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But inside, owing to the interior design of famous Hollywood designer Nat Smythe, are a series of painted murals, eight shades of gold leaf and burnished gold on the relief elements. 50 cent upcharge, collected just after the lights come down.įrom the outside, it is a largely unassuming box, it's beautiful marquee notwithstanding. It features a balcony, as well, and today you can sit there for a mere. His ornate plan for the Washoe would make it the last theater in the United States designed in the "Nouveau Deco" style, a combination of the modernist Art Deco and the more organic Art Nouveau styes. Marcus Priteca, who also designed such legendary theaters as the Pantages theaters in Seattle and San Diego, the Orpheum in San Francisco and the Warner in Huntington Park, CA. The Washoe Amusement Company was formed shortly thereafter, and began to plan for a replacement.ĭesigned by the architect B. The Sundial would burn to the ground that same year.
The Washoe was built on the site of two previous theaters which were themselves impressive buildings: the Margaret Theater, built in 1897 and named after Marcus Daly's wife, and the Sundial Theater, the name given to the Margaret's extensive redesign in 1929. It's an astonishingly beautiful theater - ranked as the fifth in the county for architectural splendor by the Smithsonian - and you can still see films there today, although you might well find your eyes wandering away from the film to better inspect the amazing interior decoration.
#Washoe theater anaconda montana movie#
Today, even the drive-in is nearly extinct, though the shifting exigencies of the era of Covid has brought them back somewhat.īut not all the movie palaces have gone - one particular treasure remains in the unlikely setting of Anaconda, MT. While they were presumably watching the film, anecdotal evidence suggests that there may have been other priorities. In many cases, they were temporarily replaced with drive-ins, places where teenagers could park in the relative privacy of their own automobiles. The construction of such palaces would decline following the end of World War II, as television and radio, as well as American's changing film-going habits changed the field. There was also Sid Grauman's legendary Chinese and Egyptian theaters in California. Another early example was the Regent Palace, built in Harlem, followed by the Strand Theater in Broadway. The first was perhaps the Hoblitzelle Majestic Theatre in Houston, TX. You left the mundane trappings of your home behind and stepped into opulence that, more often than not, outshone even the film you were seeing. Plus, it has a state of the art projection system allowing it to show the most up-to-date movies.Before cinemas were reduced to a series of drab grey boxes with "stadium seating," going to the movies used to be a way of going to another world. She herself has played a hands on part in the preservation of the Washoe. She gave us a personal tour and history of the theatre. We'd like to give a bit shoutout to a very nice staff member named Dianne. The love that has gone into restoring and maintaining it is evident everywhere. The Washoe is one of the theatres that set the standard for the theatres of my youth.
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Plexiglass windows outside the theatre displayed movie placards with scenes from the movie. The movie title on the marquee was bordered with incandescent bulbs. The overhead marque announced the theatre name with neon lettering.
The ticket booth was outside under the marquee. Ushers with flashlights helped you find a seat in the dark.
Seats were velvet covered (or sometime leather). It was a time when movie theatres were ornately decorated auditoriums with billowy red curtains that pulled aside to reveal the main screen. For me, it was an opportunity to step back in time to the movie theatres of my youth. During our summer road trip my wife and I made a special side trip to Anaconda just to experience this theatre.
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