According to at least two Inquirer stories in 1966-67, this theater was going to be called the Ambassador. I didn’t find an explanation of why the name was changed before the opening.
One of those articles contains a tantalizing mention of a proposed Philly theater that was never built: a 600-seat first run house at Front and Delancey, to be called either the Mariner or the Society Hill and operated by “Walter Reade-Sterling”. The same piece reports the imminent openings of Theatre 1812 and the Eric-Rittenhouse, as well as a rumored reopening of the Viking (which did come back, as Cinema 19). Busy times!
Still operating as of February 16, 1977, when this theater made what must have been a very rare appearance in the Philadelphia papers' display ads, showing the double bill of “Blast” and “TNT Jackson” (seen on the marquee in one of the pictures). Only a few Philly-area theaters booked this pairing, so the ad space was padded with some houses in outlying cities.
The Eureka’s name was changed to the Fine Arts in April 1952 and the theater adopted a foreign film policy. Apparently this was not successful as advertising for the house stopped in September. The theater was open again in February 1953 (probably four-walled) as a venue for the “sex hygiene” picture “Street Corner.”
With the closing of the Savoy across the street, the Palace inherited that theater’s all-night policy on April 25, 1952, showing “5 Fingers” and, for post-11 p.m. customers only, “Stations West.”
Last day for the Savoy was April 24, 1952, showing “Phone Call From a Stranger” and “The Outlaw.” The Savoy was operating as an all-night house by this time; Stanley Warner moved that policy across the street to the Palace the next day.
The Warder Grand Opera House opened at 9th & Holmes in October 1887, was renamed the Auditorium Theatre by 1895 (possibly earlier) and was destroyed in a December 1897 fire. A replacement Auditorium Theatre opened on the same site in 1899. A 1960 newspaper story has the building catching fire while under demolition in that year, contradicting the kchistory site’s 1945 demolition date.
A couple of “40 Years Ago” columns in the Kansas City Times in May 1967 refer to these 1927 stories from the Times’s sister paper, the Kansas City Star:
May 1, 1927: “The Grand Opera House at the southwest corner of Seventh and Walnut streets has been converted into a garage and four storerooms. The theater was built in 1891.”
May 20-21, 1927: “The Auditorium theater, Ninth and Holmes streets, will open as a motion picture house tonight, operated by Samuel Harding, manager of the Liberty theater. (It formerly was the Warder Grand Opera House.)”
So it seems that the Grand Opera House and the Warder Grand Opera House were two different buildings. I don’t see an obvious Cinema Treasures listing for the Warder/Auditorium, and no theater on the site currently appears to map to 9th & Holmes.
After he lost his lease on the Aarde Cinema across the street, Barney Sackett set up shop at 2026 Sansom in January 1974, operating as a revival house called the Sackett Screening Room. An Inquirer story said that the theater had 29 seats and no lobby. The 29 seats turned out to be plenty, as two weeks later Sackett announced that he had sold a total of 60 tickets and was switching to porn. He took a couple more shots at revivals later in the year (the Al Jolson musical “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum” seems to have been a favorite) but they didn’t fare any better. The theater was advertising as a gay porn house in 1975-76, and Sackett lasted here at least long enough to complain about business being bad in a 1978 Inquirer story. The Adonis started advertising at this address in 1986.
The original address for the Roxy’s first screen was 2021 Sansom. The first theatrical use of that building appears to have been as The Pocket Playhouse, presenting live theater in 1968-69. An October 1969 opening as “Underground Cinema 16” (as in 16 mm) ended abruptly after two weeks when it was shut down by the city for not having permits. By January 1970 the theater was open and advertising as Underground Cinema. Barney Sackett took over the operation in June 1970 and changed the name to Aarde Cinema, initially with some arty pretensions but shifting to adult films. The Aarde ran porn, sometimes straight, sometimes gay until October 1973. After a renovation the venue reopened as the Academy Screening Room in February 1974 with the documentary “I.F. Stone’s Weekly.” The Academy operated with an art/revival policy into 1976. A 1979 Inquirer story about a bank fraud case mentions a nightclub called Club Hippo at the 2021 address and says it was destroyed in an arson fire, but is unclear on dates (per the story a loan to fund the club was supposedly granted in 1974). The Roxy began advertising in May 1982 and by January 1983 had been taken over by the operators of South Street’s TLA, who began advertising the Roxy as TLA Roxy Screening Room.
