Denis Theatre
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
5 people
favorited this theater
The Denis Theatre opened as a single screen movie theatre in 1937. This theatre was split, with the theatre on the orchestra called the Denis Theatre, and the one in the balcony called the Denis Encore Theatre. At the time I knew it it was an RKO Stanley-Warner theatre. When Almi took over they got rid of all RKO Stanley-Warner’s operations outside of the New York metropolitan area, and the Pittsburgh area theatres became Cinemette.
The Denis Quad Theatre, as it was last referred to, closed in September 2004 and was to be demolished to make way for retail and office space. Instead, there are plans to reopen it as a theatre, with fundraising underway.
Contributed by
dave-bronx
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Recent comments (view all 51 comments)
This may have been discussed, but now that I see the theatre had or has 4 screens I wonder if the renovation will return this theatre to a single screen format?
According to the Foundation’s website, the plan is (or at least was) to make it a triplex. I would guess that their business consultants would discourage a return to single-screen status as not being economically viable. Here;s a recent article on their fundraising efforts: View link
The plan will not be to return it to a single screen theater. The Denis originally had 1200 seats – 700 in the orchestra and 500 in the balcony.
Here’s some news on a fundraiser they tried to hold. Alas the snow gods of this past year weren’t kind to them View link
Here are some cool photos http://www.denistheater.org/Construction/Archive
I just learned that a recent article was in the Pittsburgh paper concerning this theatre.
I think you probably are thinking about this item, announcing good news on the fundraisng efforts on behalf of the Denis: View link
CWalczak: Thanks for posting the article!!
I found the grand opening ads from the Carnegie library. The Denis opened on June 1, 1938 and its Encore counterpart opened July 15, 1965.
Denny: Good research! Whenever I add a theatre I try to include as much information as I can.
I remember the Denis and Encore theaters being “connected” somehow, but I never knew the whole history. Plus, in my head I always remember the Encore to be more associated with the Forum theater in Squirrel Hill because, as mentioned, movies played in BOTH theaters and were always advertised as ‘Forum&Encore’ (did they have the same private owner negotiating the deals?). Anyhow, the first film Iever saw at the Encore was HARRY AND TONTO in the winter of 1975 with my grandfather. It was to be the first of many … Apocalypse Now … Missing … The Big Chill … Boogie Nights …