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It's quizz time.

We all know that the megaplex movie theatres of today grew from the singles of yesteryear into twins, then tri-plexes, quads etc., etc.

Question.
Who came up with the idea of the first twin theatre and where was it?

I have the answer...I just want to see how many others do as well!

Stanley Durwood's AMC Theaters in Kansas.
I want to say 1963 was the year.

Not even close...keep guessing!

No more guesses?

Everyone probably thought that Stan Durwoods first twin in Kansas City was the answer. If there are no more guesses, or only wrong guesses by midnight on Friday...I'll give the answer then.

I think you've got a real advantage over us on this one Roxy. You probably sold popcorn at their first show. You sure have us beat in the hands on the wheel experience chart. I can remember when they cut up a NJ huge "big box" mall theatre in 1970 +/- where I saw "Wait Until Dark" and when the guy with the knife leaps the whole house rose out of their seat. Hard to match 2500 doing that with 250 hopping!

It's funny that we now take a multi screen so for granted that we forget they never existed for a long period. Of course the "multi" followed fairly soon after the changeover from daily booking of different films to weekly shows. At our thetare into the early sixties there was a different movie almost every day. And don't forget that until tv people went to the movies to "see" the news. So your pre-pub CNN junkie went to the movies.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

The nations first twin theatre?

First of all, we are talking about movie theatres here. If we were including all theatres there would be many other twin or multiple auditorium theatres to include. It was the practice in the early part of the 20th century to build a 2nd smaller theatre above or on the roof of an existing theatre for use in the summertime. These were often partially open as to catch the evening breezes and create a more comfortable environment then was possible downstairs in the conventional theatre.

Other "stacked" twins were built so that one could be used as a combination house (both vaudeville and film), and the other strickly for vaudeville.

However, the first twinning that I know of, built with the intention to exhibit two different film programs occured at the Century Theatre in Baltimore.

The Century had opened in 1921, and was Baltimores leading presentation house. Above the Century Theatre was the Century Ballroom, a popular dancing and cabaret retreat.

It was purchased around 1926 by Loew's who decided to make better use of this prime piece of real estate by converting the ballroom into a 2nd theatre of the spanish atmospheric design seating 1,200 people.
The new theatre was called the Valencia. The two theatres shared a new large marquee and upright sign, vestibule and outer lobby. from there you took a short ramp up to the main lobby of the Century or got into elevators to go up to the valencia. They each ran first run movies, with separate admission (they both ran vaudeville acts as well).

Therefore here we have the oldest example (that I know of) of a theatre with two auditoriums sharing some facilities as a way to exhibit two films with separate admissions, in such a way as to spread the cost of such between the two.

Therefore the answers are: Century/Valencia theatres in Baltimore, Maryland by Loew's around 1926.

By the way, a popular joke in Baltimore back then was: What is the oldest theatre in Baltimore? Why the NEW Valencia of course...it's over a Century!

Mike: I don't know if there is a way to post pictures in this forum...so I'm sending you an e-mail with a picture of the first twin movie theatre. If you can post it...great!