As noted above by longislandmovies, you should create a donation section. Everyone enjoys the site but it’s obvious that people would like to add photos so the theater description is enhanced with the visual image. The donations hopefully would go a long way making that reality affordable.
The theater was known as the Darby originally, it was damaged by a fire and then renamed the Wendy which ultimately was destroyed by fire also. It was located where the Sharon Savings bank is today. The Parker was just up the street, later became Delco Catering Halls, and today is the location of a Walgreen’s.
Hy Lit ran dances on a weekly basis at the Manor Theater right up until the night of the fire. The architectural sketch of the Manor for the Stanley Companey shows Norwood as it’s location which was why I listed Norwood as the location. I realise that today some of the replacement properties have a Prospect Park address.
This was taken from the Electric Factory website a few years ago
$1,250,000 Price tag for Tower Theater
One and a quarter million dollars may not sound like a King’s ransom these days, but in 1928 that was a heck of a lot of money. William Friehofer had been building theaters for decades before taking on 69th street. This was the largest theater he would build.
Just one year before the Great Depression, the Tower went up in record time. The 3500 seats were installed in five days, a fact the Stone Company (the manufacturer) was very proud of.
At the time of the grand opening the builder, George Kessler Co. had been a leader in theater construction for 50 years. The Tower Theater in Upper Darby has been a welcome sight on 69th Street for almost 70 years. The design of the theater was as a Movie Playhouse
This format included Burlesque and Vaudeville on the stage, and the latest Movies on the screen. In the 1930’s and 40’s with Vaudeville on the way out, movies slowly became the main attraction on 69th Street, and in the 50’s and 60’s the Tower presented first run movies
and live events with a class and style unequaled by other theaters.
The 5000 people who crowded into the opening night ceremonies were
wowed by the beautiful lobbies and the state of the art lighting. A grand piano graced the foyer with a tuxedo-clad player taking requests. Out in the house,150 stars glowed in the ceiling as clouds floated by. The theater had its own orchestra, and an electric lift with a turntable brought a Wurlitzer Organ on to the stage. The sides of the main room looked like English Garden walls with trellises, flower boxes with vines, shrubbery and trees.
The lobby, with its 25 foot marble style ceiling, had the largest Oriental rug in the area covering the marble and Caen stone floor. The foyer was lavishly furnished with couches and chaise lounges. In the basement were smoking lounges for both men and women done in an Italian style with wood beams overhead. The lighting in the foyer and lobbies was constantly changing colors. 135 miles of wire ran through the building to the largest dimmer board in the country (at the time), With a capacity of 3500 seats, the Tower Theater was, and still is, one of the largest theaters in the region.
The 70’s ushered in a new era to Upper Darby… the Rock Concert. In 1972 Philadelphia music fans discovered the near perfect acoustics of the stately 69th Street movie house. Dave Mason was the first to headline. The support act on opening night was Buzzy Linhart. Buzzy said it all when he stopped in the middle of his set and told the crowd this place has more class than the Fillmore ever had! Since then the Tower has played host to the best of the best in live entertainment.
The Tower Theater remains a world class venue, and with the ongoing renovations it can only get better. For 69 years the marble palace has brought the world to 69th Street
The lobby will soon have its 25 foot high dome again. A drop ceiling will be removed to reveal once again this magnificent feature of the Tower Theater. Of all the venues in the Philadelphia area the Tower stands out with its rich history, lavish lobbies, and versatile facilities. with Electric Factory Concerts commitment to excellence and it’s commitment to the Tower, Upper Darby will be on the itineraries of world class performers of all kinds for years to come.
I thought some of you that might have attended during the 1954-1984 period would remember being greeted in the theater by the owner Rhea Perelman Friedman. It was like being welcomed into her home. Her obituary follows:
Posted on Mon, Oct. 31, 2005
Rhea P. Friedman, proprietor
By Sally A. Downey
Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
Rhea Perelman Friedman, 98, the former owner of the Yeadon Theater who treated movie patrons like family, died Wednesday at Arden Court in Warminster.
Mrs. Friedman operated the Yeadon Theater from 1954 until she sold it in 1984. She furnished the lobby like a living room, with photo displays of her grandchildren, her daughter Janet Lazrow said, and, in motherly fashion, posted signs reminding moviegoers not to forget umbrellas, gloves and eyeglasses.
