Planets, confetti and oh so much sugar
April 1, 2021 3:17 PM Subscribe
The interior design of movie theaters in the nineties could be chalked up to the general aesthetic that tends to be slapped on that decade, but it turns out that there was a bit more thought put into it than that.
And just because they put the frame grab in the article, let's all ride that rollercoaster again.
And just because they put the frame grab in the article, let's all ride that rollercoaster again.
The Dimensional Innovations team would actually dump Coca-Cola on these new carpets, let it soak in, walk all over them, and check to see if it changed the colors. It didn’t. Even blacklight lights wouldn’t reveal the stains. “It was a pretty genius design,” says Trotter, still laughing, “just horrible.”
They knew.
Not huge on carpets but did not notice or know there were blacklight carpets, wouldn't it be cool to have one in ones own living room that looked fashionably normal/nice but when movie night came, zowie, in a world that glows...
posted by sammyo at 3:48 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
They knew.
Not huge on carpets but did not notice or know there were blacklight carpets, wouldn't it be cool to have one in ones own living room that looked fashionably normal/nice but when movie night came, zowie, in a world that glows...
posted by sammyo at 3:48 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
You're probably thinking of the "jazz seating" on the MBTA.
posted by praemunire at 4:07 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 4:07 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
When I worked at the movies, we called the aesthetic "cosmic Doritos." The carpet motif was mirrored in the tile behind the concession stand. A thoughtful touch for something so hideous.
I took a photo when the place closed, it's the lock screen on my phone. They're my hideous filthy space nachos and I love them.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 4:10 PM on April 1, 2021 [22 favorites]
I took a photo when the place closed, it's the lock screen on my phone. They're my hideous filthy space nachos and I love them.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 4:10 PM on April 1, 2021 [22 favorites]
Had to read halfway through before my suspicion was confirmed: the patterned carpet didn’t show the stains.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:15 PM on April 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:15 PM on April 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
Relevant: There's a Reason for Quirky Casino Carpet Design
Basically, it's a combination of visual stimulus to uplift mood and engagement with the experience, along with the intent to camouflage stains.
And the one carpet design with the popcorn motif also has the benefit of semi-subliminal advertising for one of the theatre's main profit generators.
posted by darkstar at 5:17 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Basically, it's a combination of visual stimulus to uplift mood and engagement with the experience, along with the intent to camouflage stains.
And the one carpet design with the popcorn motif also has the benefit of semi-subliminal advertising for one of the theatre's main profit generators.
posted by darkstar at 5:17 PM on April 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
Can I just take a moment here and celebrate A24? They're just killing it all. the. time. They make me feel how I used to feel when a new Pixar movie would come out.
posted by nushustu at 6:01 PM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by nushustu at 6:01 PM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
...wouldn't it be cool to have one in ones own living room that looked fashionably normal/nice but when movie night came, zowie, in a world that glows...
When I was younger, and more bohemian, living in Los Angeles in the late ‘80s, we had parties at my place at which the guestbook function was filled by people writing their names and any words of wisdom on the beige wall in yellow highlighter pens.
When the regular lights were on, or in daylight, you couldn’t see the writing. But at night, when we turned only the blacklights on, years of partygoer graffiti popped into vivid, glowing yellow.
It has just occurred to me right now, for the first time, that we never painted over all that when I moved out...
posted by darkstar at 6:06 PM on April 1, 2021 [19 favorites]
When I was younger, and more bohemian, living in Los Angeles in the late ‘80s, we had parties at my place at which the guestbook function was filled by people writing their names and any words of wisdom on the beige wall in yellow highlighter pens.
When the regular lights were on, or in daylight, you couldn’t see the writing. But at night, when we turned only the blacklights on, years of partygoer graffiti popped into vivid, glowing yellow.
It has just occurred to me right now, for the first time, that we never painted over all that when I moved out...
posted by darkstar at 6:06 PM on April 1, 2021 [19 favorites]
In the late 50s my folks, who were otherwise pretty conservative in terms of decor, had living room curtains that were black with fluorescent, rectangular spirals and little white splashes—midcentury modern atomic, a clear precursor to the carpeting described.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:30 PM on April 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by kinnakeet at 6:30 PM on April 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Can I just take a moment here and celebrate A24? They're just killing it all. the. time.
They’ve been an extraordinary force in the age of superhero movie studios. I’m a little worried about what they can manage in the streaming age without becoming part of Netflix or Amazon or etc.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:52 PM on April 1, 2021
They’ve been an extraordinary force in the age of superhero movie studios. I’m a little worried about what they can manage in the streaming age without becoming part of Netflix or Amazon or etc.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:52 PM on April 1, 2021
I used to go to an art house theater in Gothenburg during the oughts that had been an entirely different kind of fringe theater in the 70s and 80s. On the floor was a carpet that looked for all the world just like a pinkish geometric pattern, until you made out the stylized nipples and hair and realized it depicted a tangle of naked ladies. I wish I had gotten a swatch of that when the place got decommissioned.
posted by St. Oops at 10:01 PM on April 1, 2021
posted by St. Oops at 10:01 PM on April 1, 2021
Can I just take a moment here and celebrate A24? They're just killing it all. the. time.
Thanks for calling my attention to the "Notes" Section of the A24 website; I had no idea that it existed before now. I'm looking forward to reading more of their articles.
I'm also looking back fondly on one of my favorite (closed) local theaters. It opened right at the heyday of this carpet craze in 1996 as the United Artists Pavilion 8.
