Boyd Theatre

If anyone finds more info on the FernRock Eric Theatre,contact me at I have pictures to trade as well. Gotta run,J.Z.

Has any progress been made to save this theatre?

When was this? Are you sure you are not speaking of the brief period in 1958 when 3 CineMiracle projectors were installed for “Windjammer.” Neither my (fading) memory nor the offical International Cinerama Society list of Cinerama installations has any mention of a 3-projector setup in Glenside. You may be referring to a partial installation at what became the GCC Cinema at the Cherry Hill Mall in N.J. Platforms for the A,B, and C booth were constructed in front of the conventional booth. Closer to Glenside, the then Stanley-Warner King of Prussia house was designed for D-150 projection. The booth was placed at the front edge of the balcony, but the curved screen was never installed. If you have any factual info about a 3-projector run at the Keswick (other than “Windjammer”’s), please inform us.

More Cinerama information about the Boyd. To make a tortuous story
short, when the Dept. of Justice granted Stanley-Warner
Theatres the right to produce and distribute films, in particular
Cinerama films, part of the arrangement was that theatres
that SW acquired specifically for the presentation of
Cinerama had to received court assent to show non-Cinerama
productions; on the other hand, theatres which SW already
owned could present non-Cinerama features without any court
intervention. The Boyd fell into the latter category, and
this explains the non-Cinerama portion of the Boyd’s history
in the 1950’s. The 4th Cinerama travelogue, “Search For
Paradise,” proved to be less than successful at the box-office.
Non SW-owned theatres that suddenly had no Cinerama product
simply closed. Example: the Melba in Dallas. On the other hand,
SW-owned houses retooled for “normal” 35mm activity, and
booked non-Cinerama product. The Pittsburgh Warner, for example,
dropped Cinerama in favor of DeMille’s “10 Commandments"
in 1957. The following year, with crowds dwindling at the Boyd,
the house closed for about a month, installed 4-track mag penthouses
for its 2 35mm projectors, hung new vertically-rising
masking that could, in conjunction with the screen curtains,
mask out a "flat” or “scope” 35mm ratio. I would bet that
at that time the controls for the curtain motor(s) were
moved from behind the screen to the upstairs booth. At any
rate, in March of 1958, Cinerama temporarily ended; the
house reopened and showed, continuous-performance, popular-prices,
a series of (mainly) 20th Century Fox films in 35mm scope, and that
summer had a reasonably successful roadshow run of MGM’s “Gigi."
After that film’s end, some enhancements were made to the
3 Cinerama projectors to enable them to show the CineMiracle
production "Windjammer” in Cinerama. This film ran until the
late Winter of 1959, and was replaced by the final Cinerama
travelogue “South Seas Adventure.” After this engagement, all three downstairs booths were dismantled, dual 35/70mm projectors placed in the upstairs booth. The curved curtain track was removed, but
the giant red curtain was hung on a straight track that stretched from wall-to-wall across the entire width of the theatre forward of
the proscenium and in front of a flat one-piece screen, with “Ben-Hur” beginning a period of 35mm and 70mm attractions, most of them
roadshown, over the next 21 month period. Some of the films
shown there were “Exodus,” “King of Kings,” “Judgment at
Nuremburg,” and even Fellini’s esoteric “La Dolce Vita,"
these 3 being roadshown, along with some "mass” attractions
like “Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation” on a strictly “grind” policy.
The house then closed in mid-Summer of 1962 to re-install
Cinerama for the MGM productions. The Boyd, being somewhat
of a “widebody” auditorium was able to position all 3 projectors
in a single large “Baker” booth, and presented a Cinerama
image much larger than the original 76-foot installation.
December of 1963 saw the removal of 3-projector Cinerama and
the switch to 70mm Cinerama projection, the image at the center
being as tall as the 3x35 Cinerama but covering only about
128 degrees of the 146-degree screen. So confident that Cinerama
would last forever there, side masking was never installed.
There is some anecdotal evidence that special wide-angle
D-150 lenses were used for the presentation of “The Bible” in 1966 as I have been told that the screen image of that 70mm release was the same size as that of the 3-panel projection of 1962.
The Philadelphia “Inquirer” in 1953 published photographs of the
original Cinerama installation. I haven’t yet checked the archives
of the “Evening Bulletin.” I know that Channel 6 covered the 1953
premiere…whether cameras were inside the auditorium, or if any
of the footage is still around for viewing I cannot say.

