I Saw It at the Dome: New Facebook Page Dedicated to Contra Costa's Retro Cinema Landmark

I just got invited to join a brand new Facebook page, which asks people to share their favorite memories of seeing a movie at The Dome, the Pleasant Hill landmark movie theater that is slated to be torn down and replaced with -- ugh -- yet another sporting goods chain.

I have many memories to share on the page, I Saw It At The Dome.  I recently saw Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. I had thought, oh, I'll just see it in Walnut Creek. Well, this was over the Christmas holidays and you all know what a nightmare parking can be in Walnut Creek -- especially in Walnut Creek during the holidays and even in its herald parking garages. Parking just didn't exist. A friend said, "Go see it in The Dome."

Of course! Where else should I go see the biggest, most entertaining and envelope-pushing movie of the season but at The Dome?  It was a great experience. A lot of others had the same idea. The matinee showing of the film was pretty packed.

The Dome has been living under the threat of destruction for years, ever since what's become known as the Crossroads Shopping Center along Interstate 680 started to get fixed up. I understand. That mall was definitely an eyesore for a long time and needed a makeover. SyWest Development wants to modernize the southern half of the center, which includes the geodesic-domed movie theater.

Pleasant Hill city leaders seem to think that a sporting goods store in that location would be a good idea. So much for creative solutions to economic challenges. Cultural attractions actually do drive business and make a city more attractive to residents and to businesses. You can't get more cultural than an art-house cinema that shows movies, like, with subtitles.

Hmm, if we lose The Dome, what happens to the future of art-house cinema in central Contra Costa?

Believe it or not, there are a fair number of suburbanites who like to see movies that are not based on comic book adventures or taken over by one CGI thrill ride after another.

So It's Finally the End for the Dome?

This is an annoying, disturbing recent development. The Dome movie theater, a landmark in Pleasant Hill and in the history of East Bay cinemas, is going to be torn down to make way for a sporting goods store.

A CBS producer was at the CineArts theater Saturday afternoon, where I went to see the beautiful Helen Hunt-John Hawkes film The Sessions. "Oh shit," I said. "It's terrible news."  However, I didn't say "shit" for the soundbite he asked me to give him for a possible broadcast on tonight's nightly news.

It's not as though the Dome hasn't been living under threat of destruction for years. SyWest Development wants to modernize the southern half of the Crossroads Shopping Center by tearing down the geodesic domed-roof theater and putting in a 73,176-square-foot Dick's Sporting Goods, the Contra Costa Times reports. 

Do we really need another sporting goods store? And, will central Contra Costa residents lose their local art-house cinema, which always looks to me like it's doing good business, packing in audiences.  Over the past 10 years, plans by SkyWest -- previously known as Syufy -- to replace the Dome with a sleek new art-house cinema never went anywhere, especially after the recession hit.

Well, Pleasant Hill Councilman David Durant told the Times that the loss of the movie theater and the chance to revitalize that part of the shopping center will be good for the community.  Really, David?  I understanding wanting to fix up that part of the shopping center. It has a certain smell of decay and sadness about it -- though not in the theater itself.

"It's always sad to lose something iconic like the dome, but the real challenge for a lot of people to understand is that there's no way to effectively to keep that theater operating," Durant said. "I think it's unfortunate, but to be candid about it, I think it's a sacrifice we need to make for the overall benefit of the community."

Back in 2009, I wrote that it would be great if the developer realized the retro '60s cool value of the Dome and sought to preserve that, while, of course, fixing and cleaning up the lobby and interiors--and adding whatever modern movie technological innovations are needed.

The Dome is listed on the Cinema Treasures website and represents a certain era of grand technological experimentation in the art of filmmaking. The Dome auditorium opened in 1966 with a giant curved screen used to show films—generally big, sweeping epics—shot in a process known as Cinerama. This widescreen process worked by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen. It was the first of a number of technological innovations introduced in the 1950s and 1960s to help Hollywood offer something to audiences that TV, the movie industry’s big competition, could not.

I’m pretty sure I saw my first movie at the Dome. It was The Sound of Music.  Going to see this movie was a reward for getting through a week of preschool without crying and clinging to my mother. My older siblings took me to see it. Over the years, I remember going to see Jaws, The Godfather II, Apocalypse Now, and The Shining at the Dome. It was the theater in central Contra Costa to see the big screen epics.

But either it's not economically feasible to preserve this community landmark or we have yet another developer in Contra Costa County -- and city leadership -- who lack imagination. Hence, we get another sporting goods franchise.