The Albany-Schenectady-Troy area has a rich movie theater history. Many of those theaters were part of national or regional theater chains. Now I can’t speak for the theaters that operated before my birth – I do know we had some RKO theaters and Stanley Warner and Fabian theaters in the area – but by the…
Read MoreAll articles filed in When It Played in Albany
A collection of blogs regarding when and where a classic film played in Albany – and what other theaters in the area were showing at that same time.
When It Played in Albany: March 5, 1981
There’s a specific reason why I picked this date. There’s a reason why I’m traveling back 44 years in time. But we’ll get to that in a moment. On occasion, I’ll pick a specific date in Albany’s history, and then I’ll find out what movies were playing at the local theaters and drive-ins on that…
Read MoreWhen it Played in Albany: November 6, 1972
I don’t know why I picked this day of all days to search the vintage newspaper archives. But I haven’t done one of these “When It Played in Albany” blog posts in a long time, so let’s travel back 50+ years and see what was showing on the big screens. And back in 1972, the…
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April 2, 1970: When It Played in Albany
Last night, I was doing some research on Albany history for an upcoming project. And as I whirred through miles and miles of old newspaper microfilm, something reminded me of an old blog post channel of mine. It’s called “When It Played in Albany.” This was a recap of various movies that played in Capital…
Read MoreWhen “The War of the Worlds” played in Albany
[nggallery id=17254]Haven’t done the ‘When It Played in Albany” feature in a while, so this is a good time to restart. I’m going back to 75 years ago, when the Mercury Theater of the Air created a dramatic rendition of H.G. Wells’ classic War of the Worlds as a radio drama. Over those three-quarters of…
Read MoreWhen “Dirty Dancing” First Played in Albany
Every time the Times Union promotes a movie night under the stars – and this one is coming up this Tuesday downtown in Albany – I remember that films – in this case, Dirty Dancing – once appeared on motion picture screens around the Capital District. And that at the time, you saw the films…
Read More1930’s Movie Handouts from the Madison Theater
My buddy Jay Pregent is going to lose his mind when he sees these. Jay and I go back a long ways, we were both part of the “Open Mike” crew that would do Wednesday night comedy routines at The Comedy Works. A few years ago, Jay was part of a group that purchased Albany’s…
Read MoreDid the Beatles appear in Albany movie theaters BEFORE “A Hard Day’s Night”? Yes they did…
Okay, let’s get something square right now. The Beatles made four theatrical motion pictures during their time together. There was A Hard Day’s Night, there was Help!, there was Yellow Submarine and there was Let It Be. They also made Magical Mystery Tour, but that was for British television. And as far as anyone’s concerned,…
Read MoreWhen “A Christmas Story” First Played in Albany
The Times Union blogging meet-up tonight – a viewing of “A Christmas Story,” with a post-movie get-together across the street at the Albany Brown Derby – should be a lot of fun. I’ve seen the list of bloggers and readers who will attend the event, and I think it will be a great time. Now…
Read MoreA long, long time ago, in a cinema far, far away…
Well, actually it was last Friday night, so we can’t really say “long, long time ago.” I was playing Trivial Pursuit: Star Wars Edition. It was me versus a couple of RPI kids (essentially two on one, or as I like to call it, a “trivia fair fight.”). Some fair fight. They beat me six…
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Chuck The Writer 
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