Last time I was down that way the screen of this theater was still up but the site looked very overgrown—no marquee, not even an obvious entrance road (not a paved one, anyway). It would take a lot of work to bring this one back.
Bob, there is one other theater in Philadelphia that might be the one, except that the location doesn’t match. It would be the Metropolitan Opera House at Broad and Poplar (not on the outskirts of town—a mile north of City Hall, if that). Built around the start of the 20th Century, it was owned for many years by an evangelical organization that did not have the kind of funds needed for proper maintenance. It hosted many kinds of events over the years but I don’t think it was ever a regular movie venue, hence outside the scope of this site.
The Erlen (theater #9129) was right on the city line on Cheltenham Avenue, was occupied by a church and had a seating capacity similar to the Logan’s, but it may not have had quite the grandeur you describe. I could be wrong on that, though.
Apparently some redevelopment plans are afoot here; there’s a proposal to build a restaurant that would be connected to the theater in some way. This story from the local daily probably raises more questions than it answers: View link
The seating capacity may have been reduced from the original. I believe that New York stage theatres with fewer than 500 seats operate under less expensive union rules than bigger houses do, thus the 499 figure.
In its earlier years the Pearl was a regular stop for leading African-American entertainers on tour. Pearl Bailey is said to have started her career after winning an amateur contest here. The theater must have survived as a movie venue at least into the late ‘60s or early '70s, as it was still advertised in the Inquirer’s (but not the Bulletin’s) neighborhood theater listings.
I once found some newspapers from 1954 and ‘55 that contained ads for the Carman; the burlesque policy was in force at that time. (A comic listed as a coming attraction was Billy “Cheese and Crackers” Hagen—what a nickname!) Around 1976 I took a ride past there on the #23 trolley; the building was still up and there were some signs on it advertising a church or revival meeting but it was hard to tell if they were current or old. It was still quite an imposing structure.
The Tower store building was a rock venue under the Ripley Music Hall name during the first half of the 1980s. Before that it had been a menswear store called Ripley for quite a few years.
In the late ‘60s and early '70s the Castor was booked day-and-date with the Bala in Bala-Cynwyd and the Yorktown in Elkins Park, usually showing foreign or art films.
Like its Market Street neighbors the Palace and the Family aka Apollo, the News played out its last years as an all-night grind house showing B movies and eventually adult features. It had a very narrow frontage on Market Street, with the name “NEWS” spelled out vertically in tile above the entrance. Demolished along with the Palace and several other structures to make way for the 1234 Market office building.
Operated from the mid-‘50s to its closing by Stanley Warner/RKO Stanley Warner as an all-night house, running B double features and maybe some adult product at the very end. Demolished along with the News Theater at 1230 Market and several retail buildings to make room for the 1234 Market office building, best known these days as the home of mass transit agency SEPTA.
Not to be confused with two other theaters in Philadelphia that have operated under the Palace name since 1980 (neither one for very long): the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street and the former Theatre 1812 on Chestnut.
Wasn’t this the theater that was the home of “Moron Movies?” They were a series of very short comedy films made by a guy named Len Cella, in his basement more or less…he strung them together and made a midnight-show feature out of them. Eventually he got some of them shown on the Tonight Show.
I’m pretty sure that the online sources that mention this theater have the address wrong; it was near Cumberland Street, which should make it something like 2449 instead of 2649. Demolished by the ‘90s at the latest (the Inquirer ran a picture of a neighbor sitting in a seat in the half-razed theater) and closed long before that, probably in the mid- to late '60s.
The Bala name was in use here by the late ‘60s at the latest. At that time the theater mostly ran foreign films; it was booked day-and-date with the Castor in northeast Philadelphia and the Yorktown in Elkins Park.
The theater site was on what is now Admiral Wilson Boulevard (US Route 30). It was right on the border between Camden and Pennsauken and it appears that at the time the theater was in operation the highway changed name from Admiral Wilson Boulevard to Crescent Boulevard at the city limits. After multiple renamings and realignments over the years, today’s US 30 continues east over the Pennsauken line as Admiral Wilson Boulevard for about a third of a mile to the Airport Circle; there, 30 combines with US 130, which is the highway currently known as Crescent Boulevard. On a map this may be slightly easier to figure out, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyway, the address for the theater site would roughly be in the 2800 or 2900 block of Admiral Wilson Boulevard, on the odd-numbered side. The Zinman Furs building at 2901 is usually cited as the current occupant of the site, but that may not be precisely correct.
