Avenue Theatre
2713 Germantown Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19133
2713 Germantown Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19133
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As a child we spent many Saturday afternoons at this theatre as well as the Keystone. It was the best place to cool off in the summer, it was air conditioned.
This was my Saturday Matinee movie when I was a kid. Scrubbed the neighbor’s white steps for a nickel. Added my nickel allowance and I had enough to get into the show. If Friday night company had lost change in the sofa cushions, I had enough for popcorn and a Klein Lunch Bar! Good times.
Here is another 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yarrt74
A small Family Dollar store has been built on the former theater’s location.
Here is an item from Boxoffice magazine, October 1947:
650 Leave Theater when Oil Burner Backfires
PHILADELPHIA-About 650 patrons of a north side theater filed out in orderly fashion when a basement oil burner backfired, filling the auditorium with smoke. It took about five minutes to evacuate the Temple Theater while the projectionist played music over the sound track amplifiers.
Manager Charles Thompson, three ushers and a policeman helped to guide the people to the street through the main doors and emergency exits shortly before 9 p.m., before the last show got underway.
After noticing the smoke Benjamin Horowitz, projectionist, immediately switched off the picture, turned on the lights and started the music. Leroy Dreisback, head usher, leaped on the stage and started the evacuation. Virginia Kuntz, cashier, locked her booth and notified the policeman on the beat, who called firemen.
I’ve been pretty close. Missed that one, though.
Here is a photo, circa late sixties:
http://tinyurl.com/2dayx3
I remember this theater being one of the first movie theaters I ever attended as a child. I remeber seeing Pinocchio there and being absolutely terrified of the coming attractions for “Whatever Happenned To Baby Jane”. At the time admission was 25 cents for children under 12 and if you were an adult or over 12 years of age admission was 35 cents. I still remember the theater closing down for renovations. I never got a chance to visit the theater after it re-opened. I do remember that the outside got a real nice face lift with lots and lots of bright new neon. Last summer I deceided to drive down to where it stood and all that was there was an empty lot.
I was unaware that it burnt down in the 80’s.
Ads for the Avenue in the JFK assassination newspapers say that it was scheduled to reopen the following Wednesday (November 27, 1963) after a renovation. That might explain the idea that it closed in the Sixties (it could have been missing from listings while the work was underway), although 1964 would still be the wrong year.