Ellis Theatre
5231 Frankford Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19124
5231 Frankford Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19124
2 people
favorited this theater
The Forum Theatre opened June 25, 1928 for motion pictures and stage shows. The marquee was decorated with neon glass tubes in orange and blue. The theatre was 92' x 319' and all seating was on the main floor. It had a Kilgen organ on a lift, a large orchestra pit and a fully equipped stage. In the 1940’s, the Forum Theatre is listed as being operated by Stanley-Warner.
Sometime after 1950 it was re-named Ellis Theatre and by the 1970’s it was showing X-rated movies as the Xtassy Theatre, closing in the late 1970’s to be subsequently demolished. The facade and foyer were saved.
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ray
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
Anyone know what was left in the auditorium when it was torn down in 2003?
Here is what the inside looked like in the mid 1950’s when it reopened as the Ellis. I wonder what was left of this when it was torn down.
View link
Here is another view of the facade:
http://tinyurl.com/yct8rhn
“Glamor Treatment for Neighborhood House"
Article with photos in Boxoffice magazine, April 7, 1956:
View link
Gerald – the link doesn’t work.
Eric,
That’s because Boxoffice magazine has just completely screwed up its website and most of its back issues are no longer available. Sad. The link worked up to a few days ago.
damn! I am looking for pics of the Ellis Theatre inside and out to put on facebook. I have one from 1956 but thats it.
Gerald – I guess we can forget this link. It still doesn’t work and it doesn’t look like Boxoffice nagazine is going to fix it. That’s too bad but thank’s anyway!
Renovations for the new Ellis Theatre pictured on the front cover of this trade journal in February, 1956: boxoffice
New link for the article cited above by Gerald A. DeLuca: boxoffice