It was notable for being a large, splashy three-story movie theater in the heart of downtown. The floors were certainly decked out with a variant of this carpet style. The entire three-story facade of the lobby was glass; you could look out as you rode the three escalators to the top level.
Slow downtown development and escalator maintenance difficulties eventually led UA to abandon it in the middle of the night with no notice. I saw the seats being torn out and hauled into waiting trucks one Saturday morning.
The local indie theater chain (Facebook ghost page) took it over and converted it to a 12-screener with a mix of art films and mainstream movies. I loved it, especially the ten movies for $50 card they offered. The Camera 12 lasted a few more years than the UA before closing in 2016 for the same reasons as the UA did. I closed the place out with a viewing of Star Trek: Beyond on the last night.
The final trace of the theater was the disintegrating posters in the exterior lightbox displays; that Sausage Party poster was there for years, gaining a fascinating weather-faded patina along the way.
posted by JDC8 at 10:17 PM on April 1, 2021 [7 favorites]
Thanks for calling my attention to the "Notes" Section of the A24 website; I had no idea that it existed before now. I'm looking forward to reading more of their articles.
I'm also looking back fondly on one of my favorite (closed) local theaters. It opened right at the heyday of this carpet craze in 1996 as the United Artists Pavilion 8.
It was notable for being a large, splashy three-story movie theater in the heart of downtown. The floors were certainly decked out with a variant of this carpet style. The entire three-story facade of the lobby was glass; you could look out as you rode the three escalators to the top level.
Slow downtown development and escalator maintenance difficulties eventually led UA to abandon it in the middle of the night with no notice. I saw the seats being torn out and hauled into waiting trucks one Saturday morning.
The local indie theater chain (Facebook ghost page) took it over and converted it to a 12-screener with a mix of art films and mainstream movies. I loved it, especially the ten movies for $50 card they offered. The Camera 12 lasted a few more years than the UA before closing in 2016 for the same reasons as the UA did. I closed the place out with a viewing of Star Trek: Beyond on the last night.
The final trace of the theater was the disintegrating posters in the exterior lightbox displays; that Sausage Party poster was there for years, gaining a fascinating weather-faded patina along the way.
posted by JDC8 at 10:17 PM on April 1, 2021 [7 favorites]
Speaking of the popcorn and nachos motifs in the carpet, and the narrow profit margin on movies that was subsidized by concessions sales, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the classic movie intermission bumper: Let’s All Go to the Lobby!
posted by darkstar at 10:41 PM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by darkstar at 10:41 PM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
let's all ride that rollercoaster again
Ugh, I used to have to avert my eyes when that played on the screen, because it was nauseating. Thought watching it on in a small window on the computer would make a difference.
It did not.
posted by jenny76 at 5:00 AM on April 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Ugh, I used to have to avert my eyes when that played on the screen, because it was nauseating. Thought watching it on in a small window on the computer would make a difference.
It did not.
posted by jenny76 at 5:00 AM on April 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
That roller coaster is pretty tame compared with the barfing neon monstrosity that was the 2000s-era National Amusements intro we had to put up with at Showcase Cinemas.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:33 AM on April 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:33 AM on April 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
Clearly I missed a lot in the 90s by waiting until movies came to the 3 buck place on the west side of Cleveland. As I remember, it had red carpet.
posted by kathrynm at 7:04 AM on April 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by kathrynm at 7:04 AM on April 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
The 90s were so fucking weird, especially in the commercial/retail side of things. So many weird aesthetic choices from weird bronze paint everywhere to faux steampunk retrofuture. So many jeweltones and florescent colors inexplicably mixed with earthones, like someone dipped the 80s in bronze to either smother it or preserve it or both.
The very few and rare Virtual Worlds VR game franchises were a great example of this early retro not quite steampunk look before steampunk really became a thing. Yeah, let's just cram a bunch of colonial/safari looks as code for "adventure!" in with a bunch of techy weirdness like that's not ever going to be problematic.
The MYST game was also prime time 90s weird aesthetics. The AT&T "You Will" ad campaign, too, like they forgot that Blade Runner was dystopian.
The real peak of this aesthetic has to be the remodel of Disneyland's Tomorrowland where they went totally ham on the retrofuture steampunk look with bronze and brass everywhere. It looked like an out of date mistake the very first day it opened, if not on the original sketches.
I know that the Imagineers did this on purpose because the theme was basically supposed to be "Well, we have no idea what the future looks like anymore so how about a bunch of brass cogs with jewel toned lights?" but they totally failed at their goals of futureproofing anything. That look dated itself so fast it might as well be the Memphis school, but somehow even much worse.
posted by loquacious at 1:22 PM on April 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
The very few and rare Virtual Worlds VR game franchises were a great example of this early retro not quite steampunk look before steampunk really became a thing. Yeah, let's just cram a bunch of colonial/safari looks as code for "adventure!" in with a bunch of techy weirdness like that's not ever going to be problematic.
The MYST game was also prime time 90s weird aesthetics. The AT&T "You Will" ad campaign, too, like they forgot that Blade Runner was dystopian.
The real peak of this aesthetic has to be the remodel of Disneyland's Tomorrowland where they went totally ham on the retrofuture steampunk look with bronze and brass everywhere. It looked like an out of date mistake the very first day it opened, if not on the original sketches.
I know that the Imagineers did this on purpose because the theme was basically supposed to be "Well, we have no idea what the future looks like anymore so how about a bunch of brass cogs with jewel toned lights?" but they totally failed at their goals of futureproofing anything. That look dated itself so fast it might as well be the Memphis school, but somehow even much worse.
posted by loquacious at 1:22 PM on April 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
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