Two nice movie palaces and a small rant about my crappy computer

I am getting a little better at managing the fancier new (to me) features of blogger, so I can add groovy things like pictures and links without sending myself into a tailspin of confusion.

I need to point out that this is no thanks to my--er, Chesterfield County's--computer, which despite being a laptop was manufactured in approximately 1903.  Its touch pad is possessed by an extremely retarded demon and ifxcept for how (see what happened there?) I breathe on it the cursor zooms somewhere weird buttcrack wallaby which is how I end up with sentences, such as this one, with nonsensical text stuck in them somewhere.  Except for  how when you want the touch pad to work it doesn't and sometimes the cursor goes the wrong way.  In trying to highlight "want" to italicize it, I had to bribe the thing because no matter how many times I swiped the touch pad it just kept hovering in one place.  Asshole computer.

Now I've ranted about people and their lack of theatre etiquette and stupid barely-functional computers, so I'm going to stop and use my powers for good.  Here are some pictures! Yay!

This is the Venus, the Showplace of South Richmond.  If any theatre was ever set up by its builder to eventually become a p0rno theatre, this is the one. I mean, "Venus?"  but no one thought like that in 1924 and Richmond loves neoclassical things, so "Venus" just made everyone think "Roman Goddess" and not "naked."  It's still standing on Hull Street, but after a couple of decades as a furniture store, there's not much left of its interior.

Since I am not particularly concerned with being politically correct or a corporate stooge I refuse to use any of the new names for this stupendous building at Main and Laurel.  Note that I say "Building" and not "Theatre."  In addition to nearly four thousand seats--making it the second largest movie palace in the world on opening day in 1926--it houses a ballroom with enough space for five hundred couples to dance at once, five lobby levels, four smaller ballrooms or banquet halls, forty hotel rooms, a bowling alley, a pool, and a miniature golf course (on the roof).  Here is the Mosque:

Someone who was reading over my shoulder pointed out that I didn't say anything about the organs in these two places.  Fine.  The Venus had a 2/4 Robert Morton and the Mosque still has its 3/16 Wurlitzer.