Saturday, February 19, 2000
Theater to drop curtain on '60s wide-view films
Ohio's Neon Movies last U.S. location showing Cinerama
BY JAMES HANNAH
The Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio — The final credits will roll on Cinerama films at the only U.S. theater showing the wide-view movies that peaked in popularity in the 1960s.
The downtown theater has lost money because attendance has dropped and too many seats had to be sacrificed to the additional equipment needed to show Cinerama movies such as How the West Was Won.
“We wish we could play it forever and ever,” Mike Norton, manager of The Neon Movies, said Friday. “Unfortunately, we're a business and have to pay our bills.”
The theater began playing Cinerama movies in August 1996, when former movie projectionist John Harvey agreed to allow The Neon Movies to use his Cinerama projectors and screen.
Cinerama surrounds viewers with sight and sound shown on three movie projectors and blasted over eight stereo speakers onto a screen bent 146 degrees to match the curve of the human eye. It is designed to give viewers the feeling of being in the middle of the action.
Cinerama was in general use from 1952 to 1964, but only seven films were made because of their high cost.
Steve Budd, president of CityWide Development Corp., which owns the theater, said Cinerama was a huge success the first year. But he said attendance has dropped.
“This last year was a tough year for the theater. We lost a little bit of money,” he said.
Mr. Budd said 88 of the theater's 300 seats had to be removed to accommodate the Cinerama equipment. Those 88 missing seats cost the theater an estimated $8,000 last year during 16 sellouts of the Blair Witch Project, he said.
The theater holds weekend screenings every few months of Cinerama films, which also include This is Cinerama and Cinerama Holiday.It plans a farewell showing the first two weekends in April.
The Neon Movies will continue to show popular, independent, foreign, classic, cult and documentary films.
The only other place that shows Cinerama movies is the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England, although a theater in Seattle is preparing to show Cinerama movies later this year.
Over the years, Dayton's Cinerama theater attracted such luminaries as Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, and Marianna Thomas, the widow of commentator Lowell Thomas.
Mr. Budd said he is a fan of Cinerama and takes no joy in pulling the plug on it.
“It's a fascinating technology and interesting piece of history,” he said. “I'd love to be able to say that we could continue to keep Cinerama at The Neon Movies and show it for the next 15 years.
“But we really don't have an option. It really came down to the survival of the theater.”
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