anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
Here are a few memories from my old stomping grounds, Odeon Theatre, Edmonton, AB
Remembering Good Times at the Cinema
- Thread starter JediMichael
- Start date
anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
From the Rialto, same city.
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anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
From the Paramount.
anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
And the Westmount.
anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
Island Cinema, British Columbia - where I ran the projector and served the treats.
anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
And to the Capital 6, Victoria, BC.
I definitely had some great times at these joints. Star Wars, Close Encounters, Alien, Star Trek, Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, E.T., Ghostbusters, Return of the Jedi, Poltergeist, Aliens, Terminator 2, Abyss....etc etc etc.
I definitely had some great times at these joints. Star Wars, Close Encounters, Alien, Star Trek, Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, E.T., Ghostbusters, Return of the Jedi, Poltergeist, Aliens, Terminator 2, Abyss....etc etc etc.
Going through old pics....this was my room, probably around 2006. The posters, movie pins....and, if a seat in the theater was broken, we were suppose to put this Out of Order cover over it....of course I had to take one and kept it on my computer chair.....shhhhhhhh.......
So many things I've lost over the years. That cover is one where I just do not remember what happened to it.
So many things I've lost over the years. That cover is one where I just do not remember what happened to it.
I could do a lot of things with these!
Wicked cool photos
I had to take the cat to the vet to get some teeth removed, as hes getting older, and things happen...well, drove past that theater....and was just SO temped to grab a chair....but, just more things to pile up and get in the way.
Went to pick Phil up from the vet. Got a quick shot of that theaters sign...always sad to see.
Even the S is sad.
Google street view. Not sure the date taken.
Even the S is sad.
Google street view. Not sure the date taken.
Damn shame..
Going through more old footage looking for something else, I found this of a manager threading one of the projectors. I don't even remember why we filmed this, but I have used the footage for plenty other projects, usually with fast cuts and all. But, here is the full unedited 2 mins. He was one of their fasted at threading one.
Interesting to think that, unless you work in an IMAX theater, this is essentially a dead art. Theatrical releases are distributed on encrypted hard drives now.
Even those directors who swear on their great grandmother’s grave that they won’t shoot digital, and they have to use film… end up having their precious celluloid scanned and digitized in the end.
TazMan2000
Master Member
I have a friend of a friend that used to work at a theater to mount and route the film of those IMAX movies. Since the technology wasn't being used for quite some time, he was laid off and found other work. In 2017 right before Dunkirk was being released, the theater managed to find him and he said "...backed up a truck full of money to his house", to convince him to take a leave of absence from his current job in order to come back to the theater for a few weeks. After that they continued to ask him to return when other IMAX films were released. My friend and I got a tour of the projection room at that theater and I was pretty amazed at the size of the reels and how the film was threaded.
A lot of theaters in Canada have sold their IMAX projectors and repurposed their theaters for standard digital movies.
TazMan2000
A lot of theaters in Canada have sold their IMAX projectors and repurposed their theaters for standard digital movies.
TazMan2000
Yeah, and looking on google, there are only 30 imax theaters around the world that use actual film left. All the rest have also switched to digital imax.
My theater didn't have imax, but I did get to go to the Orlando Science center's Cinedome, which is a dome like theater screen, which was like the biggest at the time in the late 90s, but now totally dwarfed by the Las Vegas sphere.
Our youth group was there, and they let us see the projection room and film. Each frame is like the size of a playing card, and runs sideways. Pretty cool to see in person.
Apologies for dredging this thread back up, but I got a bit excited.
Because...
I FOUND THEM!
