Merritt Theater
3710 Main Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06606
3710 Main Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06606
No one has favorited this theater yet
Located on Main Street, Bridgeport, at the intersection with Fern Street, the Merritt’s entrance was in a row of stores with a small, attractive marquee. It closed as a theater in 1985, was used as an appliance store until it was demolished for a strip mall about 1998.
Contributed by
Joel McEachen
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The 977 seat Merritt Theatre was opened by Warner Bros. Theaters on April 15, 1942. The supervising architect is listed as Bridgeport architect Toby Vece but from observation it is likely that the plans were drawn by Drew Eberson who did much work for Warners' at the time. All seats were located on one floor. The theater was later twinned down the middle. It was the last RKO-Stanley Warner Theatre in Connecticut and closed on February 10, 1985.
Here is a July 1951 ad from the Bridgeport Telegram:
http://tinyurl.com/2pkm36
I found historic theatre attendance tallies for the Danbury Palace and this theatre among others while working for the CT Film Fest last week. On Sunday, during the last screening, I self-toured the stagehouse on both sides and found the info.
From 3/19-3/25/79, The Bridgeport Merritt 1 showed Breaking Away/Little Darlings and the Merritt 2 showed A Force of One.
Both theatres are listed as having 480 seats each.
I recall seeing some classic movies at the Merritt Theater, including Jaws, and the original Star Wars movie when it was one large theater. After they made it a two screen theater, it was not the same. It was definitely one of those neighborhood theaters.