Sunset
SRO, Bellevue
I never attended this theater, though my dad learned the facts of life there. This was at the end of Lady and the Tramp, when he asked his mom why one of the puppies looked like Tramp. This theater was demolished in the late 70s to make way for an SRO indoor multiplex at the bottom of a big sloping parking lot (now the Lowes Cineplex Odeon Factoria Cinema). The old trees behind the screen along 128th Avenue remain.
My grandmother still goes to church on the hill above this site, and it was on a weekday visit there that I looked down and saw the screen in the middle of being demolished. For some reason the center of the screen was knocked out first, and the outer edges were still up. I now know this must have been because the theater was constructed in 1954 with the classic aspect ratio for movies, and later the screen was adapted for wider aspect ratios. My seeing this theater being demolished lead to my interest in chronicling drive-ins as much as anything, since I knew then that nothing lasts forever.
The sign for the indoor theater is in the same place as the marquee for the drive-in, by that theater's only entrance.
The trees formerly behind the screen are still in place. What used to be an exit-only drive with tire spikes is now a two-way road to the theater.
At last, the coveted side view of the theater. You can see how the screen was extended at the side for wider aspect ratios. Also see new construction on the freeway interchage. This picture was featured under the table of contents in "Bellevue," a civic boosterism book published in 1969.
This is the view from my office of a few months, near the theater site and not far from the vantage of the above photo. If you look carefully, you can see that the current entrance road would be on the north side of the screen site, while the old exit ramp was on the south side of the screen.
You can still see the fence lines in this Microsoft Terraserver View. Also occupying the site is a pair of office buildings, called Sterling Plaza. Sterling used to be the name of the chain that ran the drive-in, another sign of the way the chain has changed from entertainment to real estate, with the help of their large, empty drive-in lots. The northwest headquarters of Stamps.com will occupy the new building.
A detailed view of the layout of this theater. You can barely see a merry-go-round and a swing set under the screen. I also suspect the north side of the theater was lopped off for the freeway off-ramp. Washington State Department of Transportation, June 1, 1970
USGS Mercer Island, 1950, 1968 and 1973
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