I actually found my old ticket stub collection! I had no idea that I should have been looking for an old cigar box:
Not that I actually WAS looking for them - I simply ran across this box buried under a bunch of stuff in a larger box... I cracked it open and there they were! Anyway, this is what I found:
As best I can remember, I think I probably started the practice of saving my stubs with Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's my absolute favorite film of all time, so I'm sure that at the time I probably wanted to save a little tangible reminder of what an amazing experience it was. I believe that the large paper tickets were probably a bit unusual for the time, but then again they were from a specific (and special) theater. I grew up in Colorado, and back then Denver had THREE theaters that showed 70mm films - The Cooper, The Continental, and The Century 21. I saw Raiders in glorious 70mm at The Century 21. And obviously I saw it there three times that year. Back then, tickets had very little (or no) information on them, so I had to make a notation about which film it was and which time I had seen it (if I saw a film multiple times) - you can see the I, II, and III notations up in the right corners:
My first time seeing it was 25 June '81:
I can't quite make out the month of the second viewing - it's too faded
And my third time seeing it is a bit surprising - October?! But now that I think about it... back then, if a film was a hit and was raking in the dough, it would stay in theaters for MONTHS. In fact, wasn't the original Star Wars in theaters for nearly the entire YEAR?!
These stubs are also from 1981 - the more ubiquitous and standard "carnival" style ticket... Excalibur and An American Werewolf in London:
Look at that price - a buck seventy-five?! I'm guessing it must have been a matinee.
1982 was an absolutely bonkers year for film - these are just a few from back then. I didn't see every single nerd genre film that year, and I believe that as a rule, I only saved the stubs from the films that really made an impression on me. Top three, left to right - Poltergeist, E.T., The Thing. Bottom three, left to right - Tron, Conan the Barbarian, The Dark Crystal. My mind is blown by the prices!
I saw E.T. three times that summer:
And I saw The Dark Crystal twice, later that year:
This is the "Willy Wonka-style Golden Ticket" that I was talking about, for Return of the Jedi - I saw it in 70mm at The Continental. And as you can see, I saw it three more times that summer:
The following year was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I also saw it in 70mm at The Century 21 - clearly they were ahead of the curve, as far as modern ticketing technology went. ToD didn't have the same magic as Raiders, but I liked it well enough to see it again a second time, only six days later!
Saw Romancing the Stone twice in '84. Loved that film!
Also saw Terry Gilliam's Brazil more than once in '85 - it's my absolute favorite of his films. Apparently I didn't save any of the stubs from subsequent viewings.
Saw ALIENS twice (at least) in '86. Saw it in 70mm at The Continental:
Here's an interesting juxtaposition - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out in 1989. I have to imagine that I first saw it on opening day, and that's gotta be the old-style stub. Probably from The Continental? I saw it again at a multiplex, hence the modern printed stub - they had been in use for a few years by that point.
And continuing on into the modern age of ticket stubs... Tim Burton's Batman:
I saw The Rocketeer for the first time on my birthday!
Saw it again about a month later. Loved it then, still love it to this day.I pulled out a few more from around that time - late '80s into the '90s. These films definitely made an impression.
And more from the same era. The United Artists Theaters stubs were definitely sub-par quality wise.
The Star Wars Special Editions. Yep, saw all three in 70mm at The Continental.
If I remember correctly, The Fifth Element was the last 70mm film that I saw at The Continental - I moved to L.A. in the spring of '98.
And finally, the stub from the Ben Burtt directed IMAX documentary Special Effects: Anything Can Happen. Back then, I don't believe that IMAX had become a "thing" quite yet for studio films - had to go to the museum to see it in their IMAX theater.
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Those are Amazing!Apologies for dredging this thread back up, but I got a bit excited.
Because...
I FOUND THEM!
