During its more than 50-year run, the Villa Theatre has been the biggest of the big movie theaters in the Salt Lake Valley. Not only did it have the biggest movie screen, the Villa also hosted the biggest movie audiences and showed many of the biggest, most successful movies.
The theater, 3092 S. Highland Drive, opened Dec. 23,1949, with showings of "Prince of Foxes," a costume epic starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles. With a capacity for more than 1,000 patrons, the Villa was the pride of the Joseph L. Lawrence Theatres, which also operated the Uptown, the Rialto, the Murray and the Southeast.
That chain's biggest competition in those days was the Fox Intermountain Theatre, which also operated several moviehouses in the Salt Lake Valley.
Despite the Villa's size, theater owners actually had to sue the Hollywood studios to get first-run films there, according to E. Hunter Hale, a local film buff who programs the silent classics shown at the Organ Loft. "Things were a lot different in those days," Hale said. "If you weren't located in the downtown area, you couldn't get first-run movies. The Villa helped change all that."
In 1955, Fox Intermountain bought the Villa, installing an early form of stadium seating that expanded its capacity to 1,300 seats. And five years later, a 100-foot screen was installed to allow the theater to show films shot in such new widescreen formats as CinemaScope and Technirama-70.
Throughout the '60s, the Villa was Salt Lake's Cinerama showhouse, starting with the premiere of "This is Cinerama" in 1961. The opening-night events for that movie included a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
"That was really something to see," said Art Proctor, a longtime local theatrical entrepreneur who has a history with the Villa. When it opened, Proctor worked at the competing Marlo Theatre. "I remember my bosses sent me over there at the end of the week to buy a ticket, so we could check the number on it and see how much business they did."
Proctor is owner of the Avalon Theatre, 3605 S. State, one of only two remaining single-screen movie houses in the valley. These days, the Avalon only occasionally shows movies, remaining dark most evenings, except for hypnotist shows on Saturday nights. The other single-screen Salt Lake movie theater is the Tower, 876 E. 900 South, which shows independent, foreign and repertory films.
"It's a shame to see some of the things that have happened to the Villa in the years since," Proctor said with a sigh.
Since its initial opening, the Villa has changed hands several times. When the Cinerama phase died out, the now-defunct Mann Theatres chain purchased the theater. In 1993, the Georgia-based Carmike Cinemas chain took over, and in 1996 refurbished the Villa with new seats, a new screen and a new state-of-the-art sound system. Carmike also struck a deal with Disney to show some of its family-friendly movies.
Aaron Evans, a publicist for Richter 7, a public-relations and marketing company that represents Disney locally, has had quite a few memorable experiences at the Villa — both good and bad. "I've probably seen at least 50 films there over the years," said Evans. "The last film I saw there was 'Monsters Inc.' on a 35mm print, and it looked awful. The sound wasn't great either, even after they put in (a new digital-sound) system."
Still, Evans regrets that the Villa is "finally going the way of the dinosaurs. I have a lot of fond memories of that place. I saw my favorite movie of all time there, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' when I was 12 years old."
"Back then, the Villa was awesome. It was the place to go for a really big screen. You felt like you were engulfed by that huge curved screen."
Evans said the Villa also holds memories of teenage romance. "My first serious makeout session, when I was 16, was in the Villa at the film 'Top Gun.' I imagine that the theater has witnessed many a makeout session over the years," he said with a laugh.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com