Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • L3

3 A IT as ar tf rd A 2 1, 2 0 19 LOCAL NEWS Kassi Hartford Courant A pile of steel and aluminum sits in front of the abandoned Showcase Cinemas theatre (not pictured), on Nov. 8. other recovered metals including steel and aluminum be known until later stages of the project, Gentile said. Demolition crews so far have removed most of an addition that did not contain asbestos, he said. Concrete blocks from that section, along with sidewalks and granite curbing in the parking lot, will be ground up on-site and used for base material in road construction.

Crews have been removing the granite in chunks because taking the time to dig around them and pull them out intact would be too expensive, Gentile said. Concrete and other material that does contain asbestos has to be placed in lined containers and transported to a landfill that accepts the hazardous waste. Sheetrock, wood and other debris that cannot be recycled will be discarded in a landfill, Gentile said. Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at reported in July1999 that as the number of chain movie screens rose steadily, economic impact is as thrilling as any Hollywood next the newspaper reported, the growth in cineplexes have created at jobs, with 80 to150 full- and part-time jobs at each theater." Demo done in December The $850,000 demolition is to be completed by the end of December. No development proposal has been submitted, but the project, Mayor Marcia Leclerc said, has received significant attention and several developers are eyeing the parcel for housing and hotels.

A request for proposals is expected to be sent out in about a month, town council Chairman Rich Kehoe said. Thieves stripped every bit of copper from the sprawling white building long ago, senior project manager Andrew Gentile of said. Total weight or volume of and region, replacing single-screen Main Street movie houses. In1995, there were 7,744 cinema sites in the U.S., according to the National Association of Theater Owners. That number has dropped to 5,869 sites today, but the tally of individual screens grew from 22,679 in1987 to 41,172 today, the association reported.

Organization spokesman Patrick Corcoran said cineplexes today generally have more screens than in the past. In 2003, according to a Courant article, there were 70 cinema sites in the state with 456 indoor screens. Connecticut now has 45 cinema sites, Corcoran said, but he did not have the total number of screens. Closings and openings When the East Hartford Showcase site closed, the14 theaters held a total of 4,200 seats. The16-screen Showcase site in Manchester debuted in1998, and the 20-screen Loews theaters in Plainville opened the following year.

The Courant Wrecking machines with hydraulic claws will chomp away at the former Showcase cineplex for the next several weeks, pulling out metal, concrete, sheetrock and other debris and piling it for recycling and disposal. The massive demolition will make way for a clean site that town leaders expect to be a key piece of Silver revitalization. The town bought the site for $3.3 million from former owner National Amusements, which closed the14-screen theater in 2006, citing a population shift and undisclosed business For many people, the tear-down of the first multi-screen complex in the Hartford area evokes memories of movie dates and the dawn of the blockbuster. In its heyday, Showcase Cinemas in East Hartford was serving as many as 50,000 patrons a week. a look at some other numbers from the site, past and present: Four screens to start The cineplex opened with four theaters in June1973.

The first movies included the James Bond flick, and Let and Friends of Eddie starring Robert Mitchum. Ticket inflation The average ticket price in1977 was in 2018, it was $9.11. For a while, East Hartford charged the theater owner a special tax of $1.50 per movie showing, which brought in about $22,000 a year in revenue. Opponents successfully fought to remove the fee, calling it double taxation. Expansion traffic and troublemakers The number of theaters steadily expanded, but some town officials and residents, citing crime and clogged traffic on Silver Lane, complained about the growth and tried to curb it.

When owners sought to add two screens to the existing10 in1990, town council member Debra Gaudette was quoted in The Courant saying, theaters in one town is plenty. I even think too much Enough is From1987-89, East Hartford police arrested at least 32 people at the cineplex, many of them suspected gang members, on charges of fighting, theft, drug use and other crimes. Owners tightened security and by 1990, those problems had diminished. Movies in the U.S. and CT When the Showcase site opened, multiplexes were just taking off in the state Cineplex Demolition Triggers Local Memories By Jesse Leavenworth EAST HARTFORD.