Penn Theater
1212 N. Pennsylvania Avenue,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73107
1212 N. Pennsylvania Avenue,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73107
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing all 16 comments
W.H. Schumacher, who created the Penn Theatre design, was also architect for the DeLuxe Theatre in Houston, TX. Too bad the interior has fallen into such bad shape. Those above photos can’t convey how pleasant the Penn interior once was.
The Cinema Section of Roadside Oklahome is closed, they no longer have theatre photos according to the site. Go to their home page for further details.
Seymour, thanks for the links to all the OK Theatres from the Roadside Oklahoma Site. The photos are really great.
Recent pictures of the stripped down Penn (AKA-Trend) Theatre can be seen here,
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/513
The theater, restaurant, and surrounding buildings are now junk stores. Here are some photos I took of the theater on 11/6/09:
Exterior:
View link
Lobby:
View link
Looking toward projection booth and front of theater:
View link
1985 photo of the Penn Theatre. Really sad looking.
View link
Thank you Ken. Yes, I thought so.
Wish I had been old enough to see movies
there growing up.
If you look at the photo on Google maps, the theater is the white building next to the Flores thrift shop. I don’t know if that helps you out or not.
Is this the old boarded up theater next to the Chinese restaurant
near Ten-Penn? The photo link above is broken.
This theatre opened on June 13th, 1940
If memory serves correctly, I recall that the Trend experienced a slow death. This tidy little theatre ceased regular seven day week presentations in the mid 1980’s, then opened only for weekend showings. After that it became a sporadic open and closed operation until shutting down completely in the early 1990’s.
My mother worked as a maid for a Scots household near the Penn Theatre. She reminisced about the times when she would take her young ward to the Penn which frequently showed Scottish films. These pictures were quite popular since this theatre was in a Presbyterian neighborhood.
The PENN Theatre usually presented second run double features. During the late 1960’s it was given a spiffy facelift and renamed TREND, it then began specializing in foreign and vintage silent pictures.
I took some pics yesterday:
View link
Penn Theatre (AKA-Trend),1940-1982, architect-W.H. Schumacker. Styled in Art Deco, the Penn had a nice size lobby, and the 531 seat auditorium was designed with a quonset arch ceiling that resembled a miniature Radio City Music Hall.
This structure is now used as an electrical warehouse.
In 1970 there is a Trend Theater located at 1212 N. Pennsylvania Avenue. Owner is listed as Trend Theatre Inc. This theater should have an aka name of Trend Theater.