The Capital 4 might not be a movie palace, but for me it has lots of fun memories. Most of them are from the mid to late 80's when it was fun to go to the mall hang out with friends, play video games at the Land of Oz arcade, snack at the food court and see a flick at the Capital 4.
One of the first movies I saw here back when the theater was new is one of my favorite movie theater memories. Apparently, the theater opened sometime in 1979 or 80 and then it was just the Capital 2. I was ten years old and bored out of my mind tagging along with my mom and grandma Christmas shopping in the mall. We happened to walk by the theater and I noticed Flash Gordon was playing.
Just like in the Queen song, “Flash - ah - he’ll save ev’ry one of us”, Flash saved me from a dreary day of shopping. After pleading with my mom to see the movie by myself she reluctantly agreed. Wow, this was a historic day for me ‘cause it was the first movie I would see by myself! Boy, did I take advantage of my new found freedom. I ordered some cotton candy, large popcorn, large soda and a box of candy. I think it was a box of Junior Mints since that was my movie candy of choice. With my arms full I took my seat way down in front and was lost in the wonderful world of Flash Gordon!
This past Saturday I ended my run with the Capital 4 Theatre with another great space fantasy and one of this year’s best movies, Star Trek.
Here’s some photos -
Big thanks to one of the managers for letting me snap a few pics of the projector.
Also, check out Cinema Tour for some photos from the late 90's.
I'll end this with a quote from Prince Vultan - "Oh well, who wants to live forever?"
Good bye Capital 4, you will be mised!
7 comments:
Thanks for the link NC. I'll miss it too even though I only went there one time. I never thought I'd miss mall theaters.
It looks like an interesting little theatre & quite sad that they intend to close it down.
I am, &c.
Alexander Dyle
Of course, looking at the state of the Cap. mall today, the hardest thing for readers to wrap their brains around may be that your mom and Grandma drove all the way to Jeff to shop there!
It's a shame that these little theatres are closing down all over the country. Obviously, they have more charm and appeal that all the stadium seating multiplexes in the world!
It's always sad when a place you thought would be around forever closes or changes. The last theater of my youth turned into a dinner and movie type of cinema and isn't doing well, the rest have been torn down or left vacant. Great that you got one last show in.
I know how you feel... they closed the Melody Theater near me years ago; it wasn't a particularly great theater, but I sure saw a lot of movies there! Now it's a Ralph's grocery store.
I saw Flash Gordon in the same movie theater that my father saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in. That movie theater closed down decades ago - It was the last "classic" movie theater to leave town.
We had a movie theater in a nearby town that was open for decades that was the first multiplex (4 screens, expanded to 6) in the area. I saw a lot of movies there: E.T., most of the Star Wars (even the first two SW prequels) movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Goonies... More then I could mention here. It finally sputtered out & closed after a few attempts to revive it.
The only thing we have now locally is a multiplex in the local mall (Which is also sputtering) & the drive-in.
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