Meriden Twin
535 South Broad Street,
Meriden,
CT
06450
535 South Broad Street,
Meriden,
CT
06450
1 person
favorited this theater
Originally a single screen theater built in 1949, the Meriden Theater had Art Moderne style neon signage and a stainless steel Moderne marquee with flashing neon bars. The theater also had Moderne glass entrance doors, box office, a classic lobby and a snack bar.
The theater was converted into a 2 screen in the late-1970’s.
Located on the top of the hill on route 5 in Meriden (on the Wallingford town line), the theater sat accross from the International Silver Building. It closed in 1987 and was demolished in 1988 to make way for the Town Line Square shopping plaza.
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"The Hoodlum"
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
The address for the Meriden Twin Theatre was 535 South Broad Sr., Meriden, Ct.
What a shame this place is gone. It was fabulous! Wasn’t art deco, though. Art moderne is a more appropriate description. Prior to its conversion to a “twin,” the screen was enormous. It was on this huge screen I saw 2001 A Space Oddysey, the Blue Max, the Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, and other such wide-screen epics. The theater’s ceiling featured recessed neon red lighting behind a scalloped effect, cove lighting in the inner lobby, hidden red lighting on the walkway behind the auditoriam, and a “cry room” on the 2nd floor. Meriden lost its most beautiful theater when it allowed this to be demolished.
The name of this theater, as listed in Cinema Treasures, should be CHANGED to read simply, “Meriden Theater.” The “twin” feature came in its latter days, as the owner attempted to compete with the mega-movieplexes by cutting the wonderful auditorium in half. It was a cheap, crass move. The “wall” between the two separate theaters was little more than painted cinderblock, and there wasn’t the slightest effort to soundproof it. Seating was unchanged and, as it was originally designed to focus on the single stage/screen, resulted in many of seats facing AWAY from the two separate auditorium screens. The result was a horrible moviegoing experience.
An article about the Meriden Theatre appeared in Boxoffice Magazine, October 8, 1949. It credited architect Mendel Baldessari of New Britain with the design. The new, independently-operated house opened with 928 seats.
An Internet search shows several results for an architect named Mendel Baldessari still practicing in New Britain. If it’s the same architect he must be at least in his eighties, but perhaps it is a son.
This opened on August 9th, 1949.
Multi-page grand opening ad starts at
View link
March 24 1970 and the adult hit “BOB,CAROL,TED,ALICE” is playing along with a short called “A PLACE TO STAND”.