Abandoned Theaters + Janus Films

75 Abandoned Theaters from around the USA

bostontheater

HolyokeMass

#47 in holyoke MA is the victory theater. I am part of a group documenting the restoration efforts, which are already underway. one early project was to interview very elderly people from the area (before they died!) about their memories of the space, to aid in an accurate restoration. these interviews are all on film.” Cicily Corbett

Buffalo NY buffalonewyork

I have identified the Buffalo theatre (#43). It was called The Sattler Theatre, also known as The Casino and The Broadway (or Dipson’s Broadway), located at 512-516 Broadway. The Sattler was built in 1914, and was in continuous use as a movie theater until the mid-60s, when it was converted first into a mosque, then a Christian revival church (“God’s Holy Temple”) for the local African-American community. It was designed by Henry L. Spann , who also designed other Buffalo theatres, including the North Park (which is still operating as an art-house theatre, near my home Jeff O’Connell

Queen Theater queenHonlulu Honolulu
I saw the Russian Hamlet in this theater and my late mother saw Bergman’s Silence here.

They evoke many feelings of beauty, majesty, longing for the memory of decades of experienced magic, tragedy of neglect for ornate architecture that was once common and taken for granted, and wish that they could all be brought back to life as performance art and cinema spaces. Perhaps some say these are examples of “ruin porn” (the voyeuristic and exploitative celebration of decay), but I disagree. They are certainly motivators to reconsider and reclaim the urban landscape as a resource and not symbols of crime, death, and the Death Of America. Jeff O’Connell

  • Janusboxsetstill

    50 Years of Janus Film

    Cyrus I. Harvey R.I.P.
    a quirky entrepreneur who created two significant brands in disparate fields — Janus Films, a distributor of movies by international directors like Bergman, Fellini and Kurosawa, and Crabtree & Evelyn, the purveyor of aromatic soaps and botanicals — died Thursday in Dayville, Conn. He was 85 and lived in Woodstock, Conn.

    Harvard Film Archives

    The founders of Janus Films, Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey Jr. (both actors), eventually purchased the Brattle Theatre, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, converting it into an art film movie house. Haliday and Harvey continued to show Janus titles at the Brattle until 1966, when they sold Janus Films to its new owners, Saul Turell and William Becker.

    Janus film Charlie Chaplin..

    Below I’ve linked the images to their corresponding pages within the Janus site, for each Charlie Chaplin film they’ve made available so far.