The Vanquished Splinter, #3

I am not positive of the first movie I saw when the Continental Theater opened in northwest Oklahoma City, part of a chain with similar theaters in Denver and Tulsa. It always reminded me of a much scaled down version of Lincoln Center. I know that I saw Dr. Doolittle, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s and New York, New York there. Built in 1965 late in the Cinerama and road show era, it closed in 1983. The last movie that I recall seeing there is a butchered print of Fiddler on the Roof, secretly holding hands with a boyfriend of the moment. He was an internist afraid he might run into a fellow physician from the hospital across the Northwest Expressway. Equally emblematic of the era, is the United Founders Tower just north of the theater. It feels like something out of the latter part of the mob era in Vegas. It’s the type of building Vegas started tearing down in the late 1980s, so It’s good that it and the Continental still stand, regardless of their current condition. We can hope they are not converted into churches or venues for swap meets.