Tell me what you really think.
I well remember the grand theater just as you described it...
I do recall receiving my allowance on Saturday morning, of two quarters, and going to the theater; the fifty cents would get me in and buy either a hot dog and coke or popcorn and coke.
Then came the best part...watching "Victory at Sea" and prolly an hour of cartoons along with the newsreels of the day. Then would be the feature presentation, usually one of the cowboy mediums of the day. There were times when there would be a live program on the stage in addition to the above.
I remember, fondly, one time there was a yo-yo contest, and anyone could enter. At the conclusion, there was a master of the yo-yo to demonstrate what a lot of practice could bring about.
As you might intimate, that was another day, and there are many sweet and lingering memories.
There are so few one- or two-screen movie houses left here in the Sacramento area. One from my childhood, that later spent several years as a porn theater, is now closed down and for sale. Another was empty for years, and now is just a grassy concrete slab.
You're right--in their day they had so much more character than today's multiplexes, though. *sigh*
The way you were describing it, I couldn't help but see Brown Theater in Louisville. While it's used for Orchestral performances, it's beautiful and purple, gold, and reds.
It blends into downtown nicely.
Bring back Vaudeville. 
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