(Sorry for the non-clickable link, but the markdown syntax apparently has trouble with an URL that ends with a parenthesis.) I’ve seen this term used to suggest high society as late as the early ‘40s, so the name may have made more sense in 1930 than it does now.
“Liane” was in general release in the Baltimore area in the summer and fall of 1958, but I don’t find it at the Apex during that period. Per the Baltimore Sun listings the double bill on the marquee in the photo played the Apex December 25-27, 1962.
“Liane” was in general release in the Baltimore area in the summer and fall of 1958, but per the Baltimore Sun listings this double bill played the Apex December 25-27, 1962!
Newspaper ads from 1907-08 give the Bijou Dream’s address as Broadway and Division Street. (Division is now Ramona Gonzalez Street.) Nothing at the intersection today resembles the photo shown above.
Last day of commercial operation was March 3, 1953, with “Montana Belle” on the screen. The next night, a Hadassah group used the theater for screenings of an Israeli film, “Faithful City.” After that the Towers was permanently closed.
Appears to be operating as a nightclub, or at least it was until the current unpleasantness. http://limaohiotheatre.com/
According to at least two Inquirer stories in 1966-67, this theater was going to be called the Ambassador. I didn’t find an explanation of why the name was changed before the opening.
One of those articles contains a tantalizing mention of a proposed Philly theater that was never built: a 600-seat first run house at Front and Delancey, to be called either the Mariner or the Society Hill and operated by “Walter Reade-Sterling”. The same piece reports the imminent openings of Theatre 1812 and the Eric-Rittenhouse, as well as a rumored reopening of the Viking (which did come back, as Cinema 19). Busy times!
Still operating as of February 16, 1977, when this theater made what must have been a very rare appearance in the Philadelphia papers' display ads, showing the double bill of “Blast” and “TNT Jackson” (seen on the marquee in one of the pictures). Only a few Philly-area theaters booked this pairing, so the ad space was padded with some houses in outlying cities.
Circa February 16, 1977. “Blast” was a version of a 1972 feature originally titled “The Final Comedown.”
Blog software turned two hyphens into an em dash and ruined the URL above. This may work better.
Closing January 26. Inquirer.com story here.
The Eureka’s name was changed to the Fine Arts in April 1952 and the theater adopted a foreign film policy. Apparently this was not successful as advertising for the house stopped in September. The theater was open again in February 1953 (probably four-walled) as a venue for the “sex hygiene” picture “Street Corner.”
With the closing of the Savoy across the street, the Palace inherited that theater’s all-night policy on April 25, 1952, showing “5 Fingers” and, for post-11 p.m. customers only, “Stations West.”
Last day for the Savoy was April 24, 1952, showing “Phone Call From a Stranger” and “The Outlaw.” The Savoy was operating as an all-night house by this time; Stanley Warner moved that policy across the street to the Palace the next day.
The Warder Grand Opera House opened at 9th & Holmes in October 1887, was renamed the Auditorium Theatre by 1895 (possibly earlier) and was destroyed in a December 1897 fire. A replacement Auditorium Theatre opened on the same site in 1899. A 1960 newspaper story has the building catching fire while under demolition in that year, contradicting the kchistory site’s 1945 demolition date.
