Milgram Theatre

I remember the Duke & Duchess, because two doors down was the Budco Regency. I think I saw the move E.T. at the Regency, I remember crying leaving the movie theatre. If memory serves me right, I think the Regency had an opening in the balcony lobby, a circle where you could look down to the main lobby.

I remember I saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the Milgram theatre
in 1975 and I waited in line for 1 hour just to get in the place.
It was a big theatre with an upstairs.I was only a kid with my dad
but it was the greatest time I ever had, A great time in my life,
They don't make theatres like that anymore,and why are they tearing
them down?

I vividly remember the Milgram theater, along with the Goldman, the Stage Door Cinema, the Fox (hated that one because of the old architecture artwork design at the very top edge of the building), the Duke & Duchess, and the Sameric. Of all of those theaters, the Milgram was my favorite. I remember going to the Milgram to see "Cleopatra Jones," "Melinda," "Trouble Man" and other "blaxploitation" films of the time. I was only a kid at the time, but I remember it well. There was a great steak house about two doors down from the Milgram, on the corner of 16th and Market, where they cooked charcoil broiled steaks on an open grill, and had the best lemon meringue pie I think I've ever tasted in my life...

I worked at the Milgram, Fox and Stage Door Cinema in the arly 70's while in High school. Movies that played there at the time: "Carnal Knowledge" "A Clockwork Orange", "The Godfather", "PLay it as it Lays", "The Other", "The Emigrants". One of the managers there was Bob Beck, is there anyone out there who worked there. The Stage Door Cinema was the stage for the Fox Theatre.

Andy P.

Hi andy do you have photos of the milgram theater I would love to see them I collected alot of photos from the pab website.
I can e mail you some photos if you like.
thanks
jimmy

The Stage door cinema was this little movie theater in the back of the fox theater, I remember when I saw (the exorcist) in 1972
I waited in line over 2 hours to see this movie,and we were so scared after the movie ended,we went to see another movie to try to forget what we just saw. The 1970's where the best time for movies in phila does anybody remember watching Earthquake in sensuround, at
the sameric theater?
please if anyone has old photos of these theaters let me know.
I have some to trade.
JImmy

Jimmy Adams above asked if "anybody remember watching Earthquake in sesurround...". Yes, I have a funny story about "Earthquake" in Senssurround at the Boyd (SamEric). Picture this: Friday opening night, theatre including balcony full, I had already seen it in the orchestra, wanted to checkout the Senssound in the balcony (like downstairs, 4 huge Cerwin-Vega or JBL boxes you could dance inside of in each corner). The film begins...as you recall, the 1st earthquake sequence begins roughly 40-45 minutes into the film. About 10 minutes prior to that, a little teenage girl apparently gets the hungries, leaves her seat to go to concessions and comes back upstairs arms loaded to the hilt with popcorn, sodas, hotdogs, candy, whatever. She's about halfway up the stairs with her groceries when rhe rumbling begins. I will never forget the look on her face. As she turns around to look at the screen with this expression of sheer horror, she starts screaming, popcorn, sodas, wieners, candy bars fly all over the place. That side of the balcony absolutely rocked with laughter!

WANTED:Information...Hello everyone! I live in Virginia and came across this site because Im doing research on this particular theatre. A few years back, I was antiqueing and came across a small ziplock bag that has 35 mint condition (never used)"Stanton Theatre" tickets. These tickets are dated November 16, 1964 and April 10, 1965. Im pretty sure they are tickets to this particular theatre. The company that printed the tickets (in small letters says: Globe Ticket Co. Phila). The tickets come in 5 different colors: Orange, Brown, Dark Grey, Light Grey (almost white), and royal purple. Im curious to know if they are of any value historically...I would think so. They are fascinating! I have noticed the colors seem to pertain to the different sections within the theatre. Some say orchestra (purple), others say first balcony (dark Grey), Loge (Orange)etc. These tickets are 40 years old and I went to the PAB website and saw the pictures of the theatre...stunning is all I can say! It truely is a shame they demolished such a beautiful and historicl theatre. Any information on them, their value, or possibly what I should do with them other than keep them framed would be great! Cheers!
Lee

Hello, Talented artist I don't know the value of the tickets,I would
Buy a pair from you if you wanted to sell. I have some photos of the stanton(milgram,and other theaters from the 1970's.
Do you have any photo's?
If your interested please email me
sindi54@comcast.net
thanks
jimmy

Hello,
Many years ago I was doing some work in a Philadelphia home. In between the wall and the stairs to the second floor I found a coin (token)? with the words The Stanton Theater 16th and Market sts. The lettering is raised and in very good condition.
I have tried to find out information on it but to no avail.
Maybe somebody at this site can tell me a bit more about something of this nature.
I can be reached at jmat2015@yahoo.com

You can see the Milgram in the right background, along with the Center.
http://tinyurl.com/feoc6

Ken MC, this picture must have been taken mid-70's, no later than 1980 before the Fox and Milgram was torn down to make room for the PNC Office Complex.

That photo was taken in 1978, during the blizzard which I think occurred in February. Here are two photos of the Stanton from 1935:
http://tinyurl.com/efj5z
http://tinyurl.com/eu5k2

thanks so much for the photos!!! they were great.
Does anybody no the last movie playing at the Milgram?
I would love to know..
thanks again
Jim

HTTP://WWW.SINDIRAYMONDBAND.COM/FILES/MILGRAMMMMMM.JPG

a SHOT OF THE MILGRAM&FOX THEATER 1971

Great Picture, and if you could look inside, you can see me. I worked as an usher at the Milgram in 1971-1972. Pop Edward's next door had great food.

