Merritt Theater
3710 Main Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06606
3710 Main Street,
Bridgeport,
CT
06606
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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.
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.
Here is a July 1951 ad from the Bridgeport Telegram:
http://tinyurl.com/2pkm36
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.