Calvert Theater

Im Looking for any exterior photos of the old Calvert. HELP
Thanks Bill

Bluesman's e-mail is Laskis@Adelphia.net

After the theater was torn down the sign remained for a period of time, I think as the sign for Calvert Liquors. You went under the sign to enter the parking lot from Wisconsin Avenue. During the time that the theater was in existence the entrance to the parking lot was only from 37th Street; there was none from Wisconsin Avenue in those days.

I still remember the neon sign for the Calvert Theater. The letters were red. Each letter would light up in sequence: "C - A - L - V - E - R - T". Then all the letters would go out. Then they would all come on again at once. Then they would all go out. Then the sequence would begin again.

Among the movies which I saw for the first time at the Calvert were "Vertigo", "Rodan", "Invaders From Mars", "Cleopatra", "How The West Was Won", "The Blob", and no doubt many others. Saturday matinees were thirty-five cents in the latter part of the 1950s.

Going to the Calvert Theatre was alot of fun during my high school years....As one of the "Avenue Boys" we usually spent the day playing ball at Jelleff's Boys Club just down the street..
One night stands out..when our buddy...nicknamed "Jughead" .....got alittle too loud and rowdy during a '62 showing of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence"......and we were asked to leave the premises.

photo of lobby:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/Exhibits/Headley/styles3.html

The Calvert Theater is listed in 1955 with 990 seats.

The Calvert closed 5/30/67 with a double bill of "Alfie" and "Funeral in Berlin".

The Calvert began an on-again/off-again first-fun policy with "The Small World of Sammy Lee" on 9/20/63.

Among its more notable first-runs were "Knife In The Water" (1/64), "Bedtime Story" (6/64), "Marnie" (8/64), "The Slender Thread" (1/65), "Viva Maria" (2/66), "Shout Louder..." (12/66), and its last first-run "Night Games" (3/67).

"Marnie" which opened in multiple theaters that included the Calvert
was the first Alfred Hitcock film not to be shown in a downtown theater.

Most of the films ran from one to three weeks. 'The Slender Thread" and "Viva Maria" both ran for four weeks. "The Easy Life" ran for six weeks.

"The Slender Thread opened in 1/66. Sorry about the typo

Photo from the Jack Coursey Collection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maincourse/3433263952/in/photostream/