Wayne Avenue Theatre

4910 Wayne Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19144

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JimmyT1
JimmyT1 on December 1, 2009 at 6:44 pm

First saw Chaplin’s The Great Dictator here when it reopened in the US.

DennisMcG
DennisMcG on June 1, 2006 at 1:34 pm

The Wayne Theatre, also known as the Wayne Avenue Theatre, was located at 4910 Wayne Avenue, about a block from the Happy Hollow Recreation Center. Opened in 1919 with a seating capacity of 480, it first opened as the Wayne Avenue Playhouse, with the name later changed to the Wayne Avenue Theatre. According to a newspaper clipping from the time, it was a “one-story motion picture theatre 46 x 138 feet located on the south side of Wayne Avenue, east of Logan Street, erected at a cost of $12,000”. It closed as a motion picture theatre in 1968. It was later converted to retail use. In October 1990 it was purchased by St. Andrews Fellowship Baptist Church and is today used as a church.

veyoung52
veyoung52 on February 7, 2006 at 9:02 am

I have very fond memories of the Wayne Ave Playhouse. In the 50’s it was mainly a 2nd-run house for foreign releases. I remember vividly seeing “Diabolique,” and the Jacques Tati comedies “Mr Hulot’s Holiday” and “Mon Oncle,” and many others. In later years, the house was used on weekends for “Nickelodeon Nights,” a selection of comedy shorts, particularly Laurel & Hardy, and was very successful.