She served free cookies and coffee to adults and distributed Popsicles to children during Saturday matinees. When customers were stranded at the theater by bad weather, Lazrow said, her mother – who hated to drive – gave them a ride home. During the 30 years Mrs. Friedman operated the theater, admission was never more than a dollar – with discounts for children and senior citizens.
Mrs. Friedman’s father, Louis, built the Delaware County cinema in 1937 and also owned two movie houses in Philadelphia. He got into the film business, Lazrow said, after Prohibition forced him to close the tavern he operated in Chester.
Mrs. Friedman grew up in Chester and West Philadelphia. She helped out in the family business until her marriage to Percy Friedman, who took over the Yeadon Theater while her brothers ran the movie theaters in Philadelphia. She stayed home to care for her children.
In 1954, Percy Friedman died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Mrs. Friedman with the theater and three young children. She took over the movie theater’s operations, and when her daughters were teenagers, they helped in the box office and cleaned up after matinees.
She worked six or seven days a week, her daughter said. In her free time, she enjoyed going to the opera and managed to take a vacation in Hawaii and a safari in Africa. She also made the time to visit her out-of-state grandchildren.
“Family was very important to her,” Lazrow said.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Friedman is survived by two other daughters, Lynn Weinstein and Eileen Branda; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
A graveside service was held Friday at Mount Sharon Cemetery in Springfield.
Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or
Media Theatre rehires three key players January 18, 2002
By PATTI MENGERS
The show will go on at the Media Theatre, at least through mid-May. Media Mayor Bob McMahon, who chairs the Society for the Performing Arts, the non-profit group that runs the theater, said board members “voted overwhelmingly” yesterday to retain three former staff members as contract employees.
“I don’t think there is any question that the theater is open for business and that it will be ongoing,” McMahon said last night.
Former artistic director Jesse Cline, publicist Roger Ricker and Patrick Ward, former director of the society, have been retained to stage shows and programs that have been planned through mid-May.
They had been terminated as employees of the Society for the Performing Arts on Dec. 31, a little more than a year after the for-profit Rockwell Productions headed by Alice Strine closed shop and ceased to be their employer.
Subsidized by Rockwell, Cline had staged six seasons of American musicals attracting about 750,000 patrons since 1994 when the 75-year-old moviehouse was restored to its former glory by owner Walter Strine Sr.
Fourteen board members attended yesterday’s meeting of the Society for the Performing Arts to decide the fate of the Media Theatre’s current programming, noted McMahon.
The mayor said that the mood of yesterday afternoon’s 90-minute meeting at the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce was in stark contrast to the board meeting of the previous month.
“I think we had a split board before. Now we know in what direction we’re going. Now the board has supported quality programs without any stoppage,” said McMahon.
Cline, Ricker and Ward with the help of volunteers including several World War II veterans staged a successful production of “South Pacific” last fall under the auspices of the non-profit Society for the Performing Arts.
Current programs include a children’s theater presentation of “Treasure Island” Jan. 24 through 26 and"Nunsense", a musical featuring members of Actor’s Equity April 3 through 21.
“In the next month or so, we’re going to discuss programs for mid-May through the end of August and we want to plan a program for next year,” said McMahon.
The next board meeting of the Society for the Performing Arts is set for Feb. 14.
I believe this was the second Fox Theater, The first was at 16th & Market street, and there were plans for a 3rd Fox, but it was never built. I found this information in the 1976 Philadelphia Bulletin Almanac.
The theater, on Locust St west of Broad St, was originally a motion picture house. It opened as the Fox-Locust Theater on March 20, 1927, with the picture “What Price Glory”. It became the Locust Theater in 1931 when the Locust Players Guild, under Mae Desmond, put on Zoe Atkins stage play. “The Greeks had a word for it”, on October 17, 1931. The Locust was acquired in 1958 by William Goldman who renamed it the New Locust Theater. It’s first play was “Auntie Mame” on Sept 1, 1958.
Single Screen
Seats 1440
Built 1927
As noted above by longislandmovies, you should create a donation section. Everyone enjoys the site but it’s obvious that people would like to add photos so the theater description is enhanced with the visual image. The donations hopefully would go a long way making that reality affordable.
