Racine use to
have many movie theaters.
These are the
ones I can remember:
Granada Rialto
Venetian Uptowner
West Racine
Marcus Brothers Theaters
Perry & Washington Ave
Rapids Dr. & Mount Pleasant
Regency Mall
Westgate
Outdoor - Ohio & Washington
Mid City
Outdoor – Hy32 & Chicory Road
Going south is
the Keno Outdoor – Hy 32 South of Kenosha
Going north
was the 41-Twin Outdoors – 27th Street in Franklin, WI
Posts
20 comments:
They became greedy. Going to the movies all of a sudden became very expensive, and the screens became smaller.
With the advent of VHS and now Red Box and Netflix, etc., who wants to spend that kind of money anymore on something you can do in the privacy of your own home?
It is a shame, because there is something special to being in a group of people reacting to a comedic or suspensful moment.
Wasn't the West Racine theater called The Capital?
Cinema Treasures lists 15 theaters that have called Racine home.
I always wondered why they called some of them "Orpheum" -
Orpheus [ˈɔːfɪəs -fjuːs]
n
(Myth & Legend / Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a poet and lyre-player credited with the authorship of the poems forming the basis of Orphism. He married Eurydice and sought her in Hades after her death. He failed to win her back and was killed by a band of bacchantes.
Then I had to wonder - what is a bacchanate?
bacchante [bəˈkæntɪ]
n pl bacchantes [bəˈkæntɪz]
1. (Myth & Legend / Classical Myth & Legend) a priestess or female votary of Bacchus
2. a drunken female reveller
LOL!
Watch as my friend, Jugghead82, a true Othello*, reviews another Bacchanal favorite of the Racine ghetto - 211 Black Berry.
If you're White - it turns your mouth Purple/Black. LOL!
OH, but I digress, so anyways, the list and more information about the 15 theaters can be found here,
Cinema Treasures
*As in Othello, Washington (see also Racine, WI.): A small little town in Washington state that no body knows about because its a shit hole, pregnant teens everywhere, pot heads, and wanna-be gangsters make up this town. drama is everywhere and everyone talks shit about one another. there is no decent girls, they are all skanks and homie-hoppers. (your local 'Hood may vary)
And of course, there is ALWAYS that couple in the back who thinks they are watching the Submarine Races!
Little Detroit is left with no theaters and only 2 national, full-size supermarkets within it's city limits for a published population of 80k. Lots of opportunity if we had someone with a clue as mayor and in city development.
Merry Christmas Irregulars, We wish to inform you that our beloved Jay Cutler will be playing injured, starting for the Chicago Bears with his bruised uterus.
Aaron Rogers may be shamed into playing with Jay's heroic decision to play with his injury. Aaron has been sidelined foe many weeks, with an alleged fractured collarbone, but rumor has it that Aaron may remained sidelined due to an ongoing yeast infection.
What would Nitche and Butkus say?
"We played with ichy butts our entire career.
And that my friends is the truth!
There are now too many anon's to keep track of.
Here is some more useless info.
Jay Cutler was born in Santa Claus, Indiana.
So let's hope that Jay brings a big present to Green Bay this Sunday.
Anon, according to you, it may be the battle of the girly quarterbacks.
Just remember Jesus had
an Accord, so says orbs.
Marcus Theaters, MLG Commercial: Lift the deed restriction against theater use on the Westgate Cinema site.
As many Racine natives and/or residents know, the Westgate site has a heritage of being a movie theater site. In 1949, the Racine Outdoor Theater drive-in opened on this site, adopting the Westgate name in 1952. While Racine had various other movie theatres such as the Rialto, Uptown, Capitol, Venetian, Granada, and others, the Westgate was the only drive-in in the Belle City, with a capacity of 600 cars to take in that unique experience. For almost thirty years the tradition remained steady until its closure in 1978 and subsequent demolition. Several years later, the Westgate Cinemas indoor quintuplex theater opened, for many years serving as Racine's premier movie house. A state-of-the-art complex it was; in addition to being Racine's first cinema to feature stadium seating and digital sound, Westgate welcomed the visitor immediately with its bright atrium, roomy lobby, and clean concessions stand, enhancing many a moviegoer's cinema experience for well over a decade. Nonetheless, with the advent of the Renaissance Cinema in Sturtevant, Westgate closed in September of 2006, which is how it has remained ever since. Almost immediately it was placed for sale, and almost immediately you have advertised its availability. However, for six years it has sat empty and boarded up, with no buyers for the property thus far and likely none (only you would know) in the forseeable future. The reason for the lack of buyers can be traced back to one simple thing, that being the Marcus Theatres placing a deed restriction against theater use.
Sign this petition.
Westgate Cinema
5101 Washington Ave
Racine, WI
Type: Retail,Land
Availability: Sale
Price: $1,600,000.00
Size: 4.35 ac
The theater is being relocated and will be available summer/fall 2006.
The property will be deed restricted against theater uses.
Racine Commercial Retail,Land Property for Sale
Racine's last movie theater to be demolished
May 11, 2009 from The Racine Post:
The Racine Fire Department, pending approval of the City Council, will use the shuttered Regency Theater, 5230 Durand Ave., for practice drills before the building is demolished, according to Chief Steve Hansen. (The Public Safety and Licensing Committee approved the training Monday night.)
