Rediscovering (Walt) Disney

As I was researching a couple of other theaters, including the Hellman, when I came across these two newspaper articles. They both address a project I had never heard of and that apparently never came to be: Construction of another Hellman-owned theater at Stuyvesant Plaza on Western Avenue. The first article is from the Altamont Enterprise and is dated April 30, 1965... The second article, from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder October 5, 1965, had an even bigger surprise included. The Hellman's had planned to build a second theater next to the existing Hellman Theatre on Washington Avenue. I can only imagine how cool that would have been, two giant-screened movie houses right next to each other!

(One of many overdue updates to Project Movie House.) I recall attending the Hellman only three times. Once in the 70's on a class field trip. We watched a screening of "How the West Was Won" (1962) in Cinerama ! I went back in 1981 to see Roger Moore as James Bond in "For Your Eyes Only" and then again in 1984 to see David Lynch's "Dune." Now, gain, these are the movies I remember. When I saw "How the West Was Won," the Hellman was still a single screen theater, seating over 1,000. I remember the gold curtains on the walls, the plush seats and the massive Cinerama screen - The Hellman Theater was truly a movie palace. Unfortunately by the time we saw "Dune," the theater had been twinned, and very awkwardly so. They literally built a dividing wall down the center of the auditorium, halving the center seating section and not adding another aisle to walk down. The seating was then kind of off-center to the now smaller screen. -All...

Project Movie House

So what do you think of that? I stitched together this image of the entrance to the Indian Ladder Drive-In using still frames from an 8mm film. The owner of the film was kind enough to lend me a DVD copy of the footage taken in 1957. The one-minute of drive-in footage was shot while attending a Methodist Church service held at the theater. Below are three of the stills so you can get a close-up view of them. As soon as I have written permission I am going to post a video of the home movie.

Next weekend I'll be headed back to New York for more research and to conduct an interview with Bob Conahan Jr. and his sister. They are the son and daughter of Robert C. Conahan who built the Mayfair Drive-In Theatre in Slingerlands. Yeah so? Well let me tell you this is pretty exciting for our project to land this interview. To date I have been able to find almost ZERO information, photos or memorabilia for this theater. Its like it never existed. Mr. Conahan Jr. admits that he and his family didn't save any photos (or anything else) from the theater. Mr. Conahan Sr. died two weeks before the theater opened in 1957, and the family sold the business after the '58 season ended. The Mayfair never reopened after that and the land changed hand several times. Currently home to a professional building it is being further developed for apartments. And if time allows I'll swing by the Voorheesville Public Library and the Albany Public Library to do research and look at some m...

I successfully cracked the code to Boxoffice Magazine's online Vault. Not really, it was free and pretty easy to do. But, I did find three interesting clippings, one each for the Turnpike Drive-In, Indian Ladder Drive-In and the Mayfair Drive-in. 1957 1949 1957

Research, research, research. A never ending slog through the morgues and archives of local papers. But sometimes it turns up a kernel, or nugget, of information that you didn't see before. Here is a (very bad) scan of a photo from the Altamont Enterprise from a front page article about the opening of the new Star Twin Cinema in Guilderland. I'll share more particulars in the next post. As always click on the image to see a larger version.

We heard from the New Scotland Historical Assoc. yesterday. It looks VERY promising for an interview on the Mayfair Drive-In and for photographing and scanning Indian Ladder Drive-In memorabilia. Guess I'll need to plan a trip to V'ville!