecking ball before. My condolences. Or, as Paulie Walnuts might say, "Commendator"
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I visited this theater two years ago for a weekend of Cinerama screenings and had a great time. Really different, really enjoyable. It's a shame someone can't find or develop a mixed-use environment for this to continue.
Too bad they can't move that screen and projection equipment out to the Cinerama Dome theater in L.A. It would be like returning to the mothership.
Everyone should try to catch this before it becomes history. -
Wow, somebody else who remembers the Drexel North! A while back I found a site that still has some pictures of the place.
http://www.mninter.net/~mfontana/drexel
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Thanks for the pics of the Drexel! I was there for the last two 24 hour marathons there and then I did attend the next one that had to to be retitled and put in the glitzy joint downtown. I was trying to find myself in the pictures from the last one, but it was hard to make out the audience. I have since moved from Dayton and not made that pilgrimage to Columbus for several years now. Does anyone know if they are still having the marathon. I would love to take a road trip from Atlanta and go back to Columbus. That movie marathon was, hands down, the most fun I've had!
oh yes and if anyone knows a movie buff named Seth Frail, who lives in Columbus, let me know :)
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