Stamford Theatre

307 Atlantic Street,
Stamford, CT 6902

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Liggett-Florin Booking Service

Architects: James C. Green

Previous Names: Stamford Center for the Arts

Nearby Theaters

Stamford Theatre

The Stamford Theatre opened on August 14, 1915. After it closed as a movie house, the Stamford Theatre was home to the Stamford Center for the Arts, until it was demolished to make way for Rich Forum.

Contributed by Roger Smith

Recent comments (view all 13 comments)

ACooke108
ACooke108 on July 17, 2007 at 12:59 pm

This theater was replaced by the Rich Forum approx. 20 years ago. The decorative arch was transferred into the lobby of the new theater. I saw my first movie in the mid-50’s at this theater…“Song of the South” by Walt Disney.
I’ll never understand why the original theater was demolished, only to build a new theater of the same size in the same spot. The interior was unique. Can anybody spell “restoration”? I’m still angry they did that. I can remember seeing “Love Story” and The Posiedian Adventure" there in the 70’s. The SCA had both this theater and the Palace…they saved one and not the other. Go figure.

shoeshoe14
shoeshoe14 on October 24, 2007 at 2:42 pm

It was built by Emily Wakeman Hartley in 1914 to encourage pre-broadway tryouts for plays. This was according to “Stamford: An Illustrated History” by Feinstein.

shoeshoe14
shoeshoe14 on November 21, 2007 at 8:48 am

First listed in the 1915 Stamford City Directory at 307 Atlantic Street. In 1929, the Weiss Amusement Corp (props, etc.) moves into the theatre building until 1930. In 1982’s listing it changes to SCA.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 19, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Here is a 1948 photo from a new collection of Life Magazine photos on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/6rpvms

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 20, 2008 at 7:43 am

Thanks, Warren. What’s interesting is that Google mentions a million photos, but each category seems to be capped out at 200. There must be a trick to accessing the rest of the photos that I haven’t figured out yet.

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on November 21, 2008 at 7:52 am

Photos that were shot and cataloged but never selected for actual publication? I have to figure that Life photographers took many more photos than those that actually made it into the magazine pages.

ACooke108
ACooke108 on September 21, 2010 at 6:07 pm

I believe I once read that the arch was created by Gutzon Borglum, who also did Mt. Rushmore. Does anybody have any information on this?

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on December 15, 2010 at 4:32 pm

What great looking Marquee!thanks Ken mc for putting it on.

tonykobal
tonykobal on October 21, 2016 at 11:35 am

The archway going into the theater (which may have been designed by Gutzon Borghlum), had at the keystone, a sculpture of the head of Eleanora Duse. When they were building the Rich Forum they tried to save the archway as an architectural gem, but either through accident or intrigue it fell down completely and smashed the bust in the keystone. Today there is a replica of the bust inside the lobby of the Forum theater.

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