Look at that gorgeous photo! Here's the artist's website with more beautiful photos. I'm excited to catch the artist lecture by Youngsuk Suh tonight at the CCA. Again, it starts at 7.
I don't even want to hear about how great John Waters probably was at the Crest last night. I'm a schmuck for not going. On that note, do you guys remember this short that they used to play at the Tower before the movies? Was it at the Crest, too? Anyways, I would like to officially kick off my campaign to get this brought back. I love it so much. Can people reading who work at those theaters look into this?I don't think I'm gonna have time to photoshop Lost merch, but I'd still like to see yours.
I'm so aged, I remember when that short played -- the last thing between the trailers and the feature -- at the long-gone Showcase Theatre on L Street in the early 1980s, and when Landmark shuttered it in '84, it would play over at Tower, and it got so scratched and worn out I used to wonder if it was going to actually break right then and there on the screen every time it played. But it never got old; back in an era when you actually had to remind people not to smoke in a movie theatre, what better person to do it?
ReplyDeleteSame thing - I always remember that from the Showcase, not the Tower.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, somewhere I still have a bunch of those handbills from the Showcase circa 1982-83. It was quite a place.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't remember the Showcase, but I definitely remember that clip from the Tower.
ReplyDeleteOne my sisters got the monthly playbill & we went there 2-3 times a month, so I always covered my textbooks with them instead of grocery bags. I still remember the History textbook covered with John Waters week :).
ReplyDeletePeople get sentimental about the Alhambra, but the Showcase really was the best theater Sacramento ever had.
I got my picture taken with him. It all feels surreal now.
ReplyDeleteI only got to go to the Showcase once (to see Dance Craze when I was like 14) but the memory doesn't even seem real to me. It's like my brain can't process the fact that a theater like that once existed in Sacramento.
ReplyDelete-miller
I've never heard of the Showcase. L and what? Are there any pictures out there?
ReplyDelete4th & L, I believe. By Macy's & 4th Street Grill. I'd love to see some pictures too.
ReplyDelete-miller
I think it was L & 4th street. And yes, also saw Dance Craze there. It really was an amazing theater. Hard to remember that back when cable TV and home video wasn't around, you could live in a small city like here and have access to such an awesome repertoire theater. We always had a family outing to the Showcase (and Beer's old location @ 14th & J) at least once a month, more during summer vacation.
ReplyDeleteIf anybody would have photos/ephemera, my guess would be Tom Tolley at the Sacramento Room since they have photos of some other defunct theaters around town. It'd be a shame if they didn't because like I said, best theater Sacramento will probably ever have.
What is dance craze?
ReplyDeleteUK 80s documentary about 2 Tone. I got to see it because my oldest sister was deep in her ska phase when it came to town.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Showcase was next to Harry's Bar and Grill, which was on the corner of 4th and L. If I trust my memory, it closed in 1984 as the marketplace for a single-screen theatre playing older and first-run foreign and older films was collapsing with the onset of cable and VCRs ... although some of the films that played there were rare enough that they might not even be on DVD even today.
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I saw Gone with the Wind and the Fame movie at the Showcase when I was maybe 7 years old. Yes Miller, I totally agree with you about it being real.
ReplyDelete-Anna
I mean not real.
ReplyDelete-adk
I'm a bit late, but one of the first things I asked for at Tower was "Is the John Waters no smoking" bit here? No luck. I even looked for it on the internet figuring I'd buy it myself and have it played before movies.
ReplyDeleteI think that's when someone who didn't shower or wash uniforms much said I was there to fire everyone and quit. Then I bought a hamper and started washing uniforms myself for a while.
Roxanne should volunteer for that duty.