Benedum Center for the Performing Arts

I worked for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for the first 10 years after this theater re-opened as the Benedum Center (and have worked for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera who also are in residence at this hall) and have never ceased to feel blessed and privileged to have spent so much time in this magnificent building. Not only was the portion of the theater where the audience spends their time brought into great opulence and aesthetic beauty (polished dark hardwood walls and ceiling, cleaning and restoration of magnificent ceiling inlays and chandelier), but the stage itself is spacious, with the kind of generous wingspace you hardly ever find in older theaters and plenty of room upstage, wherever a production chooses to hang the back curtain. There are plenty of dressing rooms and not one but TWO large rehearsal halls upstairs with the same dimensions as the stage itself.

Also now the home of the PIttsburgh Opera, the hall has wonderful acoustics, warm and reverberant. The pit is unusually large (it actually has two different sizes, so that, for example, the CLO uses the “half-pit,” enabling additional audience seating much closer to the stage, while the ballet and opera use the “full pit,” which has plenty of room for a very large orchestra indeed, nearly as much room as the pit at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.

Although the hall I’ve felt most privileged to conduct in is the Academy of Music in Philadelphia (since you’re among such enormous musical history when in that hall), I am deeply grateful for all the years I was able to spend at the Benedum, conducting, rehearsing, playing the piano and watching or accompanying many fine dancers or singers perform in a huge, magnificent, beautiful hall with every amenity and with an ambience and proscenium that make every audience member feel like he or she is experiencing something special indeed. Though I now live in New York City, I have the chance to return to the Benedum Center a few times a year, and these are always very happy and meaningful occasions for me. As a composer, I’ve had several ballet scores and a few other things premiered there, and will always feel a deep affinity with the hall and with its orchestra.

Henry Mancini used to work there as a young man when it was the Stanley, and spoke lovingly and appreciatively of how one would walk into that theater and be transformed by being able to work there. It is still true, and I’m enormously grateful to have had a long association with a hall like this. It’s not just a building, it’s an essential part of the history of the city of Pittsburgh and one of those theaters that reflects the optimism and aethetics and potential grandeur of human life in an American city. It’s a building whose architecture and function represent a positive vision of what our collective communities can strive for.

Interior photo at this link:
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Films Which Played the Stanley Theater 1967-1971