If memory serves, in the late ‘60s/early '70s the Bryn Mawr mostly played foreign and art films day-and-date with the World in center city Philadelphia until the latter theater was demolished.
I believe this building was originally called the Diamond Theater. The actual address was on Germantown Avenue, a diagonal street that passes very close to the 6th & Diamond intersection. In the ‘80s this theater would occasionally show up in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s neighborhood movie listings; by then the films were typical Hollywood releases but the theater was still called the Puerto Rico.
Boy, the stuff you could do with a theater called the Henn. Serve chicken nuggets at the concessions…ROOSTERS and CHICKS signs on the restroom doors…Foghorn Leghorn cartoon marathons…midnight showings of “The Egg and I”…
Address of the theater is now 835 Moorlyn Terrace, Ocean City NJ 08226. The entrance to the theater has been moved around to the south side of the auditorium, fronting on a ramp that conects the Boardwalk to the street. The building that replaced the old lobby on the Boardwalk proper contains the box office (as well as stores and condos), but no entry to the theater; you buy your tickets and walk around a corner to get in. The big marquee is history; there’s sort of a mini-marquee above the box office, with a small vertical and a flush-mounted now-showing sign at the entrance.
Shows up on Yahoo’s movie listings as the Frank Theatres Moorlyn 4; ads in the Press of Atlantic City are calling it the Moorlyn Stadium 4. The original theater was at least partially demolished two or three years ago; the lobby area and adjoining retail space on the Boardwalk were torn down, revealing an old sign advertising the long-gone Shore Fast Line trolley to Atlantic City (the sign was removed and given to the city’s historical museum for preservation). The old auditorium was still standing at that point; I haven’t been up there recently so I don’t know if the original auditorium was kept and renovated or replaced with new construction.
The Calo was a bowling alley during my college days in Chicago in the late ‘70s; don’t know when that use began or ended.
Last time I was down that way the screen of this theater was still up but the site looked very overgrown—no marquee, not even an obvious entrance road (not a paved one, anyway). It would take a lot of work to bring this one back.
Bob, there is one other theater in Philadelphia that might be the one, except that the location doesn’t match. It would be the Metropolitan Opera House at Broad and Poplar (not on the outskirts of town—a mile north of City Hall, if that). Built around the start of the 20th Century, it was owned for many years by an evangelical organization that did not have the kind of funds needed for proper maintenance. It hosted many kinds of events over the years but I don’t think it was ever a regular movie venue, hence outside the scope of this site.
The Erlen (theater #9129) was right on the city line on Cheltenham Avenue, was occupied by a church and had a seating capacity similar to the Logan’s, but it may not have had quite the grandeur you describe. I could be wrong on that, though.
Apparently some redevelopment plans are afoot here; there’s a proposal to build a restaurant that would be connected to the theater in some way. This story from the local daily probably raises more questions than it answers:
View link
The seating capacity may have been reduced from the original. I believe that New York stage theatres with fewer than 500 seats operate under less expensive union rules than bigger houses do, thus the 499 figure.
Status can be made Closed/Demolished. This block of Atlantic Avenue is now occupied by a strip mall and its parking lots.
The Bowie Baysox are a minor league baseball team…what’s their connection with the drive-in?
Are there any other cinemas influenced by baseball?
In its earlier years the Pearl was a regular stop for leading African-American entertainers on tour. Pearl Bailey is said to have started her career after winning an amateur contest here. The theater must have survived as a movie venue at least into the late ‘60s or early '70s, as it was still advertised in the Inquirer’s (but not the Bulletin’s) neighborhood theater listings.
The name did get used on at least one porn theater somewhere—I can remember Tony Randall, of all people, talking about it on some TV show in the ‘70s.
I once found some newspapers from 1954 and ‘55 that contained ads for the Carman; the burlesque policy was in force at that time. (A comic listed as a coming attraction was Billy “Cheese and Crackers” Hagen—what a nickname!) Around 1976 I took a ride past there on the #23 trolley; the building was still up and there were some signs on it advertising a church or revival meeting but it was hard to tell if they were current or old. It was still quite an imposing structure.
The Tower store building was a rock venue under the Ripley Music Hall name during the first half of the 1980s. Before that it had been a menswear store called Ripley for quite a few years.
