Arcadia Theatre
1529 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19102
1529 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19102
4 people
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Showing 26 - 29 of 29 comments
Seth – Back when the center city theatres were almost exclusively operated by Stanley Warner, Goldman, and Milgram their usual policy was having “an all day preview day.” On opening day of their next attraction they also showed the film that was showing there until the day before. The theatres used to advertise “all day preview see two pictures for the price of one.” Nowadays you cannot go in a theatre during the film presentation and stay to see what you missed on the next showing! Of course, that was back when the movies were showing in “palaces of 1,000 seats or more” and not the shoeboxes of today.
I remember the Arcadia from my college years at Penn in the late 70s…What blew my mind was the bizarre mix of bookings these theatres including the Arcadia in particular would get…Major studio releases one week and when they would bomb some porn to fill in…also what seemed unique to Philadelphia is a double feature on opening day usually with some old blaxpo as the bottom of the bill…saw Who’ll Stop the Rain for my Vietnam war film class along with Let’s Do It Again on this kind of bill
This said the Arcadia was a decent place to see a movie
The Arcadia Theatre and the Trans-Lux were two different theatres. They we both in the same block of Chestnut street, however, they were a few doors apart from each other. The Trans-Lux later was purchased by the Sameric Theatre Co. and renamed the Eric’s Place Theatre. It closed many years ago. I was never in the Arcadia Theatre, but attended a few films at the Trans-Lux prior to its Eric’s Place days. It was a small theatre with only about 300 seats if my memory serves me correctly. I remember passing the Arcadia after it’s conversion to a Roy Rodgers. But have not been in Center city Philadelphia in about 15 years.When the Liberty Place towers were built, Center City lost the Duke and Duchess Theatres (Sameric) and the Regency Twin which was built by the Goldman Theatre Co.
No it was not demolished. Liberty place is built on the 1600 block of Chestnut. Today, the Arcadia/Roy Roger’s building still stands on Chestnut, albeit boarded up. I never recall seeing a film here, but do remember countless times eating at the huge restaurant. You’d enter the front and walk forever to get to the service counter. This was the coolest fast food place in the city because you could go upstairs to the balcony and you could enter from the back entrance off of Ranstead street. I think Roys had a similar restaurnt on the 1200 block of Chestnut St.