Centre Theater Is Closing Its Doors
By Chris Hicks, Movie Critic
Deseret News, 22 January 1989, page E10
Deseret News, 22 January 1989, page E10
Article Summary:
The Centre Theater will close after the final showings of "Cocoon: The Return" on 24 January 1989. It will reopen briefly on 2 February 1989 for a special one-night charity screening for the Salt Lake Valley Mental Health of Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 circus epic "The Greatest Show on Earth." Tickets for the theater's last performance are $25 each.
Cineplex Odeon Theaters has let its lease run out and there are plans to raze the Centre Theatre and build an office tower and small shopping plaza, with a six-screen movie house.
With the Centre gone the only two large single-auditorium theaters left in the valley will be the Villa Theater and the Regency Theater.
"Smaller theaters can still gather some of that special magic that comes from sitting in a darkened room surrounded by strangers watching images flicker on a huge screen, but 1,000 people all sharing an emotion is certainly more invigorating than 500 or 200 or 20.
"It's sad to see the Centre leave because that's one less such showplace in Salt Lake City. And because it perhaps marks the end of an era.
"And it's just one step closer to all of Salt Lake's cardboard cutout crackerbox theaters being the rule rather than the exception.
"If going out to a movie begins to seem too much like watching a video at home, people may just stop going out to a movie."
Cineplex Odeon Theaters has let its lease run out and there are plans to raze the Centre Theatre and build an office tower and small shopping plaza, with a six-screen movie house.
With the Centre gone the only two large single-auditorium theaters left in the valley will be the Villa Theater and the Regency Theater.
"Smaller theaters can still gather some of that special magic that comes from sitting in a darkened room surrounded by strangers watching images flicker on a huge screen, but 1,000 people all sharing an emotion is certainly more invigorating than 500 or 200 or 20.
"It's sad to see the Centre leave because that's one less such showplace in Salt Lake City. And because it perhaps marks the end of an era.
"And it's just one step closer to all of Salt Lake's cardboard cutout crackerbox theaters being the rule rather than the exception.
"If going out to a movie begins to seem too much like watching a video at home, people may just stop going out to a movie."