The theater was known as the Darby originally, it was damaged by a fire and then renamed the Wendy which ultimately was destroyed by fire also. It was located where the Sharon Savings bank is today. The Parker was just up the street, later became Delco Catering Halls, and today is the location of a Walgreen’s.
This link will give you the history and pictures of the Lansdowne Theater Organ
View link
Hy Lit ran dances on a weekly basis at the Manor Theater right up until the night of the fire. The architectural sketch of the Manor for the Stanley Companey shows Norwood as it’s location which was why I listed Norwood as the location. I realise that today some of the replacement properties have a Prospect Park address.
This was taken from the Electric Factory website a few years ago
$1,250,000 Price tag for Tower Theater
One and a quarter million dollars may not sound like a King’s ransom these days, but in 1928 that was a heck of a lot of money. William Friehofer had been building theaters for decades before taking on 69th street. This was the largest theater he would build.
Just one year before the Great Depression, the Tower went up in record time. The 3500 seats were installed in five days, a fact the Stone Company (the manufacturer) was very proud of.
At the time of the grand opening the builder, George Kessler Co. had been a leader in theater construction for 50 years. The Tower Theater in Upper Darby has been a welcome sight on 69th Street for almost 70 years. The design of the theater was as a Movie Playhouse
This format included Burlesque and Vaudeville on the stage, and the latest Movies on the screen. In the 1930’s and 40’s with Vaudeville on the way out, movies slowly became the main attraction on 69th Street, and in the 50’s and 60’s the Tower presented first run movies
and live events with a class and style unequaled by other theaters.
The 5000 people who crowded into the opening night ceremonies were
wowed by the beautiful lobbies and the state of the art lighting. A grand piano graced the foyer with a tuxedo-clad player taking requests. Out in the house,150 stars glowed in the ceiling as clouds floated by. The theater had its own orchestra, and an electric lift with a turntable brought a Wurlitzer Organ on to the stage. The sides of the main room looked like English Garden walls with trellises, flower boxes with vines, shrubbery and trees.
The lobby, with its 25 foot marble style ceiling, had the largest Oriental rug in the area covering the marble and Caen stone floor. The foyer was lavishly furnished with couches and chaise lounges. In the basement were smoking lounges for both men and women done in an Italian style with wood beams overhead. The lighting in the foyer and lobbies was constantly changing colors. 135 miles of wire ran through the building to the largest dimmer board in the country (at the time), With a capacity of 3500 seats, the Tower Theater was, and still is, one of the largest theaters in the region.
The 70’s ushered in a new era to Upper Darby… the Rock Concert. In 1972 Philadelphia music fans discovered the near perfect acoustics of the stately 69th Street movie house. Dave Mason was the first to headline. The support act on opening night was Buzzy Linhart. Buzzy said it all when he stopped in the middle of his set and told the crowd this place has more class than the Fillmore ever had! Since then the Tower has played host to the best of the best in live entertainment.
The Tower Theater remains a world class venue, and with the ongoing renovations it can only get better. For 69 years the marble palace has brought the world to 69th Street
The lobby will soon have its 25 foot high dome again. A drop ceiling will be removed to reveal once again this magnificent feature of the Tower Theater. Of all the venues in the Philadelphia area the Tower stands out with its rich history, lavish lobbies, and versatile facilities. with Electric Factory Concerts commitment to excellence and it’s commitment to the Tower, Upper Darby will be on the itineraries of world class performers of all kinds for years to come.
Historical research & compiling by Daniel Leyden
I thought some of you that might have attended during the 1954-1984 period would remember being greeted in the theater by the owner Rhea Perelman Friedman. It was like being welcomed into her home. Her obituary follows:
Posted on Mon, Oct. 31, 2005
Rhea P. Friedman, proprietor
By Sally A. Downey
Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
Rhea Perelman Friedman, 98, the former owner of the Yeadon Theater who treated movie patrons like family, died Wednesday at Arden Court in Warminster.
Mrs. Friedman operated the Yeadon Theater from 1954 until she sold it in 1984. She furnished the lobby like a living room, with photo displays of her grandchildren, her daughter Janet Lazrow said, and, in motherly fashion, posted signs reminding moviegoers not to forget umbrellas, gloves and eyeglasses.
