I'll admit, I get nostalgic about 50s movies and the place where I saw many, the Esquire Theatre on South MacArthur. On a gray winter day, I could spend a quarter and get four hours of entertainment, plus popcorn and a jaw-breaker. Who needs a video game?A devoted movie fan has created CinemaTour, which aims to chart "the locations and histories of cinemas throughout the world." The database has a huge number of sites and photos. Go to Illinois, scroll down a bit, and you find 36 movie houses listed for Springfield. Most are now demolished. Did you know there was once an Empress Airdome (1917-18)?
7 comments:
The Orpheum was my favorite; saw "Gone With the Wind" there. But one of my funniest memories involves the Lincoln where my dad and I saw Elvis in "Love Me Tender." Awful movie really. At one point you hear thundering hooves of many horses. Elvis peeks out the cabin window and says, "Somebody's coming." My dad, very disgusted and very loudly, said, "I could've told him that!" I tried hard to sink underneath my seat. It's a wonder Dad wasn't lynched. :)
Barbara
I used to enjoy going to the Lincoln Theater where Bill Golladay's dad Jack was the manager. They lived above the theater, so we got to sit in a private little balcony with free popcorn. Doesn't get any better than that!
Bill Ice
What about the Roxy on South Fifth south of the Abraham Lincoln Hotel? I saw lots of Doris Day films there including Calamity Jane.
this is Bonnie...I forgot to identify myself as Pat Dowling's wife!
I wonder why that site didn't list the Roxy, Lincoln, Senate and South Town theaters. There was another one just around the corner from the Strand & I can't think of the name of it. Word on the street was that we should never go into those two.
Hi Suzi,
Those are good catches! I believe you can send a note to the person who runs the CinemaTour site and provide this extra information.
I remember the Strand as a "B" film house, showing the sort of gangster pictures now know by critics as film noir.
Will
I believe it was the Strand and the State theaters I was absolutely forbidden to go to. Maybe those are the two Suzi is thinking of. The area around those theaters was also off limits for me, and for once I was too scared to defy the rules.
Barbara
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