The Closed/Demolished designation may be premature, as the owners are said to be consulting an engineer to see if the building can be saved: View link
In the late ‘60s and early '70s the Castor was booked day-and-date with the Bala in Bala-Cynwyd and the Yorktown in Elkins Park, usually showing foreign or art films.
Like its Market Street neighbors the Palace and the Family aka Apollo, the News played out its last years as an all-night grind house showing B movies and eventually adult features. It had a very narrow frontage on Market Street, with the name “NEWS” spelled out vertically in tile above the entrance. Demolished along with the Palace and several other structures to make way for the 1234 Market office building.
Operated from the mid-‘50s to its closing by Stanley Warner/RKO Stanley Warner as an all-night house, running B double features and maybe some adult product at the very end. Demolished along with the News Theater at 1230 Market and several retail buildings to make room for the 1234 Market office building, best known these days as the home of mass transit agency SEPTA.
Not to be confused with two other theaters in Philadelphia that have operated under the Palace name since 1980 (neither one for very long): the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street and the former Theatre 1812 on Chestnut.
Wasn’t this the theater that was the home of “Moron Movies?” They were a series of very short comedy films made by a guy named Len Cella, in his basement more or less…he strung them together and made a midnight-show feature out of them. Eventually he got some of them shown on the Tonight Show.
I’m pretty sure that the online sources that mention this theater have the address wrong; it was near Cumberland Street, which should make it something like 2449 instead of 2649. Demolished by the ‘90s at the latest (the Inquirer ran a picture of a neighbor sitting in a seat in the half-razed theater) and closed long before that, probably in the mid- to late '60s.
The Bala name was in use here by the late ‘60s at the latest. At that time the theater mostly ran foreign films; it was booked day-and-date with the Castor in northeast Philadelphia and the Yorktown in Elkins Park.
The theater site was on what is now Admiral Wilson Boulevard (US Route 30). It was right on the border between Camden and Pennsauken and it appears that at the time the theater was in operation the highway changed name from Admiral Wilson Boulevard to Crescent Boulevard at the city limits. After multiple renamings and realignments over the years, today’s US 30 continues east over the Pennsauken line as Admiral Wilson Boulevard for about a third of a mile to the Airport Circle; there, 30 combines with US 130, which is the highway currently known as Crescent Boulevard. On a map this may be slightly easier to figure out, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyway, the address for the theater site would roughly be in the 2800 or 2900 block of Admiral Wilson Boulevard, on the odd-numbered side. The Zinman Furs building at 2901 is usually cited as the current occupant of the site, but that may not be precisely correct.
If memory serves, in the late ‘60s/early '70s the Bryn Mawr mostly played foreign and art films day-and-date with the World in center city Philadelphia until the latter theater was demolished.
Is that a really narrow front entrance for an 1100-seat theater, or does the photo just make it look that way?
I believe this building was originally called the Diamond Theater. The actual address was on Germantown Avenue, a diagonal street that passes very close to the 6th & Diamond intersection. In the ‘80s this theater would occasionally show up in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s neighborhood movie listings; by then the films were typical Hollywood releases but the theater was still called the Puerto Rico.
Boy, the stuff you could do with a theater called the Henn. Serve chicken nuggets at the concessions…ROOSTERS and CHICKS signs on the restroom doors…Foghorn Leghorn cartoon marathons…midnight showings of “The Egg and I”…
Address of the theater is now 835 Moorlyn Terrace, Ocean City NJ 08226. The entrance to the theater has been moved around to the south side of the auditorium, fronting on a ramp that conects the Boardwalk to the street. The building that replaced the old lobby on the Boardwalk proper contains the box office (as well as stores and condos), but no entry to the theater; you buy your tickets and walk around a corner to get in. The big marquee is history; there’s sort of a mini-marquee above the box office, with a small vertical and a flush-mounted now-showing sign at the entrance.
Shows up on Yahoo’s movie listings as the Frank Theatres Moorlyn 4; ads in the Press of Atlantic City are calling it the Moorlyn Stadium 4. The original theater was at least partially demolished two or three years ago; the lobby area and adjoining retail space on the Boardwalk were torn down, revealing an old sign advertising the long-gone Shore Fast Line trolley to Atlantic City (the sign was removed and given to the city’s historical museum for preservation). The old auditorium was still standing at that point; I haven’t been up there recently so I don’t know if the original auditorium was kept and renovated or replaced with new construction.