She served free cookies and coffee to adults and distributed Popsicles to children during Saturday matinees. When customers were stranded at the theater by bad weather, Lazrow said, her mother – who hated to drive – gave them a ride home. During the 30 years Mrs. Friedman operated the theater, admission was never more than a dollar – with discounts for children and senior citizens.
Mrs. Friedman’s father, Louis, built the Delaware County cinema in 1937 and also owned two movie houses in Philadelphia. He got into the film business, Lazrow said, after Prohibition forced him to close the tavern he operated in Chester.
Mrs. Friedman grew up in Chester and West Philadelphia. She helped out in the family business until her marriage to Percy Friedman, who took over the Yeadon Theater while her brothers ran the movie theaters in Philadelphia. She stayed home to care for her children.
In 1954, Percy Friedman died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Mrs. Friedman with the theater and three young children. She took over the movie theater’s operations, and when her daughters were teenagers, they helped in the box office and cleaned up after matinees.
She worked six or seven days a week, her daughter said. In her free time, she enjoyed going to the opera and managed to take a vacation in Hawaii and a safari in Africa. She also made the time to visit her out-of-state grandchildren.
“Family was very important to her,” Lazrow said.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Friedman is survived by two other daughters, Lynn Weinstein and Eileen Branda; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
A graveside service was held Friday at Mount Sharon Cemetery in Springfield.
Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or
© 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com
Ellis owned a number of drive-in’s in Delaware including the Ellis in Wilmington and the Chester Pike and MacDade drive-in’s in Delaware County, PA
Media Theatre rehires three key players January 18, 2002
By PATTI MENGERS
The show will go on at the Media Theatre, at least through mid-May. Media Mayor Bob McMahon, who chairs the Society for the Performing Arts, the non-profit group that runs the theater, said board members “voted overwhelmingly” yesterday to retain three former staff members as contract employees.
“I don’t think there is any question that the theater is open for business and that it will be ongoing,” McMahon said last night.
Former artistic director Jesse Cline, publicist Roger Ricker and Patrick Ward, former director of the society, have been retained to stage shows and programs that have been planned through mid-May.
They had been terminated as employees of the Society for the Performing Arts on Dec. 31, a little more than a year after the for-profit Rockwell Productions headed by Alice Strine closed shop and ceased to be their employer.
Subsidized by Rockwell, Cline had staged six seasons of American musicals attracting about 750,000 patrons since 1994 when the 75-year-old moviehouse was restored to its former glory by owner Walter Strine Sr.
Fourteen board members attended yesterday’s meeting of the Society for the Performing Arts to decide the fate of the Media Theatre’s current programming, noted McMahon.
The mayor said that the mood of yesterday afternoon’s 90-minute meeting at the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce was in stark contrast to the board meeting of the previous month.
“I think we had a split board before. Now we know in what direction we’re going. Now the board has supported quality programs without any stoppage,” said McMahon.
Cline, Ricker and Ward with the help of volunteers including several World War II veterans staged a successful production of “South Pacific” last fall under the auspices of the non-profit Society for the Performing Arts.
Current programs include a children’s theater presentation of “Treasure Island” Jan. 24 through 26 and"Nunsense", a musical featuring members of Actor’s Equity April 3 through 21.
“In the next month or so, we’re going to discuss programs for mid-May through the end of August and we want to plan a program for next year,” said McMahon.
The next board meeting of the Society for the Performing Arts is set for Feb. 14.
©The Daily Times 2002
I believe this was the second Fox Theater, The first was at 16th & Market street, and there were plans for a 3rd Fox, but it was never built. I found this information in the 1976 Philadelphia Bulletin Almanac.
The theater, on Locust St west of Broad St, was originally a motion picture house. It opened as the Fox-Locust Theater on March 20, 1927, with the picture “What Price Glory”. It became the Locust Theater in 1931 when the Locust Players Guild, under Mae Desmond, put on Zoe Atkins stage play. “The Greeks had a word for it”, on October 17, 1931. The Locust was acquired in 1958 by William Goldman who renamed it the New Locust Theater. It’s first play was “Auntie Mame” on Sept 1, 1958.
Single Screen
Seats 1440
Built 1927
related website:
http://www.countytheater.com/