Sunday, July 15, 2007

scenes from the Riverdale, Hampton VA


Hardly the better or the best pictures of what used to be known as the Riverdale movie theater.



Just maybe some of the more recent pics, taken this past mid-May.












I neglected to get this sculpture into the overall shot (as it is in the image found on CinemaTour).



Like the time capsule at the old Newmarket, this sculpture is one of few connections to this theater as it was years before. Back when I saw Escape from the Planet of the Apes here (the first of the series I'd managed to see). Or saw long lines outside waiting for Jaws.

3 comments:

Anita said...

I'm wondering what that theater was in recent years (like the past two years). A live performance?

That's your photo of the sculpture? When I went there in 2003, it was in shambles I think don't quote me on that.

K. R. Seward said...

Maybe I'll get unlazy (heh) and see if there's any other ghost site coverage (something that still lists the Riverside in that recent incarnation).

I have no other clue unless some patron/neighborhood person in the know steps forward.

I thought also I'd been by this version of the theater in visits past. And may've take pictures then. But I don't really ever recall the place as open. If it was a club/live space, I'd be visiting during the day when it wouldn't open yet.

Yeah, that's my photo of the sculpture from the same time in May '07. If you check out the CinemaTour image, way over on the left is the sculpture. As the sculpture kinda has that look of rippling planes of metal and is missing some rivets, it may've been worse for wear when you visited. Or looked that way.

Not having the sharpest memory of things_and_being something of a sentimentalist, it's too easy for me to take the sculpture at face value and say "oh, yeah, that's the way it always was . . ." Maybe not.

K. R. Seward said...

FWIW I did my internet ghost hunting. Google and sundry others still speak of the Riverdale as the Riverdale Twin Theatre. Like no manager/owner since it became a 3-screen (in the late '80s, acc. to Cinema Treasure entry) thought it was worth putting out the word.

Official address:
2011 Cunningham Boulevard,
Hampton, VA, United States

I tried Jump Theater (as the word Jump is buried in the new sign). Other than a passing reference in a young bassist's MySpace site, no mention. A very cold trail unless someone steps fwd.