{"id":35380,"date":"2020-11-28T11:13:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T16:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=35380"},"modified":"2020-11-28T11:39:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T16:39:35","slug":"the-last-picture-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/11\/28\/the-last-picture-show\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Picture Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"The Last Picture Show\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/50656876152\/in\/dateposted\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/50656876152_33b7b82694_z.jpg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Last Picture Show\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>The United Artist Theater on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia has closed permanently.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The theater was part of a transformation of a decrepit industrial area into a shopping mecca that started about 30 years ago. It wasn&#8217;t a great movie theater. I haven&#8217;t been in a great movie theater since they did away with velvet curtains that opened as the show started, but it was one of the few remaining movie houses in an urban area. I stuck to matinees and movies that had long since peaked and were about to close. There were a number of shows where my son and I and maybe a couple of stragglers were the only members of the audience for alleged blockbusters. I often wondered how they held on prior to government mandated lockdowns. I guess selling concessions was their main business. Soda was $6 for a <em>small!<\/em> I think they had a financial specialist at the counter to discuss plans for financing hot dogs or nachos with microwaved canned cheese. Easy credit terms!<\/p>\n<p>Well, now the well has run dry, and I&#8217;m missing the water. My son and I had a standing date to check out whatever may be playing during the various holidays. Around Easter, I was trying to assure my son that we would catch a movie during Memorial Day. That got kicked to Labor Day which didn&#8217;t work out. Black Friday was another good movie day. Nope.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t tell you the first movie I saw there. Like a lot of movies made in recent years, they are quickly and easily forgotten. I&#8217;d like to tell you that I saw some cinematic treasure, but the last movie I saw there was <em>Spies in Disguise<\/em> on December 28, 2019 at the behest of my son. I had forgotten it, but my son reminded me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Artist Theater on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia has closed permanently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,104,3809],"tags":[5020,3611,5021,3833],"class_list":["post-35380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-philadelphia","category-south-philly-safari","tag-closed","tag-deserted","tag-done","tag-gone"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9cE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21794,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2017\/03\/03\/looking-south-the-royal-theater\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":0},"title":"Looking South &#8211; The Royal Theater","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"March 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00a0am mournful\u00a0to report\u00a0the obliteration of another piece of Philadelphia's past. The Royal Theater on 15th and South was built in 1919, and showcased African American entertainers. While it may not be\u00a0as historically significant as the city's other gems, it was an important part of the city's musical history - giants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Looking South&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Looking South","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/looking-south\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/TheRoyal5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/TheRoyal5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/TheRoyal5.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37827,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/12\/19th-chestnut-30-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":1},"title":"19th &#038; Chestnut 30 Years Ago","author":"Joe","date":"June 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"30 Years ago, I started working at a place at 20th and Chestnut and about a block east of that, a portion of the movie Philadelphia was being shot. The character that Denzel Washington played in the movie had a law office across the street from Sam's Place movie theater.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fake Marquee and Real Marquee","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52140447982_b2195990f3_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52140447982_b2195990f3_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52140447982_b2195990f3_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20959,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/08\/10\/sam-eric-theater\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":2},"title":"Sam Eric Theater","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn't really part of The Photo Elective series in that it wasn't part of that elective course that all illustration majors at The Philadelphia College of Art were required to take, but I did use the same SLR camera and it was part of a school assignment. Rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philadelphia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/philadelphia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sam Eric Theater","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c5.staticflickr.com\/9\/8730\/28596140220_945926c875_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20826,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/07\/02\/erics-mark-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":3},"title":"Eric&#8217;s Mark I","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Eric's Mark I movie theater as it was at 18th and Market in Philadelphia, PA circa 1983. I was a student at The Philadelphia College of Art, and I was snapping frames of 35mm film as reference for a class project. In the wake of the runaway successes of 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/admission-price.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22120,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2017\/04\/12\/looking-south-the-royal-theater-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":4},"title":"Looking South &#8211; The Royal Theater Part II","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"April 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The back wall has been obliterated, the chain link fence removed.\u00a0I've written about the demolition of The Royal Theater before, this is all that remains. It will soon be gone and sadly forgotten. One more photo behind the cut.\u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Royal2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Royal2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Royal2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8693,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/07\/04\/our-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":35380,"position":5},"title":"Our Town","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"July 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While walking up Carpenter Street in South Philadelphia, I spotted this tiny toy kingdom on the sidewalk. It was created by the kids of the Hawthorne Cultural Center day camp. It was made of popsicle sticks, cardboard and bits and pieces that would have ordinarily been destined for the recycling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Crafts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Crafts","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/crafts-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/phonepole1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/phonepole1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/phonepole1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}