Still looking for some pics of the Stage Door Cinema.
The thing that bugs me the most is that I was in those theaters
all the time and had camera stuff but never thought of taking a picture.

The 1963 motion picture almanac lists a Milgram Booking Service at 303 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia. I'll make a leap and assume that this is connected with the Milgram Theater. President was Nathan Milgram. Vice-President was Alvin Milgram.

Ken mc: Yes that is correct. I worked for a short period of time in 1966 at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster. They were showing movies at the time, and MIlgram Booking Service was the booker of the films that were shown. I remember they convinced them to play "Sound of Music" starting in June 1966. They were figuring since it had been playing at the Eric Theatre in Harrisburg for months, they were figuring it would last at the Fulton until early Fall. It was a reserved seat engagement, but only presented in 35mm with no stereo sound. However, it lasted for 17 weeks and at least one stage show had to be postponed because the movie was still showing. The weekly gross had to drop below a certain level before the engagement could be ended.

Howard Haas just asked me if I had ever been in the Milgram and its predecessor, the Stanton. Here's my long-winded answer.

"I had planned to add a bit to c.t. when the subject of "common width" masking pops up again to prove that this is not a new "phenomenon" (if that's the right word.) I saw something or other at the Stanton as early as 1954 and was distressed that the 'scope image was smaller than the screen on which the 'toons, newsreels, etc. were shown. The "widescreen" that was installed there that winter was entirely in front of the proscenium arch (and stage), and covered virtually the entire width of the theatre, masking being lowered for 'scope, which, of course I hated. This was the very first time I had ever seen anything like this. When renovated as the Milgram, the new screen, curtains, masking, etc. were once again within the proscenium, and, of necessity, rather smallish, even though Milgram had installed 70mm projection.

Saw quite a lot of schlock films there in the 50's especially from William Castle (Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, Macabre) and fondly remember the skeleton that was rigged to fly out from behind a screen curtain and be pulled on wires up into the balcony during "Haunted Hill," and those seats with buzzers that went off during "Tingler." Much fun trying to determine beforehand which of the seats had been "Tingler-ized."

More trivia since you asked, :-)
At some point the Milgrams decided to move away from the B product the house was famous for (and, that product line was dwindling anyway), and decided to go for the roadshow. MGM had remade its award-winning "Cimarron" for Spring, 1960 release, and somehow decided that Philadelphia and L.A. (and probably Chicago) would host the world premieres prior to New York, unheard of at the time. It opened at the Stanton as a 10-performances-per-week roadshow ahead of its engagement at the Music Hall. Didn't perform well, however, and the film was pulled after just a few weeks. It didn't even switch over to the "Now For The First Time at Popular Prices and Continuous Performances" policy. Just left the theatre never to be heard again. MGM and SW had also liberally "redone" the Stanton exterior for the engagement...new large and bright mylar display decorating the marquee instead of the usual plastic lettering; and over-sized three-dimensional posters covering the usual one-sheet boxes. I seem to remember an extra boxoffice outside for advance ticketing. It was quite impressive at the time, but, unfortunately, the film didn't catch on. However, at any rate, the Stanton, like the Goldman some years earlier, had begun to shed its image as low-budget house and came firmly into the ranks of our classy first-run houses downtown.

Sorry for the rant. "

Here is a 1925 photo from philyhistory.org. The marquee is different:
http://tinyurl.com/6ndysy

I believe The Stanton Theatre had 3 different marquees. The firs was from 1914 to the 1930's. The second was from at least 1935 to around 1959, when the final marquee was nstalled. this would be the marquee style that was also used by this theatre's sister theatre, The Boyd Theatre.

When this theatre became The Milgram Theatre, they modernized everything on the front of this theatre except for the marquee, with the exception of putting the "Milgram" name where the "Stanton" name used to be, not like what Sameric Theatres did, covering the "Boyd" name with metal and placing the "Sameric" name right through the Boyd name. you can still see the holes in the Boyd name from where the bolts were from the "Sameric" name.

Here's a photo of the "Martin Luther" film appearing at the Stanton in 1953: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elcaarchives/2969532059/

What's fascinating is that even the least-ornate theaters of yesteryear top the sleek thingamabobs of today. Man, what I'd give to see an old marquee again.

FILM NOIRS at Stanton!

Google search exactly
Boxoffice January 31, 1948
punch in page 31 for photo of Stanton façade decorated by manager Elmer Pickard for movie “T-Men” on marquee


February 14, 1948 lists "Out of the Past" as the movie being shown.

October 22, 1949 page 56 has photo of Gail Storm, star, visit to Philadelphia in advance of picture "Abandoned" at Stanton

January 27, 1951 page 47 reported that Philip Shawn who plays the lead of “The Sun Sets at Dawn” was in town to help beat the drums for the opening at the Stanton Saturday (27)
February 10, 1951 reported that ushers wore prison outfits at Stanton during "The Sun Sets at Dawn"

Renewing my link.

Another film noir event! 8 Aug 1954 Box Office reported that film noir "Pushover" star Kim Novak appeared in Stanton lobby 18 Aug to promote the film, handing out autographs & photos

Here's some more Stanton history from Box Office:

18 April 1942 Box Office ad stated that "Ghost of Frankenstein" broke 8 year record for opening week business at Stanton

27 Oct 1951 Box Office: star Barbara Payton was due here Oct 27 to appear on Stanton stage to promote the film (Civil war drama) "Drums in the Deep South"

22 Dec 1951 Box Office: local parade to promote the showing of the movie “Fort Defiance”

The year given for this photo showing the Fox and the Milgram is 1968 although IMDB gives the year of release for the movie "Riot" as 1969.

Here is a November 1959 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/nlscbr

Here is a 1974 ad for "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".