Chatham Cinema
701 Fifth Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
701 Fifth Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
5 people
favorited this theater
The Chatham Cinema was one of the few new theaters built in downtown Pittsburgh in the 1960’s. It was located in the rear of the Chatham Center complex on Fifth Avenue near the Pittsburgh Civic Arena and Duquesne University next to the parking garage in the complex. There were even walkways which led from the parking garage right into the lobby of the theater. After buying your ticket you walked down a ramp to get to the concession stand and the doors to the auditorium.
The Chatham Cinema opened in October 1966 and lasted until the mid-1980’s when like most of the other downtown Pittsburgh movie houses it closed due to first-run product being featured at suburb multiplexes and the city amusement tax. But in its heyday of the late 1960’s and 1970’s many of the big first-run releases played at this theater and some had lengthy runs.
For a while after closing the lobby was used for storage and the glass doors that had opened onto the street were papered over. The marquee was finally removed and the entrance bricked up. Today there is no sign that a movie theater ever occupied the site.
Contributed by
Ron Miller
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Recent comments (view all 44 comments)
My Chicago friend Catherine (who used to be on this site) says Chicago’s McClurg Court was like this place.
I worked as a cashier at the Chatham Cinema from ‘82 until it closed in '85. Alice Laporte was the manager and Cindy Celich was her assistant. Chuck Bouvy and Mungo were the projectionists. There was a sweet elderly couple, Heddy and Fred, who seemed to work there forever. Heddy ran the candy stand and Fred was an usher. So many wonderful memories.
Any idea of the whereabouts of Adele Bouvy, who seemed to be George Pappas' main assistant during most of the theater’s operating years?
I think Adele might have been Chuck Bouvy’s sister. Very nice lady.
Kellygirl,,,, How are you dear??? Mungo here, I really miss all of you and never forgot anyone..After I left PGH. in Eighty Four I became a somewhat famous blues drummer for the late Bo Diddley, and in o four I teamed up with Virgil Gibson Virgil was the former leadd singer with the original members of the Platters, My e-mail is Please keep in touch…
I never knew Adele but I did work with Chuck. I believe they were cousins.
I was an usher at the Chatham Cinema. Interesting job with great people and everyone wore a tux. Classy job with very little pay but a wealth of humor fed by suppressed laughter and fear of an instant loss of a job for sitting down in the lobby when a customer was anywhere near.
Usher behavior was generally professional other then the times when the fear of Mr. Pappas became so stressful for one usher that he simply sat down on the floor, legs sprawled across the aisle in the dark and using a flashlight to direct the customers OVER his legs with a professional warning of ..“ Watch your step. watch yourstep, watch your step..”
I saw YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and GANDHI at this theater. I’m with Ed — it was a great place to see movies, and a wonderful time in which to see them, too. I hope somebody posts some pix.
I lived in the Chatham Towers Apartments from 1976-1978 and would often just get in the elevator on my floor, ride down to the parking garage, and enter the theatre to see the current film playing-never had to go outside. In 1977 I believe, I was dancing with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and 20th Century Fox had a Gala Benefit Premiere for The Turning Point at the theatre. I recall all of us got dressed up in our finest to attend as guests. It was one of the few times I entered through the front doors. I returned to Pgh for a visit in 1999 and was so upset to find this theatre and all the others gone
some other films I saw at the Chatham, Thats Entertainment, Young Frankenstein, F.I.S.T. and Mame
I saw my very first film in Pittsburgh here. “Happy Mothers Day,Love George”, August 1973. My parents drove me from NY to Pgh as I was going to begin college here. We stayed at a hotel in Monroeville, but came downtown for dinner and a movie