01/01/67 Penelope
01/04/67 Arrivederci, Baby
01/11/67 Any Wednesday
01/18/67 The Venetian Affair
01/25/67 Warning Shot
02/01/67 The Quiller Memorandum
02/15/67 The Night of the Generals
03/08/67 The Mikado (2 days)
03/10/67 A Covenant With Death
03/15/67 Hotel
04/05/67 In Like Flint
05/03/67 Hombre
05/31/67 Caprice
06/14/67 Hurry Sundown
06/28/67 The Dirty Dozen
08/09/67 The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
08/16/67 The Naked Runner
08/23/67 A Guide for the Married Man
10/04/67 Rough Night in Jericho
10/18/67 Bonnie and Clyde
11/01/67 Waterhole # 3
11/15/67 Cool Hand Luke
12/20/67 Valley of the Dolls
02/28/68 Bonnie and Clyde
04/03/68 Planet of the Apes
05/08/68 Sweet November
05/15/68 A Stranger in Town
05/29/68 Madigan
06/05/68 Chubasco
06/12/68 The Double Man
06/19/68 Bandolero
07/03/68 The Green Berets
07/24/68 Five Card Stud
08/07/68 Rosemary’s Baby
09/25/68 The Stranger Returns
10/02/68 Pretty Poison
10/09/68 The Split
10/16/68 If He Hollers, Let Him Go
10/30/68 The Boston Strangler
11/27/68 The Lady in Cement
12/18/68 Candy
01/29/69 Up Tight
02/12/69 Hellfighters
02/26/69 The Sergeant
03/05/69 The Wrecking Crew
03/26/69 They Came to Rob Las Vegas
04/02/69 100 Rifles
04/23/69 Hell in the Pacific
04/30/69 Riot
05/07/69 Bullitt/Harper
05/14/69 Death of a Gunfighter
05/21/69 A Fine Pair
05/28/69 Winning
06/18/69 Che!
07/02/69 The Wild Bunch
07/16/69 The Lost Man
07/30/69 The Chairman
08/06/69 Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?
08/20/69 The Great Bank Robbery
08/27/69 A Stranger in Town/The Stranger Returns
09/03/69 The Italian Job
09/10/69 On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who…
09/17/69 The Learning Tree
09/24/69 Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
10/01/69 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
11/05/69 The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
11/12/69 The Christmas Tree
11/19/69 Change of Mind
11/26/69 The Undefeated
12/10/69 The Detective/The Boston Strangler
12/17/69 Fanny Hill
12/24/69 The Reivers
01/28/70 The Arrangement
02/18/70 …tick…tick…tick…
03/04/70 The Last of the Mobile Hotshots
03/11/70 Fuego
03/18/70 The Sterile Cuckoo/True Grit
03/25/70 The Adventurers
04/29/70 Bloody Mama
05/13/70 The Last Grenade/To Commit a Murder
05/20/70 Without a Stitch
06/03/70 The Losers
06/17/70 Sleeping Beauty
07/01/70 Chisum
07/15/70 The Boatniks
07/22/70 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
08/19/70 Too Late the Hero
08/26/70 Soldier Blue
09/23/70 Whirlpool
10/07/70 House of Dark Shadows
10/14/70 Monte Walsh
10/21/70 Mondo Cane I & II
10/28/70 C.C. and Company
11/04/70 Beast of Blood/Curse of the Vampires
11/11/70 Son of Flubber
11/25/70 Dirty Dingus Magee
12/09/70 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner/To Sir, With Love
12/16/70 Gone With the Wind
12/23/70 The Aristocats
01/13/71 There Was a Crooked Man…
01/20/71 The Great White Hope
02/03/71 Cotton Comes to Harlem/They Call Me Mister Tibbs
02/10/71 The Last Valley
02/17/71 Get Carter
02/24/71 The Statue
03/03/71 Horror of Frankenstein/Scars of Dracula
03/10/71 Airport
03/17/71 Sudden Terror
03/24/71 Midnight Cowboy/In the Heat of the Night
03/31/71 Equinox
04/07/71 Waterloo
04/14/71 Patton/MASH
05/12/71 The Stewardesses
06/23/71 Escape from the Planet of the Apes
06/30/71 Fools' Parade
07/07/71 Klute
07/14/71 Willard
08/25/71 Murphy’s War
09/01/71 Soul to Soul
09/15/71 Daughters of Darkness
09/22/71 The Grissom Gang
09/29/71 Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
10/13/71 See No Evil
10/27/71 2001: A Space Odyssey
11/03/71 Ryan’s Daughter
11/17/71 They Call Me Trinity
11/24/71 Black Jesus
12/01/71 Born to Win
12/08/71 Cold Turkey/Bananas
12/15/71 A Fisful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More/Hang ‘Em High
12/22/71 Straw Dogs

Over this period, the Stanley’s bill of fare began to change, as for as films were concerned. Although there was still the occasional Disney premiere, the big downtown houses began to feature films that were more action-oriented, as well as films for black audiences and the occasional soft-core pornography film. Many weeks a bill or reissues was thrown in until the next big action picture such as war films or westerns was available.

