Old Greenbelt Theatre
132 Centerway,
Greenbelt,
MD
20770
132 Centerway,
Greenbelt,
MD
20770
6 people
favorited this theater
The Greenbelt Theatre was opened on September 21, 1938. The opening attraction was “Little Miss Broadway” with Shirley Temple. The original seating capacity was 590.
The Greenbelt Theatre showed movies for almost 40 years until it closed in 1976. Reopening as a community arts center in 1980, the theater struggled again and closed in 1987.
P & G Theatres purchased the Old Greenbelt and reopened it as a movie theater in 1990. The Greenbelt is, again, one of the best movie houses in the capital area with a 40-foot wide screen and a sound system with 4,900 watts of power and 60 speakers.
Contributed by
Alexander Barnes, Paul Sanchez
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Recent comments (view all 28 comments)
Thank you, Lost Memory. I am glad you posted that. I will tell friends of mine to go look at it.
I caught Nine here on a matinee over the holiday weekend (Sun). Very nice projection, bright screen, great movie. My friend was more excited to see it initially then I did. Not knowing about the movie except seeing Penelope Cruz on tv and hear raves about her performance, I thought I would snooze during the movie. Fortunately, I did not. Daniel Day Lewis gives a good performance as do his castmates and, yes, Penelope does sizzle and dazzle. Her performance says Oscar nomination at least. What was just as good as the movie was the $6 matinee price. :)
While I am glad this theater is still around, I hope they will someday remodel the restrooms and repair the seats that need repair. Also the auditorium could use some fresh paint or something to obscure whatever is peeling or bare.
Did Greenbelt have the plaster lady statues up by the screen ? I am trying to find out who had those.There was a violet light shining on them. Langley had the pink glass mirrors around the water fountain. I believe Greenbelt may have had a clock down mear the screen by the exit signs. Old theatres had neat nooks and crannies. I get Hyattsville interiors mixed up, too. Old memories overlap.
If they were there, I think they are long gone by now. I don’t recall seeing statues by the screen. Maybe they were there once upon a time. But as I said in my last post, the place could use some sprucing up. Maybe they could do a fundraiser just for that purpose.
Thank you. Maybe the statues were in Hyattsville. I know that they were illuminated by an ultraviolet light, can’t recall if lit from above, side, or from below, but I am sure they were Greek statues, and were on either side of the screen. Could have been Langley. The little details made such a difference. Ushers were the norm back then.
Here is a night shot:
http://tinyurl.com/yfe867k
2010 photo of the Greenbelt Theatre courtesy anomalous
View link
Thanks to each of you for sharing pictures, and memories. I am in Arizona now about an hour from Vegas, and they actually have drive ins. I haven’t come across an old theatre, yet. There ought to be a law that buildings are built in pairs, just in case something happens to one. And there should be laws against allowing them to deteriorate.
From the 1940s a photo postcard view of the Greenbelt Theatre in Greenbelt.
Nice postcard ! Lots of space, and pretty trees. Ah, the old days.