Larry Widen, co-owner ofthe Times Cinema and co-author of SilverScreens: A Pictorial History of Milwaukee’s Movie Theaters, thinks thebuilding the Times occupies was constructed in the latter part of the 1920s asan automotive garage, and was later used as a Pontiac dealership. While Milwaukee audiences have been going to motionpictures since 1896, it wasn’t until 1930 that movie theaters really hit theirpeak, with 89 area theaters showing films. Widen believes it was the Schwartzfamily that saw the investment opportunity in projecting movies and opened theTimes Theater on June 12, 1935.
According to Milwaukee Movie Palaces, also by Widen,an average Milwaukeetheater changed its entire program three times a week. “Without television tofill in the hours at home, it was not uncommon for people to go to the theatereach time there was a program change,” he writes. At these neighborhoodtheaters, or “nabes” as they were sometimes called, people got to know everyonein the neighborhood because they all went to the movies so often.
In 1940 Ben Marcus, themost successful independent theater operator in Wisconsinhistory, acquired the Times and Tosa theaters with a business partner namedSwirnoff under the name S&M Theaters.
The Times became Milwaukee's first andonly Trans-Lux theater, where films were projected from behind the screen. WhenCinemaScopean anamorphic lens series invented by Frenchman Henri Chrétien inthe late-’20s and secured by 20th Century Fox in 1953was introduced to theindustry, the projection booth was moved to the back of the house.
The advent andavailability of the television was the main reason for the sudden decline intheater attendance and the subsequent demise of many movie theaters during the1950s. New suburban movie theaters with multiple screens located near or inshopping centers provided more competition than most single-screen theaterscould handle.
The Marcus Corp.operated the Times while the company continued to expand its reach with18-screen multiplexes that boast 72-foot-wide screens and comfy stadiumseating. In the early-’90s Vliet Street entrepreneur Sandy Folaron bought thetheater from the Marcus Corp. and restored the 9,000-square-foot StreamlineModerne-style building. Folaron leased the theater to independent operatorsuntil selling the property to Jay Hollis, owner of the Rosebud Cinema, in 2005.On Jan. 3, 2007, Hollis sold the Times Cinema to Larry Widen and David Glazer,and nine months later, the Rosebud too.
Now the Times Cinema isnot only a living relic of another era, but it also preserves pieces ofMilwaukee movie history, like a large golden scarab (circa 1927) in the lobbyfrom the old Egyptian Theater on Teutonia Avenue, as well as remnants of thePrincess and Venetian theaters.
All shows and seats atthe Times Cinema are $5, seven days a week, and concessions are reasonablypriced. Widen uses a state-of-the-art disc projection system to show first-run,independent, family-friendly films and midnight movies, as well as programslike Three Stooges and Looney Tunes festivals, and plans to offer an expansiveselection of Indian, Asian and Hispanic films in the near future.
Times Cinema: 5906 W. Vliet St./ Milwaukee/ 414-453-3128/ www.timescinema.com.
