Finished my tea and thought about a movie theatre from my past. There are a few, but one that snapped to mind was The Roxy in Barrie, Ontario (Canada).
I decided to cut to the chase and do an Internet search: The first website I checked from the search results was one called "Cinema Treasures" (www.cinematreasures.org). Not to put down the site, but I immediately noticed an error. The page dedicated to the Roxy stated that the palace closed in 1975. As Lucifer, that cosmic comedian, would sometimes tell Baltar in Battlestar Galactica, "well... not exactly". In fact, I cannot remember what year the Roxy was shuttered, but the last film I recall seeing there was Poltergeist; and that would have been June of 1982. I'm sure there was another after that one, though. (The first flick I recall seeing at that theatre was King Kong in December of 1976.)
Okay, there was a bunch in between, in a non-chronological order: Moonraker; Prophecy; Starship Invasions; Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Superman; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Fog; Battle Beyond the Stars; The Amityville Horror; The Concorde...Airport '79; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; a lot of 'spacey' stuff, by the looks of things (it was the main house, after all). But, surprisingly enough, not Star Wars. That played across the street in the much smaller Imperial 2 (get it?). This anomaly was probably engineered by the fact that the film playing at the Roxy in June of 1977 had already been booked months ahead of time, and, of course, as we all know, Star Wars kind of "surprised" us all... especially the exhibitors.
Back to the Roxy: It was a grand palace of a theatre. It opened in 1931, in the era of palace theatres.
"Cinema Treasures" website entry on The Roxy...
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3710
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