At the Movies in the 1980s

Photo by Rod Johnson

Picture this: It is 1985 and my best friend Nicholas and I are on the pre-teen equivalent of an awkward double date at our favorite movie theater, the UA 150 in downtown Seattle.

We're 30 minutes into the camp vamp rom-com classic "Once Bitten," watching Lauren Hutton seduce a very young Jim Carrey, when Nicholas taps me on the shoulder. I dig my arm defensively into the armrest, which we’ve been battling over since we sat down. I ignore him, so he jabs me again with his little finger and I stifle a squeak of alarm.

I whip my head around to glare at him, only to realize too late that I've played right into his hands, which are cupped on either side of his mouth like a child preparing to tell a secret.

For a second I see nothing but darkness as my eyes adjust. Then in the space between his hands, I see a glow-in-the-dark squid-shaped fishing lure dangling vertically, somehow suspended in the cavern of his open mouth.

His teeth snap shut with a resounding clack before I can register what I've just seen. His expression is maniacal. He leans forward with both hands clamped over his face, eyes glittering wildly.

A wave of hysteria overtakes me. Then we are both doubled over, heads in our laps, trying desperately to stifle the sound of our mischief. Before long, the effort to contain ourselves is too painful.

We crouch to the floor and squeeze past the knees of our friends and other annoyed theater patrons before spilling out into the aisle, chasing each other through the padded double doors out into the bright lobby.

There, we finally surrender to helpless, transcendent peals of laughter.

40 years later, Nicholas and I are still great friends. Our favorite movie theater wasn't so lucky.

The UA 150

United Artists Cinema 150 opened on October 3, 1969 in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood at 6th and Blanchard St. It had a 70-foot curved screen, and featured 850 red rocking chair seats.

Its smaller sister auditorium, Cinema 70, had a flat screen and was equipped for 70mm films.

The UA 150 is fondly remembered as Seattle’s first venue to show "Star Wars" in 1977. After a couple of decades of declining revenues and unsuccessful attempts to stay open as a second-run discount theater, it closed in 1998 and the building was demolished in 2002.

Second Home

It’s hard to describe for the modern audience just how important movie theaters (much like shopping malls) were to kids in the 1980s. We saw all the big releases first-run, usually on opening weekend.

The UA 150 was especially well-suited to the testosterone-fuelled action genre that the 80s is best remembered for. I saw Die Hard and Predator at the UA 150 on opening night with Travis, my other best friend of the same era (with whom I’m also still great friends).

We saw all the really ridiculous action films of Arnold Schwarzenegger together. I’m not talking about sci-fi classics like Terminator and T2, or even True Lies. I’m talking Red Heat, Commando, Raw Deal... and outlandish sci-fi comedies like Dead Heat starring Joe Piscopo and Treat Williams, and Ice Pirates with Robert Urich.

It’s no coincidence that some of the great zombie set pieces of classic cinema and video games take place in disused shopping malls and movie theaters. There’s just something about that palatial scale, designed for comfort and consumption, crawling with vines and overtaken by entropy.

It’s only one small step of the imagination to see those familiar settings overtaken by the flesh-eating walking dead.

The Neptune

The only other theater in Seattle that surpassed the UA 150 for style and old-world grandeur was The Neptune. By the 1980s, it was a gloriously run-down art nouveau palace that boasted one of the city’s last true second-story balconies, although it was kept locked most evenings.

It was full of iconic details like the carved head of Neptune mounted in the corners of the ornate crown mouldings and six larger-than-life-sized stained glass murals recessed into glowing alcoves that flanked the floor-level seating, featuring the sea god and his daughter Amphitrite.

See a great collection of historic photos here.

Throughout the 80s, the Neptune was one of those theaters that printed two-month calendars advertising their daily double features. Every cinephile had one posted on their fridge with emphatic circles drawn around not-to-be-missed coming attractions.

They showed an eclectic mix of Hollywood classics, reserving an entire night for epics like Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia, and arthouse staples like Metropolis, Akira, Liquid Sky and Brazil.

Hitchcock and Lynch, as well as masters of foreign cinema like Fellini and Kurosawa were in heavy rotation, and of course, there were midnight screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show every weekend.

The Neptune rarely showed new movies back then, but when it did, it was usually a memorable event that would draw an especially enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

The one that stands out in my mind is the double feature of Alien and Aliens, which filled every seat including the balcony. My mother and I sat together, holding hands and screaming along with the rest of packed house at all the right moments.

Second Life

Unlike the UA 150, the Neptune was miraculously rescued from the wrecking ball in 2011 by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and the support of a passionately nostalgic community. The historic theater is now a fully operational concert hall and "multi-use arts venue."

Nicholas still lives in Seattle and frequently attends shows at the Neptune, sometimes texting me pictures from the wings to make me wish I was there.

(Photos by Christopher Nelson)

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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