Firefighters will use the old theater, which shutdown last month, to practice forcible entry drills, to cut holes in the building's roof and to bust through walls to simulate rescuing a trapped victim, Hansen said.
The theater will not be set on fire during the training, he said.
"It's rare that the (abandoned buildings) come available," Hansen said. "We try to take advantage of them as quickly as possible."
Marcus Theatres closed the Regency theater, which had been serving as a budget theater since 2006, at the end of April. The company had announced plans to close the theater in January.
The move shut the door on movie theaters in Racine. Marcus closed the Westgate movie theater in 2006 after opening the 12-screen Renaissance theater on Washington Avenue in Sturtevant. Racine no longer has a theater that shows movies.
Prior to Regency closing, Racine had an active movie theater until at least 1928, when the Venetian Theatre opened Downtown (I couldn't find the date the Rialto opened).
Yes, kk, it was the Capital.
There was also the Rex movie theater downtown. Before my time, but the building still existed when I was a kid at State and Main.
Tearing down the Venetian was one of the stupidest things ever done in Racine. Remember, it was "experts" who said it should come down. The same type of clueless idiots run Racine today.
PC Police!
This theater opened as the Capitol in 1920. It was twinned in 1976, and much of its interior decor was covered. The Marcus chain purchased the theater in 1981 and renamed it the Park. It closed on Labor Day, 1987.
O - not A.
Capital vs. capitol
As a noun, capital refers to (1) a city that serves as a center of government, (2) wealth in the form of money or property, and (3) a capital letter. As an adjective, it means (1) principal, (2) involving financial assets, and (3) deserving of the death penalty. There are other definitions of capital, but these are the most commonly used ones.
Capitol has two very specific definitions (outside ancient Rome): (1) a U.S. state legislature building, and (2) the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. State capitols are located in the capital cities of U.S. states, and the Capitol is located in the capital city of the U.S. If you’re not talking about any of these capitol buildings, then the word you want is probably capital.
The Capitol building located in Washington, D.C. is spelled with a capital C, but state capitol buildings ordinarily don’t have the capital C (which is not to say that some writers don’t capitalize them anyway).
GO ahead... call me a Dick.
Dick in The Dirt
I know this guy named Richard
He's my red-necked friend
He does everything the hard way
You see, Rich don't like to bend.
Wasn't there one on Durand by the piggly wiggly (then sav u foods)?
I wavered between the O and the A, unsure when I posted, so... not Dick, but Richard. I let the spell checker do it's auto-correct and left it at that. I've learned long ago that little things like that mean little in the long run.
Yes, Why Not?, there was a theater on Durand for a while/the Marc(?). It left, they split up the building and it became a Blockbuster on one side and Allied Pool on the other. Gee... I had to think on that one for awhile. I think it is a Dollar General located there at the moment.
It is hard to distinguish the Anons apart from one another. I'm glad to see some of our regular readers posting. Hopefully, they will take a name and be accountable for their opinions. Manners always seem to improve even when you have an assumed identity. Some anons seem very well versed and could be a good addition to the site.
kkdither said...
"Yes, Why Not?, there was a theater on Durand for a while/the Marc(?). It left, they split up the building and it became a Blockbuster on one side and Allied Pool on the other. Gee... I had to think on that one for awhile. I think it is a Dollar General located there at the moment."
I don't remember that.
Richard Head said...
"Cinema Treasures"
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/united-states/wisconsin/racine?status=all
I got the Rex and RKO Main Street Theatres mixed up. The RKO is the one they took down when I was a kid. Same intersection, but different side of the street. I remember the bowling alley that the Rex turned into, but not the theatre itself.
Richard Head said...
"Capital vs. capitol"
I used to know that stuff.
kkdither said...
"It is hard to distinguish the Anons apart from one another. I'm glad to see some of our regular readers posting. Hopefully, they will take a name and be accountable for their opinions. Manners always seem to improve even when you have an assumed identity. Some anons seem very well versed and could be a good addition to the site."
I agree. It's difficult to follow the logic or argument when opposing views post as Anonymous. Type in a name like jedwis does.
Good observation, a few of us have done our homework just like Richard. Being anon has it's advantages, it keep those failures running things guessing. You never know who might be posting here. :)
"Some anons seem very well versed"
Jewdis works too..
I agree with the other Anon. There are many of us, some better spoken than others, but you can reach out to us here collectively anytime.
The local media market is controlled by a select few just like the local real estate market. A friend of mine tried to buy the Park theater years ago, but when they made an offer it was sold to Sam Azarian within days for a bargain price. It needed a lot of work and could have been something great, but now it is just deteriorating storage with more unpaid taxes.
If you aren't part of the insiders club, sometimes it is better to just be Anon. Racine politics are corrupt and people get targeted on a regular basis, so there is some rational and justification to it.
We can appreciate a good website when we see one, just like you can appreciate a good comment when you see one, and not downgrade its value by the lack of a handle.
Long live Anon.
There are enough of us who care about the city to post here and realize there is no leadership present in city hall. It's time for many of us to band together and clear out all of the incompetent pretenders in city government.
(Former Anon)
Now I understand. Duh.
Yes, posting anonymously could have its advantages when dealing with a regime that treats opponents viciously.
I'll have to try it sometime, or have I already?
posting as anon works for me when I am not signed in.
KK. yes it was called the Capital.
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