Benner Theatre
6056 Castor Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19149
6056 Castor Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19149
1 person
favorited this theater
The Benner Theatre opened in early-1942 with 700 seats, all on a single floor. The attractive auditorium had highly decorative murals on the side-walls. It closed in November 1985.
Contributed by
George Quirk
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
Isn’t there also still a Lenny’s Hot Dogs in South Philly?
I saw “Starman” at the Benner in early 1985 so it was open until then. This was one of several neighborhood theaters in the NE that were still open in the 1970s and into the 1980s – Tyson, Castor, Crest, Mayfair, Merben. The Devon was showing x-rated fare at this time before changing back to standard movies as the others closed. They all showed 2nd-run movies. The Mayfair and Merben showed double features.
In the summer after fourth grade, in a single week before I went to camp, my mother and I saw eight movies in seven nights at these theaters. I will always remember that fondly. I especially loved seeing the double feature PLANET OF THE APES and FANTASTIC VOYAGE. I think that was at the Merben.
The Merben had 2000 seats on one floor and it had an odd projection booth that seemed to be suspended within the auditorium. Remember? I’ll bet you saw all those films for less than one admission price today…
Here is a short article on some local theaters:
http://tinyurl.com/3yx3fq
shown last night on Fox TV Channel 29 news as an office building now, part of story on closure of AMC Orleans 8:
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The Benner, Tyson, Erlen, Crest and Castor were all run by A.M. Ellis Theaters of Philadelphia in the early eighties. General manager was Martin Ellis. I had a girlfriend in NE Philly at that time and went to most of these. I don’t remember the Erlen, though. We also spent a lot of time at the Orleans 8 and the GCC Northeast.
1983 photo of the Benner theatre.
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1983 daytime photo of the Benner Theatre.
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I grew up at the corner of Frontenac and Benner in the 1950’s and each Saturday would be movie day for my pals and myself. Kids' matinees were 25 cents (evening adult admission was 75 cents).
Kids' shows were typically a few cartoons, a serial and a Western, but some Saturdays featured special all-cartoon shows. There were on-stage yo-yo demonstrations and contests sponsored by the two big yo-yo companies, Cheerio and Duncan.
My first real date was with a girl on my
named Sheila. We were both around 10 at the time and our parents let us go to the movies together – at night, yet – and we walked there and back.
Saw lots of great movies there; I especially remember the horror flicks like ‘Attack Of The Crab Monsters’ and great movies like ‘Three Coins In The Fountain’, ‘Seven Brides For Seven Brothers’ and ‘G.I. Joe’ and remember the huge lobby and the handsomely-decorated theater quite well, considering that I left Philly 50 years ago :–))
Great memories!