Crest Theatre
5800 Rising Sun Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19120
5800 Rising Sun Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19120
3 people
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The last flix I saw at the Crest were a John Waters film festival. It had gotten pretty shabby.
Only was at the Crest once…saw Scarface on a second run. Don’t remember much about the theater, except it had a much larger screen than the GCC Northeast 4 abomination that I saw the film at during it’s first run. I regret having not taken more advantage of attending the old Northeast Philly neighborhood theaters back when I moved to Philly in 1979.
This is from the Gettysburg Times in July 1949:
Philadelphia, July 13â€" A man was shot in the back today by a policeman who surprised two men attempting to break into a theater safe in northeast Philadelphia. At Frankford hospital, William Miller, 31, was reported in critical condition. The .38 calibre bullet passed through his body. Patrolman Hugh Campbell, 62, said he was walking past the Crest theater at 2:30 a.m. when he heard a muffled thud as the safe was overturned. Listening at the door he heard the sound of a chisel on steel and quickly commanded a taxi to summon other policemen.
1983 photo of the Crest Theatre.
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The reason the trolley went the way of many movie theatres in Philadelphia is because there was no safe way to pass them. Once you got behind one, you were stuck. Other cities had them running in the middle of the street and the auto lanes on the outside. But not ours, and this sealed their fate….
Ken, don’t pick on the poor trolley. They were green and clean before anyone ever heard of that. (It’s great to see them back on Girard Avenue.)
I used to ride on those old deathtraps that LM displayed in his 11/3/05 photo. When they went underground, you never knew if you would come out of the tunnel alive.
I went to the Crest almost every Saturday when I was a kid. I lived in Crescentville from birth in 1955 to when we moved, in summer of 1966. My parents decision, I had no say in the matter. Today whenever I watch a 1960’s movie on TV, I imagine people back in that time, going to see it at the Crest. Sheer nostalgia…
Glazer’s hardback book says Crest opened 11-23-1937. This rendered was in 9-15-1937 The Exhibitor:
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Marquee 1st line: Clark Gable, Myna Loy
2nd line: Parnell
3rd line: March of Time (space) Mickey Mouse
Thanks for the photo link Lost Memory, as someone who grew up in Philadelphia it sure brought back memories to see that trolley and flourishing main street business district.
My wife and I had one of our first dates at the Crest. We saw “Chariots of Fire”.
For what it’s worth, the film listed on the marquee in the above photo is “The Devil’s Brigade” with William Holden and Cliff Robertson.
This is a 1968 photo of Rising Sun Avenue. You can see the Crest Theater on the right side of the photo.
The Crest closed and there was a fire at some point. Eventually, the building was torn down and replaced by a 7-11. It featured an interesting long lobby that went up according to the land contour. The auditorium was on the right and paralleled Rising Sun Ave. I saw Logan’s Run here.