Also, there is a new theater being built near me by a small company called Galaxy Theaters. If I'm not mistaken, they are naming it... you guessed it... the Galaxy 12. I guess since this is their first theater in Washington State they figure they'll get their name out better this way or something.

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UA picked it up about 1990 and since it was the premire house they ripped the 60 foot neon sign that said Cooper off of the buiding and replaced it with a little sign that said The United Artist.

Buisness dropped. the theatre never recovered and UA sold it and now it is a Barnes and Noble.

UA didn't change the name of the Continental. After much struggle, they did turn it into a 6 plex but left the big screen whole. It is doing well.

When we started our theatre in January it was called the Lakeside 5 Cinemas. The shopping centers' name is Lakeside. We wanted to change the name of the theatre to reflect the change in ownership and programming. We changed the name to Rialto Cinemas Lakeside. We kept the Lakeside so that people would know where we were. People are still confused. They call us up and ask where we are located. They don't get it until they walk into the place.

Then what I love is that people still don't get that we have changed. They bring in all there old coupons and gift certificates and expect us to honor them.

I wonder how many people know what the word Rialto means? Not many,I'm sure. There was a reason that name was used so often in the days of the movie palace, and of course it had to do with the meaning of the word.

Back then whether the theatre was a palace or not, the owners wanted to give the impression that it was something special, thus all the names like: Majestic, Imperial, Embassy, State, Palace, Regent. Or they were named after well known people of wealth or public stature both in and out of the world of show business such as Astor, Roxy, Kieths, Loew's etc.

Somehow I still like those names better then Megamovie 24 or whatever. Of course the new names pretty well discribe what the new theatres are like..."plain".

I often see posts where people discribe some great single screen theatre from the 60s with a huge seating capacity of 800 to 1,000. HUGE? The theatres I remember going to had 1,500 to 2,500 seats and that was because we were in a small city. The big cities had 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 seat houses! The only thing that those 60s theatres had that remotely resembled showmanship or class was that they had a curtain, but nothing else.

I will admit that some of the megaplexes built within the last several years have improved greatly on their aesthetic aspects...more architectural design treatment in the lobbies and auditoriums, nicer light fixtures, fancier carpets...but NO curtains!

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Before it was the Lakeside, it was the Christian Life Center (after they had moved out of what is now the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts)and before that it was the Park Cinemas I and II, a rather ugly twin, albeit a union house with 4 projectors (6000' changeovers, 2 Ballantynes and 2 Brenkert 80s), the only film I had seen there was 'Jaws 3-D' in 1983...

Aaron

Aaron

But I agree...theater names seem to be lacking these days...out here it's all:

Shopping Mall Name 14
City Name 16
Theater Change 20

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At least my theatre is near a park and if you stand on the roof you can see the lake. We could have changed the name to [5]Crap Box 5[/b], but I think that might have impacted ticket sales. Along with theatre names having no imagination, Street names no longer have any originality. Shopping mall names have no originality. Housing developments have no originality in their names anymore. All you need to do is try a combine the words Oak, Wood, View, and Stone into something that is not quite like the combination down the street.

Rialto means theatre district in Italian, specifically the theatre district in Venice. We are trying to be an "arty" theatre hence the "arty" name. Ky originally liked the name Paradise but I didn't, we're not there yet.

In some of the "cardinal direction" theatres from the 80's, each auditorium had a name, such as the Fox, Bijou, Tivoli, etc. A colored plastic marquee and miniature clear light bulbs surrounded the doorway, which made a nicer entrance that just slapping up a #6 above the doorway. The movie title would be place on marquee track next to the auditorium name, so when you went to the nameless multiplex, you still had that old-time feeling by seeing a movie at the Roxy :-)

I liked the first Marcus Theatre I was at, the Rivoli Cinema. A 300 seat 1 screener, the name is French (rue de Rivoli, famous Parisian shopping street) and has had a few famous counterparts, most notably the Rivoli Theatre in New York, which was the first cinema to feature air conditioning! I've also been to the Rivoli Cinema in Rome, also a 1 screener :-), which was showing a Fellini film at the time.

I agree the Shopping Center 16 or the General Cinemas-Oakdalefairstoneridge 20 is a bit generic. It would be cool to resurrect some of the classic names, especially since all the chains are hellbent on putting neon everywhere!!

***Message for Mike Spaeth...
Marcus took over the Cinemark Movies 10 in Milwaukee last year, and we converted it to the Marcus Cinemas-Southgate. Very easily confused with the South Shore and Southtown which are only a few miles away. After adding 4 screens and converting to all stadium seating, we're finally getting around to ripping off the Movies 10 sign to replace it with the signature Marcus neon, complete with neon globes and glass block towers.
http://www.businesswire.com/cnn/marcus/cinema.jpg

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