Stanley Theatre
516 North Howard Street,
Baltimore,
MD
516 North Howard Street,
Baltimore,
MD
1 person
favorited this theater
Baltimore’s largest theatre, opening in 1927 with over 3200 seats, the Stanley Theatre was coldly beautiful. It felt remarkably like an overdecorated railroad station, and despite its grandeur was never overwhelmingly popular or successful. It met the wreckers ball in 1965.
The spot where once the Stanley Theatre stood is now a parking lot.
Contributed by
Charles Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
A Kimball organ Size 3/28 was installed in the Stanley Theater in 1927. This theater should have an aka name of Stanton Theater.
I always thought the Stanley was a beautiful theater. It would be hard to find a theater facade in the state more beautiful. The lobby was like a palace and the only problem I had with the auditorium was that it was so big. I’m curious to know what the Maryland Historical Society knows about theater grosses. If you check the box office grosses given in Variety, you’ll see that the Stanley did pretty good, especially after sound movies became popular. In any case, it was a terrible loss for baltimore to have this theater senselessly destroyed to avoid competition.
Bob, I don’t know how familiar you are with the grosses listed in Variety, but they are highly exagerated. When I worked at the Loew’s State in St. Louis, Russ Bovin who was the city manager for Loew’s called in the weeks grosses for Variety there were sometimes doubled what they actually were. I remember the week that Loew’s State set a box office record for “Goldfinger” we grossed 62,000 for the first week and Russ gave Variety a figure of 82,000. He was the contact in St. Louis for Variety so the other first run houses were exagerated in weekly grosses also.
Hello, Chuck. Sure the figures in Variety may be exaggerated, but they’re all we have for many theaters and they give at least some idea of the theater’s popularity. My point is that the Stanley was not a white elephant. I attended the Stanley between 1948 and 1964; it was usually well-attended even as the hateful Stanton.
Most movie palaces thrived during the 1940’s and well into the 1950’s. Many thrived in the 1960’s depending on the bookings because most movies still played exclusive run. Many of the large movie palaces even played the reserved seat roadshow films such as “The Sound of Music”. Many of the large palaces were converted to Cinerama well into the late 1960’s.brucec
There are more photos on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/37d8uc
The Stanley was a nice sized theater. I remember seeing “The Carpetbaggers” here.
Leonard “Melody Mac” McClain recorded his Album “LEONARD MACCLAIN PLAYS BALTIMORE’S FABULOUS STANTON THEATER ORGAN” in 1964, a year before the Stanton was torn down in 1965. It features 12 beautiful vintage musical pieces played by Melody Mac at the Stanton, currently it is the only known recording of the Hugh Kimball Organ used in the Stanton and is also the only know recording in the Stanton Theatre.
I attended Western Senior High School (1963-1967) which was next door to The Stanley. We had our school assemblies there and after The Stanley was torn down we walked over to The Mayflower. Seemed strange to have two movie theaters next to each other and another on the opposite side of Howard Street.
A little small correction Mayfair not Mayflower. I am very interested to hear that you attended Western High School on Howard Street. The Building in S still Up but now is used as Apartments and Rent Space. The Mayfair is closed up and in terrible disrepair condition with the roof collapse in 1998. And the poor Stanley gone from our memory. Although the Stanley is gone it’s memory will linger on forever in our hearts.