I actually found my old ticket stub collection! I had no idea that I should have been looking for an old cigar box:
View attachment 1952793
Not that I actually WAS looking for them - I simply ran across this box buried under a bunch of stuff in a larger box... I cracked it open and there they were! Anyway, this is what I found:
View attachment 1952794
As best I can remember, I think I probably started the practice of saving my stubs with Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's my absolute favorite film of all time, so I'm sure that at the time I probably wanted to save a little tangible reminder of what an amazing experience it was. I believe that the large paper tickets were probably a bit unusual for the time, but then again they were from a specific (and special) theater. I grew up in Colorado, and back then Denver had THREE theaters that showed 70mm films - The Cooper, The Continental, and The Century 21. I saw Raiders in glorious 70mm at The Century 21. And obviously I saw it there three times that year. Back then, tickets had very little (or no) information on them, so I had to make a notation about which film it was and which time I had seen it (if I saw a film multiple times) - you can see the I, II, and III notations up in the right corners:
View attachment 1952795
My first time seeing it was 25 June '81:
View attachment 1952796
I can't quite make out the month of the second viewing - it's too faded
View attachment 1952797
And my third time seeing it is a bit surprising - October?! But now that I think about it... back then, if a film was a hit and was raking in the dough, it would stay in theaters for MONTHS. In fact, wasn't the original Star Wars in theaters for nearly the entire YEAR?!
View attachment 1952798
These stubs are also from 1981 - the more ubiquitous and standard "carnival" style ticket... Excalibur and An American Werewolf in London:
View attachment 1952799
Look at that price - a buck seventy-five?! I'm guessing it must have been a matinee.
1982 was an absolutely bonkers year for film - these are just a few from back then. I didn't see every single nerd genre film that year, and I believe that as a rule, I only saved the stubs from the films that really made an impression on me. Top three, left to right - Poltergeist, E.T., The Thing. Bottom three, left to right - Tron, Conan the Barbarian, The Dark Crystal. My mind is blown by the prices!
View attachment 1952800
I saw E.T. three times that summer:
View attachment 1952801
And I saw The Dark Crystal twice, later that year:
View attachment 1952802
This is the "Willy Wonka-style Golden Ticket" that I was talking about, for Return of the Jedi - I saw it in 70mm at The Continental. And as you can see, I saw it three more times that summer:
View attachment 1952803
The following year was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I also saw it in 70mm at The Century 21 - clearly they were ahead of the curve, as far as modern ticketing technology went. ToD didn't have the same magic as Raiders, but I liked it well enough to see it again a second time, only six days later!
View attachment 1952804
Saw Romancing the Stone twice in '84. Loved that film!
View attachment 1952805
Also saw Terry Gilliam's Brazil more than once in '85 - it's my absolute favorite of his films. Apparently I didn't save any of the stubs from subsequent viewings.
View attachment 1952806
Saw ALIENS twice (at least) in '86. Saw it in 70mm at The Continental:
View attachment 1952807
Here's an interesting juxtaposition - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out in 1989. I have to imagine that I first saw it on opening day, and that's gotta be the old-style stub. Probably from The Continental? I saw it again at a multiplex, hence the modern printed stub - they had been in use for a few years by that point.
View attachment 1952808
And continuing on into the modern age of ticket stubs... Tim Burton's Batman:
View attachment 1952809
I saw The Rocketeer for the first time on my birthday!
View attachment 1952810
I pulled out a few more from around that time - late '80s into the '90s. These films definitely made an impression.
View attachment 1952811
And more from the same era. The United Artists Theaters stubs were definitely sub-par quality wise.
View attachment 1952812
The Star Wars Special Editions. Yep, saw all three in 70mm at The Continental.
View attachment 1952813
If I remember correctly, The Fifth Element was the last 70mm film that I saw at The Continental - I moved to L.A. in the spring of '98.
View attachment 1952814
And finally, the stub from the Ben Burtt directed IMAX documentary Special Effects: Anything Can Happen. Back then, I don't believe that IMAX had become a "thing" quite yet for studio films - had to go to the museum to see it in their IMAX theater.
View attachment 1952815
Most of mine are handwritten as up until the multiplex invasion it was those small bus type generic stubs.
Thats a really nice collection!
Thanks!
A lot of memories tied up in these little bits of paper. That was all a lifetime ago...
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