A couple of “40 Years Ago” columns in the Kansas City Times in May 1967 refer to these 1927 stories from the Times’s sister paper, the Kansas City Star:
May 1, 1927: “The Grand Opera House at the southwest corner of Seventh and Walnut streets has been converted into a garage and four storerooms. The theater was built in 1891.”
May 20-21, 1927: “The Auditorium theater, Ninth and Holmes streets, will open as a motion picture house tonight, operated by Samuel Harding, manager of the Liberty theater. (It formerly was the Warder Grand Opera House.)”
So it seems that the Grand Opera House and the Warder Grand Opera House were two different buildings. I don’t see an obvious Cinema Treasures listing for the Warder/Auditorium, and no theater on the site currently appears to map to 9th & Holmes.
After he lost his lease on the Aarde Cinema across the street, Barney Sackett set up shop at 2026 Sansom in January 1974, operating as a revival house called the Sackett Screening Room. An Inquirer story said that the theater had 29 seats and no lobby. The 29 seats turned out to be plenty, as two weeks later Sackett announced that he had sold a total of 60 tickets and was switching to porn. He took a couple more shots at revivals later in the year (the Al Jolson musical “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum” seems to have been a favorite) but they didn’t fare any better. The theater was advertising as a gay porn house in 1975-76, and Sackett lasted here at least long enough to complain about business being bad in a 1978 Inquirer story. The Adonis started advertising at this address in 1986.
The original address for the Roxy’s first screen was 2021 Sansom. The first theatrical use of that building appears to have been as The Pocket Playhouse, presenting live theater in 1968-69. An October 1969 opening as “Underground Cinema 16” (as in 16 mm) ended abruptly after two weeks when it was shut down by the city for not having permits. By January 1970 the theater was open and advertising as Underground Cinema. Barney Sackett took over the operation in June 1970 and changed the name to Aarde Cinema, initially with some arty pretensions but shifting to adult films. The Aarde ran porn, sometimes straight, sometimes gay until October 1973. After a renovation the venue reopened as the Academy Screening Room in February 1974 with the documentary “I.F. Stone’s Weekly.” The Academy operated with an art/revival policy into 1976. A 1979 Inquirer story about a bank fraud case mentions a nightclub called Club Hippo at the 2021 address and says it was destroyed in an arson fire, but is unclear on dates (per the story a loan to fund the club was supposedly granted in 1974). The Roxy began advertising in May 1982 and by January 1983 had been taken over by the operators of South Street’s TLA, who began advertising the Roxy as TLA Roxy Screening Room.
The name is probably a reference to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Hundred_(1892)
(Sorry for the non-clickable link, but the markdown syntax apparently has trouble with an URL that ends with a parenthesis.) I’ve seen this term used to suggest high society as late as the early ‘40s, so the name may have made more sense in 1930 than it does now.
Locals are trying to shut the theater down again.
“Liane” was in general release in the Baltimore area in the summer and fall of 1958, but I don’t find it at the Apex during that period. Per the Baltimore Sun listings the double bill on the marquee in the photo played the Apex December 25-27, 1962.
“Liane” was in general release in the Baltimore area in the summer and fall of 1958, but per the Baltimore Sun listings this double bill played the Apex December 25-27, 1962!
Inga Saffron story with twelve new and old photos.
Block Club Chicago story on the Chopin and its owners here.
Building and neighbors have been renovated; owner says he’s finalizing a deal to lease the theater space. Block Club Chicago story here.
Phily.com story on the rebuilding, with pictures.
Newspaper ads from 1907-08 give the Bijou Dream’s address as Broadway and Division Street. (Division is now Ramona Gonzalez Street.) Nothing at the intersection today resembles the photo shown above.
Last day of commercial operation was March 3, 1953, with “Montana Belle” on the screen. The next night, a Hadassah group used the theater for screenings of an Israeli film, “Faithful City.” After that the Towers was permanently closed.
Circa November 19, 1959.
Reopening December 3 with Bob Dylan. It’s been a long time comin'…