Second Run (America's Classic Movie Theaters) part 1

Gary Graver produced this short documentary about the tragic loss of the single screen movie theater. From large Hollywood Blvd. venues to the local neighborhood movie house where kids and familes used to watch cartoons, serials and newsreels.

This montage of photos is part of his collection which he accumulated over several decades across the U.S.

If you love old movie theaters, we hope you find this film provides a unique perspective from a man who was blessed to be able to make movies his entire life.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• movie
• theaters
• Gary
• Graver
• classics
• big
• screen
• neighborhood
• obsolesence

[HunterMann]

Hi Gary, Thanks for this important documentary. The closed down theaters in many towns inspired me to start my own cinema, a mobile film screening project that brings real 16mm films to small towns that don't have a movie theater(or had one that closed long ago). My project is called Highway Cinema. It is not a business or a charity, just free films.

My work on motion pictures is what supports my traveling cinema. 700 shows so far. Best wishes, Hunter

[Chadzxx1]

very nice yet sad...as Poe said..."A sadness that is not akin to pain...and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles rain."

[Streetcar1743]

It goes to show how Corporate American can't seem to shut up! We ought to take some of these old pictures and shove these in our politicians' faces and make them look at what their stupid power has done to these historic landmarks!

[level242]

They tear them down and put up dollar stores! :(

[Gilch30]

The have ruined the theater going experience. Now, with these damn multiplexes with stadium seating and Digital cinema, they no longer have the same feel. Remember when you used to stand in line for 2 hours to see a movie you were really excited about? There was something very special and fun about doing that. That doesn't happy anymore with online ticket sales and movies playing on 4 + screens. Thanks for ruining the moviegoing experience for everyone.

[Streetcar1743]

The Tivoli is another one of the old ones left. Corporate America, LEAVE THESE THEATRES ALONE!!

[wurlitzer3]

A few of these theaters remain today. The Orpheum in downtown LA is, I believe used for concerts and I've see the interior in many movies and TV shows masquerading as opera and concert halls. The Gothic and Bluebird in denver are rock concert halls as is the Ogden though the proscenium was ripped out. Some of the palaces survive, the Paramount in Denver still has its Wurlitzer. The Paramount in Portland oregon has been renamed the Portland and the original marquee and upright restored.

[catgumart]

I grew up in the eighties, so the theaters I went to were pretty much like the multiplexes of today

[catgumart]

I would like to go back in time to the 20's-60's and see what it was like to go see a movie, or a matinee

[denny906]

I was also a projectionist from 1973 to 1995 and also worked many of these theatres and saw movies in them when I was a kid back in the 1960s.