Denis Theatre
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
6 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 58 comments)
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 …
Any new news on the Denis?
This article appeared on January 19, 2012. The group working to advance the theater’s restoration has a webpage (see above for the official site) and there is a news tab there.
It’s nice to read about this Oscar night fundraiser and to see a photo of the Denis Theatre on Washington Rd.
any photos of the interior?
Yes, any photos?
Two articles, each with an interior picture:
View link View link
And then there is this page from the Denis Theater Foundation’s site; it looks like very little of the theater’s original decor remains, probably lost when the theater was converted to a quad.
CSWalczak: Thanks!