This photo show us how quickly the Cinerama Dome was built. It opened at 6360 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood on November 7, 1963, however this photo was taken a scant 15 weeks before the opening, which dates this photo at around the beginning of August. I don’t know how long it takes to build a full theater from scratch these days – or even back then – but 15 weeks sounds like a short time to me. But I suspect that was the appeal of the concept: to have a fully functional movie theater up and running in a relative short amount of time. From this photo we can also see that Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” was already booked in to be the movie that opened the Dome. I love how you could call MAD.1100 for tickets!
The Cinerama Dome never reopened after the pandemic. According to a November 2023 article I read in Variety, it’s due to reopen some time in 2025. This is how the Dome looked in June 2022.
I recall the first film I ever saw at the Cinerama Dome was a sold out showing of The Revenge of the Pink Panther. On the opposite end of that I once saw a film at the Cinerama Dome “by myself.” I was the only one in the audience! It was the same year as the Pink Panther movie and it was called Bully starring James Whitmore. It was a one man movie of his stage show about Theodore Roosevelt, similar to his previous film Give ’em Hell Harry which garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
The Cinerama Dome is also the movie theatre where I waited the longest amount of time to see a movie. I, and a friend, went to see E.T. there. It had opened on Friday and we went on Saturday. We waited three hours in line just to get tickets. They would announce at some point that each show time was getting sold out. Right before we got to the window the 8pm (or 8:30?) was sold out. So did we want to go to the 10pm? Well, when you wait that long just to get a ticket…so we got tickets and then had to wait in line several more hours for the movie. But we got prime seats!
Back in those years I recall waiting in long lines for so many films. This was before they’d open films in wide releases.
I can only imagine what it must have been like to be the ONLY person watching a movie at the Dome. I can’t imagine waiting those many hours to see a movie. I would’ve taken one look at that line and gone straight home again. After all that, I hope you enjoyed the movie!
American Grafitti at the Dome…all to myself. Front & center. Watching a film set at night with that air cooled theater, you’d never know it was blinding and hot outside. And you wouldn’t even care.
I could expect a showing of Bully to be sparse, but not American Graffiti! Wow!
One of my favorite movies opened at the Cinerama Dome on Christmas Day of 1973. Anyone see The Sting there during its run?
Martin, sometimes when it’s hard to get into something everyone wants to see and there’s crowds of people doing the same thing…this excitement can override that trouble and make it worthwhile and then you have bragging rights! “Oh…I saw that!”
(And also…when you’re younger…)
Interesting how the tall Sunset Vine Tower on the left side of the photo has changed its external structure from 1963 to today. The two vertical columns on the side were removed and now the sides of the building are all glass. It also was built as an office building and now it is a complex of lofts. The tower was made famous in the 1974 movie Earthquake.
Some of the movies I saw there were…
The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965
Battle of the Bulge 1965
Mad Mad Mad World in 2003 for the 40 year anniversary showing
Bulge had that great set-up of military equipment in a snow scene to the right side of the entrance. Made the theater look like some kind of giant dome fortress waiting to be assaulted.
Bob, do you remember seeing the display for Battle of the Bulge that was outside the theater? (I see Al mentions it.)
The Cinerama Dome has had some unusual outdoor displays over the years. Martin T. has a color post of when the Dome was converted into an Easter bonnet while Mame was playing there. Other examples: One time a giant Spider-Man was crawling across the top of the dome. Another had the dome lit up green with two antenna’s protruding from each side for Shrek. A ferocious Godzilla head emerging from the top of the dome was seen during the run of that film in 2019! (I believe some kind of light protruded into the sky from the mouth at night.) The Minions crawled over the top of a yellow dome at one time! I’d like to see a book of the interesting photos of these displays!
I was working down Sunset Blvd while the dome was being built. If memory serves me correctly, Mad, Mad, World had already committed to a premier date at the Dome and for some reason the construction of the Dome was delayed. I recall work going on there 24-7 with bright lights setting the area aglow all night long. It apparently was a squeaker but they just made the finishing touches in time for the opening. Perhaps someone has more information than I have about the Dome’s construction.