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Hollywood Theater in Pittsburgh, PA to reopen
posted by
Ron3853
on
September 19, 2006 at 7:46 am
PITTSBURGH, PA — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s September 14, 2006 edition reports that the Hollywood Theater in the city’s Dormont neighborhood will reopen sometime this fall after an extensive remodeling.
Bradley Center has agreed to lease the theater for 10 years with options to renew and, after renovations, wants to open it by Thanksgiving. But center officials said that contractors' work might not be finished until the holiday season in December.
Mayor Thomas Lloyd announced at last week’s council meeting that Bradley has applied for a building permit to start renovations. No money details were released.
For the full story, visit The Post Gazette.
Comments (13)
I am loving this news big time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now hopefully the South Hills, Parkway, New Granada and The Denis can reopen! I wanted the King’s Court to reopen, but that looks like something else is sadly opening up. And the Garden utilized improperly. :(
Great news is right, was always one of my favorite jobs to work . A single theatre with a platter, was like heaven. The last movie I ran there was night shift, with Keaton & Winkler. I am glad for my hometown.
Norelco
Hey Rick, how long has the South Hills been closed? I left Pittsburgh in 1984, I always thought it was a really beautiful theatre. I remember John one of the projectionist killed himself in the booth, and the business agent Marty sent me there to run the movie because I used to work in a funeral home. Can`t for the life of me remember what movie it was.
Have a good one my friend.
Mungo
Norelco
The South Hills closed in 2001. The last films to play there were “Along Came a Spider,” “Blow,” and Crocodile Dundee in LA.“ All three titles remained on the marquee for years.
The borough of Dormont refused to renew the building’s operating permit because the roof leaked and the ceiling plaster inside was getting soaked.
Norelco, I am curious…I worked there in 1976 for owners James Baker and Robert Stone with a guy named John. Do you know the last name of the projectionist you mentioned above?
Baker passed away and the theater was bought by a guy named Michael Cardone, who left Cinemette to start his own chain of neighborhood houses, including the South Hills, Bethel Cinemas, and I believe the Mount Oliver and Plaza in Bloomfield. Cardone later made 4 auditoriums out of the South Hills and changed the name to Cinema 4. They were very uncomfortable and badly done. The last movies I saw there were “The Horse Whisperer” and “There’s Something About Mary.”
The poster for ACAS is still hanging up outside the theater (faded though)
No I can`t remember his last name. I left Pittsburgh, in 84. I was the projectionist at the Warner for years. I remember a Mr. Jones had owned the Bethel Cinemas, I worked there for releif work. Mount oliver was a rat trap, I wrote a post once about how when you went to eork, you had a broom at the bottom of tthe steos, and would beat rats and bats the hole way up to the booth. Then repeat the process coming down. Sad to hear Mr. Baker died, a very nice man. What an idiot to change a nice theatre into a four plex.
Norelco
Hello All,
I looked into both the Hollywood and the Cinema 4 for possible purchase, but there is a problem that plagues both of these locations and that is parking. Both are good sized buildings but they have no nearby parking. The Cinema 4 is big and could easily be converted to a movie/live house, but it is in bad shape inside as another poster pointed out. The Hollywood is in better shape, but there are other issues besides parking. For one, the church across the street likes to cause trouble and has prevented quite a few operations from panning out. Perhaps the new owner has a plan to overcome these issues, which would be a good think since another old theatre would be saved, and I am ALWAYS happy to hear that. So I am definately going to watch this one closely and see how it pans out.
JG
Ron, I beleive his last name was Wazinski, or Waleski, I thought hard on this and I know for sure it ended in SKI.
Norelco
Norelco,
Your memory serves you well. The projectionist’s name was John Wasinski. I am his youngest son, Eric Wasinski.
I have many great memories of the ol' South Hills Theater and I would love to share them with you all.
Let me know.
The marquee now reads: “OPENING MARCH 30."
The first attraction most likely will be "Dreamgirls,” as that is the poster that currently fills the two poster cases.
Norelco, I did a bit of asking around about the death of my father, John Wasinski (SHT projectionist). I was only 12 years old when he did this. I was young and never really asked questions about this night. While it is true my father did in fact commit suicide, it was not in the booth of the South Hills Theater.
If you type in “South Hills Theater” you can see a comment to one of my postings in regard to what happened at the SHT the night my father committed this act and how it affected the theater itself. It was posted by a woman who worked at the concession stand at the theater from 82-86. Even though it was a sad night for me as a kid, it’s kind of interesting to see what happened. This also backs up the fact that he did not do it in the booth.
i worked there in the sixties. Mr. Bezek was the manager. John Sandora was the ast mgr. i was an usher. never heard the suicide story, but am sorry for your loss.
has anybody opened it up yet?
i worked at the dennis for a while also.