Past Memories
On this page, you will find write-ups of people’s memories of the old theater. This may include experiences, moments, or descriptions of the Polar Theater. The more posted memories, the better, so it would be great if anybody wanted to contribute to this page.
Elise Sereni Pat Kotak - Elise has been to the Polar Twin Theater in the past. She remembers watching Young Frankenstein and Animal House. “I remember that one time my friends and I went to the Polar Theater to see Animal House. We went to the theater at night and it was very dark. At that time, the Dowling Road was far away from the center of Anchorage. Driving to the Polar Theater was like driving away from town. It was a way to escape from civilization and have a very fun time. Once we got to the theater, there were long lines in front of the entry way. We had to wait a while just to get inside the main lobby. Finally, we got to watch the movie and boy was Animal House hilarious!”
Ron Crawford - Ron has been to the theater many times before and recalls so many things about it. “The theater started out as a twin theater, hence the name Polar Twin Theater. Theater I would be on the right side of the building. Theater II would be on the left. There were two popcorns makers on the L shaped counter in the center of the lobby. If you wanted to see a movie, you had to buy a ticket outside of the theater entrances. At each entrance, there would be a person standing that would be handing out tickets to people who bought them. If you bought a ticket from the person at the right entrance, you would see the movie playing in theater I. If you bought a ticket from the person at the left entrance, then you would see the movie playing in theater II. In each theater, there was a wall-to-wall Dolby movie screen, and these Dolby screens were some the newest screens at that time. They were huge! At one time, the owners of the theater made one of the movie screens 3-D for movies such as Jaws. However, the 3-D effects were terrible. It was nothing compared to the 3-D effects we have today. Eventually, that movie screen went back to just an original screen. The Polar Theater was the hot-spot for the newest movies. Hundreds of people would flock to this one location just to see a new movie. It was nearly impossible to get a ticket to see the first-time running movies because so many people would purchase their tickets before you. But sometimes, my friend Dave Stroh, who was the manager of the theater at that time, let me see previews of new movies in the theater. Another distinct feature that the Polar Theater had was that the floors in each theater sloped downward instead of upward. When the theater was being redecorated into a school, the construction company was trying to level the floors, but I’ll bet you that even today in Polaris K-12 that some of the floors have a slight slope to them.”
If you want to read more of Ron Crawford’s memories of the Polar Theater, see Linda Billington’s article which is found under the Newspaper Articles link.
Beth Terry - “It has been thirty years since I have been to the old Polar Twin Theater, and it amazes me that my children are actually coming to this school that used to be the theater. Even though I didn’t want to lose the theater, I thought it was a good idea to use an already existing structure for a new school with a new concept and then see if it was successful or not.”