Tuesday, May 31, 2016
LOST Theaters of HARRISBURG & Vicinity: "At a deadly pace........
LOST Theaters of HARRISBURG & Vicinity: "At a deadly pace........: It Came From OUTER SPACE! "Thrilling! Startling!" This 1953 Harrisburg newspaper ad hyped both the new 3-D and wide sc...
Monday, May 30, 2016
"At a deadly pace........
It Came From OUTER SPACE!
"Thrilling! Startling!"
This 1953 Harrisburg newspaper ad hyped both the new 3-D and wide screen processes though Outer Space was not in CinemaScope. (Wide screen - "Wide Vision Screen" - was also added to the Senate's logo, bottom right.)
It was in very effective black-and-white 3-D, however, and included stereophonic sound.
The Senate primarily screened films released by UI (Universal International) and RKO but in the CinemaScope era it also played the Harrisburg first-runs of 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope films, commencing with How To Marry A Millionaire, also 1953.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
SENATE Theatre
Market Square
Coming next was A Child Is Waiting, one of Judy Garland's last films. Burt Lancaster co-starred.
Note "Welcome Gov. Scranton" on the marquee.
A QUICK DECLINE: About a decade or so so later. The beautiful Senate was reduced to showing "adult" i.e., porno films, on Market Square.
Note the letters missing on the marquee..... No doubt nobody cared now.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
STATE Theatre
 |
| STATE Theatre, 212 Locust St., Harrisburg, PA. USA 17112 |
The State Theatre was located on Locust Street between 2nd Street and
3rd Street, a little ways down from Capitol Park. The site had been
occupied by theaters since approximately 1900. First on this site was
the Lyceum Theatre and then the Orpheum Theatre, the latter was
demolished in 1925 to make way for the State Theatre.
The State Theatre was housed in a large stone building
and featured a wide, narrow rectangular marquee with small display
panels on each end. A large vertical sign towered three stories at one
end of the marquee.
An ornate stand-alone ticket booth was in a wide but
narrow exterior space with several entrance doors. The interior of the
State maintained the most overtly theatrical ambiance of any Harrisburg
theater.
There were two lobbies, the first a kind of arcade, and
the second an elaborate, palatial affair with chandeliers and much
architectural detail. Restrooms were downstairs at opposite ends of the
second (main) lobby that also included several display frames for
posters and a refreshment stand. I seem to recall a second-floor balcony
(mezzanine) space over this lobby that led to the actual seating
balcony.
The State Theatre had one of the largest auditoriums
and screens in the city. It certainly had the largest screen when it was
renovated for CinemaScope in 1953. Fox’s "The Robe" kicked off the
wide-screen revolution in Harrisburg with a huge curved screen and a
state-of-the-art 4-track stereophonic sound system.
During the first phase of this era the State Theatre
alternated 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope films with the Senate Theatre on
Market Square but they were much more impressive at the State Theatre.
During the 1940’s and 1950’s the State Theatre
alternated Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Columbia releases. A
relative also recalls big bands and stage shows at the State Theatre in
the 1940’s. In the 1960’s films such as "The Wild Bunch, " “Barbarella,"
"Such Good Friends”, and "2001, A Space Odyssey" were screened.
Alas, "2001" did not prove prophetic for the State
Theatre which was razed in the early-1970’s to make way for an office
building. Poor choice for Harrisburg. It would have made a wonderful
downtown performing arts center.
 | |
| A view of Locust St. and the STATE Theatre looking toward Capitol Park, half a block away. |
CinemaScope Films in Harrisburg
 |
| An unusual collective movie magazine ad for the first six CinemaScope films released by 20th Century-Fox, 1953-1954. |
CinemaScope was the first viable commercial wide-screen process
developed by 20th in 1953. It was Fox's answer to 3-D and one of the
tag lines was "You see it without glasses." The patented
process was eventually leased to other studios (MGM and Warner Bros.)
though many other wide-screen processes - SuperScope, VistaVision,
etc. - were also developed.
CinemaScope also introduced stereophonic sound to the masses, but most
only in first-run theaters that had been converted to the new
4-channel sound system.
THE ROBE opened at the State Theatre in Harrisburg with much ceremony.
HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE opened at the Senate which, however, lacked
the space for the huge curved screen that had been installed at the
much larger State. Both theaters had impressive new stereo sound
systems.
Both theaters also continued to provide the first Harrisburg runs of
ensuing Fox 'Scope pictures.
 |
Newspaper Ad: The ADVENTURES of HAJJI BABA (1954) Harrisburg, PA.
One of the lesser-known early CinemaScope productions.
There was a title song (sung by Nat "King" Cole): "Hajji, Hajji, Hajji, Hajji, Hajji Baba, Hajji Baba. He was always in love. In love, In love......." Song & Score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Lyrics by Ned Washington (as I recall). |
CINERAMA
CinemaScope was also an off-shoot of Cinerama, an even grander
process, which, however, required three cameras to photograph and
three projectors to screen. It also required the virtual renovation of
any theater showing Cinerama films and so they were only screened in
large cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Washington. etc.
CinemaScope required only one projector with a special anamorphic
lens.
By the era of 2001 A SPACE ODESSEY there was a Cinerama theater in the Colonial Park Plaze shopping mall outside of Harrisburg.
Note: There is still a Cinerama theater in Hollywood.
www.flickr.com/photos/39527581@N07/4769617195/
www.flickr.com/photos/39527581@N07/4769617195/
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