Esquire Theater
5717 North Broad Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19107
5717 North Broad Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19107
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The theater reopend briefly in 1981 by Rusty A Miller who also reopened the Benn on Woodland Ave and the 69th St in Upper Darby. All were short lived. Update information above to show this information.
Unfortunately, google street map can’t be changed though it locates the Esquire in Center City.
Strong memories of the Esquire. I would take my mom there to try to distract her from her grief after my dad’s passing. Saw “Man for All Seasons”, “Bonnie & Clyde”, “Z”…among others. Worked at the White Tower across the street and danced at Wagner’s Ballroom with the Geator with the Heater.
During the 1950’s & early 1960’s the manager of this theatre was LOU WAKSHUL who went on to be manager of the Goldman Theatres all new ORLEANS THEATRE on Cottman Ave in NE PHILA
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1948:
PHILADELPHIA – Meyer B. Strouse, manager of the Grange Theater, died suddenly early Monday at the age of 70. Strouse, who was associated with many other Stanley Warner theaters here during his career, was active in a number of civic organizations.
There are a number of theaters listed on here with address ranges similar to this one. I would be more concerned about fixing the address than worrying about changing the function to some greasy chicken emporium.
The function should be changed to restaurant, which it is, arguably, even if it serves bad fried chicken.
Thanks for the info LM, there were a couple new theatres with the range in the address and I just used the first part. They seem to map okay that way. I try mapping before I submit the theatre.
Chuck….Google maps has a problem with some hyphenated addresses. The problem with this particular address is, it’s not supposed to be a hyphenated address. The numbers above are actually an address range for the building. This building occupies 5717 and 5719. The address should be either 5717 or 5719. It’s not necessary to use both numbers.
LM, I see what you mean, it is pickiung up the 19 and not the rest of the address. I have noticed that with a couple other theatres that has multiple hyphinated numbers.
The address above should be changed to 5717 North Broad Street. With the current address Google will map it to 19 North Broad Street.
The theater is now a fried chicken place. The second link is a 1980 photo.
http://tinyurl.com/c9cllu
http://tinyurl.com/c8lg97
Does anyone actually know when this theatre opened?
This theatre was closed by Budco Theatres in 1979, and was opened by Stanley Warner Theatres as “Grange Theatre” in the 1930’s or 1940’s.
In the 1950s a new circular marquee replaced the one shown in the above-mentioned photographs.
When CinemaScope was installed, the screen was fitted in front of the proscenium with movable masking but without screen curtains. Sometime in the late 50’s/early 60’s, William Goldman, the owner, added curtains in what was then his favorite color for theatre yard goods: Cinerama burgundy-red. I always like the lit sign that appeared at the end of the lobby before entering the single-floor auditorium: “Silence is Golden”. In those days, it worked.
View link
This link will take you to a picture of the theatre, It was originally known as the Grange theatre and seated 1000, the address was 5717-5719 N. Broad Street.