The Press Democrat from Santa Rosa, California • 15

The Press Democrat Santa Rosa. Tuesday. Dec. 14. hwr-w liillSIlllslPi VA CINEMA SIX, ON DEC.

22 Pi ft Theater complex r-Jv opens downtown -rreu uvmorrai ifittos WES PORTER EXPLAINS NEW LAMPHOUSE Projection Equipment Fully Automated Danford also said the architects, who've done many theaters, "argued the merits of segregated auditoriums for a long time, whether it needed to be divided so people couldn't get in to movies without buying a ticket. We finally decided not to go that way, and that kind of freedom became the basis of the design. There's been a conscious effort to achieve some order, through color-coding and graphics. I don't think the audiences will have any trouble visually." The color coding includes tickets, doors to the six auditoriums, the lightweight carpet used on the auditorium walls, the Heywood-Wakefield seats and the ceilings. The colors are Siam blue and a lighter Quaker blue, both used on the lobby ceiling, stark yellow, nasturtium yellow, red and chive, a pale green.

"I'm waiting for someone to ask me what's behind the green door," Porter quipped. Upstairs, chief projectionist Cecil Tripp will have a 185-foot length of projection rooms to roam through as he operates $750,000 worth of automated equipment. Tripp, projectionist at the Cal for the last 12 years, isn't worried about keeping six screens: working at once. "It's just a matter of always thinking about two' hours ahead," he says. Eventually, the theaters will be joined by a restaurant and a three-story building housing a savings and loan, shops and offices.

The concrete mall will be capped to match the adjacent Security Pacific building and will feature By SOPHIA JENSEN "The most expensive toy I ever had" is Porter's delighted description of Cinema 6, the United Artists theater complex which opens Dec. 22. Porter, 31, has been manager of the Cal Theater for several years and will manage the new six-theater operation in the Third Street redevelopment parcel east of Bank of America. An open house either Dec. 20 or 21 will give the public a chance to tour the building.

The first films scheduled are Barbra Streisand's "A Star Is Born," Clint Eastwood's "The Enforcer," "Shoot the Devil" with Roger Moore and Lee Marvin, Gene Wilder's "Silver Streak," "Bugs Bunny Superstar" and "Bugsy Malone," a gangster film with a cast of children. The 24,000 square-foot building was designed by George Raad and Associates of San Francisco, with Roland-Miller Associates of Santa Rosa as consultants. The owner-developers are Rogers, Jerpbak, Vicini Realty, Santa Rosa. Total cost of the building, which RJV will lease to United Artists, is $900,000. Robert Stratton, construction foreman for contractors Dunn and Gaulke, said "the really unique thing about this building is the time element.

Most buildings this size would take about six months to complete, started here Sept. 15, with a parking lot." Stratton attributes the speedy construction to -an unusually high degree of cooperation among the subcontractors. About half the subs were from Sonoma County and half from the Bay Area. The exterior is made of concrete blocks with a brick look, being used here for the first time, Stratton said. Through the glass doors along the front, a sloping ceiling of resawn redwood is visible.

Beyond that is the high-ceilinged 40 by 40 lobby with skylights over planter areas for living trees. Porter half-jokingly has told friends he intends to equip the trees with recorded birdcalls. Roger Danford of the Raad firm said, "The trees and skylights haven't been done before, because there's never been the right combination of circumstances. The effect is to make the lobby space more pleasant. Any building of this type becomes massive and foreboding, and it needs this kind of relief." He attended Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State and San Jose, where he earned a BA in radio-TV-film and "came out with a large ego." He reminisced about theater history in Santa Rosa.

"I think the first was the Strand, on lower Fourth Street. It's a chili restaurant now. Or maybe it was the Rose or the Elite, opposite where the White House is now. Then there was Cline's theater. Cline was a dentist, with his offices over the theater.

Later, the Cline became the Roxy. Then there was the Cal, but it was the for its owners, Greott and Strombini." The Cal, slated for demolition by the Urban Redevelopment Agency, is booked through the first of the year and, Porter says, "I expect to be there next summer." Live shows were stopped there by. the Fire Department in 1974, but he hopes "the city fathers will let us have a final farewell show." About live shows at the new movie palace, he says nothing, just grins as if he has a very nice secret. Oldtimers who remember the opening in 1926 will find a familiar face at the Cinema 6 opening. Francis Rancour, 74, was the doorman for that long-ago opening of "Blossom Time," with the original New York cast.

He still works at the Cal occasionally, and he'll open Cinema 6. One other thing remains the same. Tickets will, still be $3 general and $1.75 for children under 12. an electronic marquee displaying film titles. Construction on the other buildings should start in January, Stratton said.

In a construction site interview, Porter assessed Santa Rosa's theater business. "Sure, the audience is here. In fact, you could have another one just like it in Santa Rosa. The only thing that bothers me is I'm afraid some of the other theaters the River, Rancho Cotate and Sebastiani are going to be hurt. And it's because of their experience, and what's happened with the late show at the Cal, that UA went ahead with this.

It's been demonstrated that there's an audience for many different kinds of films, and we'll probably be running mostly art films and foreign films in the smallest house, number four." Ron Rhodes, manager of Coddingtown Cinemas, was on the site. "We won't be hurt," he maintains. "Whoever gets the product will do the business." For Porter, opening night will be a heady rience. He started working in theaters in Cloverdale with Bill Blair, who later built the Park Cinema theaters with Hugh Codding. Porter was in on that construction.

Much of his life has been film and at one time he planned to teach film courses. "I've got this half-finished documentary that I was doing for my master's at San Jose State. Maybe I'll get it done someday I've got another three years left on my seven-year contract but I'm really not interested in teaching any more." Inside Metro Sebastopol's red-hot bowler Page 2M Teaching students to survive Page 3M Stealing for fun and profit Page 4M BOB STRATTON SUPERVISES CONSTRUCTION MODEL OF FULL CINEMA SQUARE DEVELOPMENT Speed Came From Cooperation of Builders p.eronf rnntnA January.