A little history

Hi again.
A little history on movies - movie theaters - in Saranac Lake.
Most folks of the Boomer generation and before probably remember the Pontiac Theater. It's located where the Berkley parking lot is now. It operated for many years - sorry, my history studies don't dig that far - as the traditional downtown theater in town. It had a marquee, it was where dates happened, it helped folks through the long winters, gave summer folks something to do on rainy days. It was owned - for much of its lifetime - by Tony White, who also served as the Village Mayor for a time, and after whom the bandshell by Lake Flower is named.
The Pontiac burned in a spectacular fire in the early 1970s.
For a long time there was also the old Sara-Placid Drive-In (known also by some as the Twin-Flavors drive-in, after the great ice cream stand at the entrance), located a little more than half way to Lake Placid along Route 86 in a location that is fast returning to forest now. Ah, now there is a place of memories too.

After quite a few years without a theater, Reg Clark, the owner of the Palace Theater in Lake Placid worked out a deal with the owner of the Berkley building (now home of the Pasta/Pizza restaurant across from the Hotel Saranac) to take over the lower level of that building and operate a small movie theater there. The Berkley Theater was small, but it lasted into the 1990s. Mr. Clark had a good deal, basically covering the utility bills for the space, the Berkley was where he could play less popular films he'd run in order to secure the top grossing pictures to play at his bigger theater in Lake Placid. Now, this was back when the Palace had only one screen. Then Mr. Clark undertook his renovation, and the balcony was sectioned off, creating two more smaller screening rooms, and another space was opened into a still-smaller, almost private-screening-room size theater. So once the Palace had four screens to fill, the Berkley wasn't as important. When the Berkley building sold, and the new landlords approached Mr. Clark to discuss rent, he could reply "Rent?!? Are you kidding? I barely make enough to cover the utilities for this place!" Then he could pack up his gear and head home to Placid.
Since then, Saranac Lake's had to live movie-theater-free.
Now it's time to plan for the future.

Now if you stumble upon this blog and have more historical information to share about the movies in Saranac Lake, I love history, personal anecdotes, etc. Just leave a comment and reminisce.

Thanks.

p.s. Anybody hear about the latest return of the 3-D movie craze? I'm not sure I'll be able to catch this wave as it comes back around, but I'd guess within a few years there'll be more such movies released again, and I'd sure love to fill seats with folks wearing those funky red/blue cardboard-framed glasses.