Films Which Played the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh – 1964-1966

01/01/64 Four for Texas
01/08/64 Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed?
01/15/64 The Incredible Journey
01/29/64 Dead Ringer
02/12/64 Love With the Proper Stranger
02/26/64 Seven Days in May
03/18/64 The Incredible Mr. Limpet
03/25/64 A Tiger Walks
04/01/64 Can-Can/Oklahoma
04/08/64 A Tiger Walks
04/15/64 Advance to the Rear
04/22/64 El Cid
04/29/64 Comedy of Terrors
05/06/64 PT 109/Spencer’s Mountain
05/13/64 The Thin Red Line
05/20/64 Muscle Beach Party
05/27/64 The Bridge on the River Kwai
06/10/64 Flipper’s New Adventure
06/17/64 The Three Lives of Thomasina
06/24/64 Robin and the Seven Hoods
07/08/64 The Moon-Spinners
07/22/64 The Unsinkable Molly Brown
08/26/64 A House is Not a Home
09/09/64 Station Six-Sahara
09/23/64 Hamlet (2 days)
09/25/64 The Visit
09/30/64 Quo Vadis
10/14/64 The Young Lovers
10/21/64 Kisses for My President
10/28/64 Fate is the Hunter
11/04/64 Rio Conchos
11/18/64 Youngblood Hawke
11/25/64 Goodbye, Charlie
12/16/64 Curse of Frankenstein/Horror of Dracula
12/23/64 Emil and the Detectives
12/30/64 Sex and the Single Girl
01/20/65 Quick, Before It Melts!
01/27/64 The Night Walker/The Finest Hours
02/10/65 36 Hours
02/24/65 None But the Brave
03/10/65 Hush, Hush…Sweet Charlotte
03/31/65 John Goldfarb, Please Come Home
04/14/65 Cheyenne Autumn
05/05/65 Malamondo
05/12/65 Masquerade
05/19/65 Mister Moses
05/26/65 The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders
06/02/65 A High Wind in Jamaica
06/09/65 The Battle of the Villa Fiorita
06/16/65 Up From the Beach
06/23/65 In Harm’s Way
07/07/65 The Sons of Katie Elder
07/21/65 The Sandpiper
08/18/65 Harlow
09/01/65 Morituri
09/15/65 Breakfast at Tiffany’s/Sabrina
09/22/65 Once a Thief
09/29/65 Paris Secret
10/06/65 Old Yeller
10/20/65 La Boheme (2 days)
10/22/65 Bunny Lake is Missing
11/03/65 Brigadoon/The Student Prince
11/10/65 Sands of the Kalahari
11/17/65 Red Line 7000
11/24/65 The Cincinnati Kid
12/22/65 That Darn Cat
01/12/66 Do Not Disturb
02/02/66 Our Man Flint
03/02/66 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
03/16/66 The Silencers
04/13/66 The Singing Nun
04/27/66 Harper
05/18/66 The Last of the Secret Agents
05/25/66 The Ten Commandments
06/22/66 Nevada Smith
07/06/66 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
08/24/66 How to Steal a Million
09/21/66 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof/Butterfield 8
10/05/66 Fantastic Voyage
11/02/66 Kaleidoscope
11/09/66 The Liquidator
11/23/66 Not With My Wife, You Don't
12/07/66 The Great Race/Never Too Late
12/14/66 Our Man Flint/Von Ryan’s Express
12/21/66 Penelope

My wife and I were travelling in Pittsburg shortly after the restoration of the Benedum was complete but had not been opened yet to the public. I had hoped to see the inside of the theatre but had no idea as to the extensive visual tour we were about to receive. While walking by the theatre I naturally tried one of the front doors and to my surprise it opened. We walked inside and about 25 seconds later someone appeared and said “You’re late”. Trying not to look too surprised I said “Sorry”. We were then lead into a room with about 40 other people and were about to begin an extensive tour for theatre volunteers. Once the theatre offically opened these volunteers would answer theatre patron’s questions and also give abbreviated versions of our tour. The tour was visually delightful and very informative. Approximately one and half hours into the tour we let the group get a little ahead of us and quickly exited. Present tours probably elude to the lost couple who is still wandering around the theatre. I owe many thanks to the Benedum for this extensive tour and the wonderful story material which I reiterate almost every time I visit a theatre

WOULD LIKE TO HAVE INFO ON OLDIES CONCERTS FOR 2002 PLEASE, THANKS!

Please send any information on upcoming events.We recently visited you for the showing of Beauty and the beast and had a wonderful time,however we cannot find a schedule .