To DennisZ:
The Eric Rittenhouse was among several buildings on Walnut St demolished not long after the fire. What are proposed for demolition now are three buildings behind these on Sansom St (which face the rear of the Boyd). The Philadelphia Parking Authority’s grand vision (NOT!) is of a combined 500 car garage and cinema. That’s not to say they’ve actually signed a lease with the Ritz for the proposed complex.

Hi MikeRa,
Thank you for clearing that information up for me.I was not aware of The United Artists Rittenhouse Square 3…but I will be back in Philly and shall investigate.

Thank You again.

There is one treasure from the Boyd/SamEric theater that is quite well and alive. The theater’s W.W. Kimball (opus 7050) pipe organ made its final concert on Washington’s Birthday 1969 with Philadelphia organist, Larry Ferrari, at the console. It was the last time an operable theater pipe organ played in Philadelphia. (The next to the last was the Tower theater in Upper Darby.)

After the farewell concert, the organ was removed and became the property of the Dickinson Theatre Organ Society. The Society offers a regular concert schedule on the organ, which is over three times its original size. The link to DTOS is: [url]www.geocities.com/dtoskimball.[/url] There is plenty of information about the organ, some pictures of the Boyd theater and lots of pictures of the interior of the organ at DTOS.

I am glad to read that the Sam Eric 4 was never a gay-porn house…Not that anything is wrong with gay porn..or porn for that matter..but enough preaching.

I was just under the assumption that since the Sam Eric 4 at 20th and Locust was not located too far from the gay Walnut strip in Center City..where on a Saturday night at about 2am, Walnut between 13th and Juniper is jumping with tranvestite prostitutes and their pimps…I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express Midtown over the labor day 2004 weekend.

I would say that I was lead to my mis-conclusion by Johnathan Demme’s Philadelphia film with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington..(for my money two of the best actors that Hollywood has ever turned lose on the world.)

There was that comment that the Jason Robards character made during the trial about the theatres on Walnut (maybe a nod towards Locust) …so that gave me the fodder for my assumptions…false as they may have been.

Happy Patriots Day

Mikeoaklandpark, The William Goldman’s Randolph Theatre actually closed in Janunary 1971, not in 1969.

The first movie I saw at the Sam Eric was Close Encounter. Although the Sam Eric advertised movies in 70mm Dolby Stereo, the theatre did not have dolby sound system. It did not need it due to it’s natural sound. If you ever been in the balcony the back wall is padded. The theatre had a good bass so the sound was deep. You can actully feel it at times. My biggest complaint was it you were down stairs the projection booth block the back speakers. I never saw Earthquake there, but I heard it was great. After the Fox was closed, the Sam Eric was the show case theatre in center city getting all the big movies. I had Star Wars 5 & 6, the Indiana Jones series and the big movie at Christmas. It held the premiere for Philadlphia. One year it showed older movies, including 2001 in 70mm 6-track stereo sound. The down stair was closed off so you had to sit in the balcony. It was billed as see it and hear it the way it was meant to be. It was billed has having one of the biggest screen in PA. It a shame that UA did not want to run it. It wasn’t always a pleasure seeing a movie there!! The quality of the picture and sound presentation wasn’t always reliable.

The last movie to debut at The Sameric was “The Scorpion King”

I have been a contributor to the Save the Sameric Foundation since it first started. Even living in Lancaster, PA, about 60 miles from Center city Philadelphia, I patronized this theatre many many times. From the early Cinerama Days as a child to the roadshow films of “Ben Hur”, “Dr. Zhivago,” and the 70mm showings of “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” films. It was worth the trip. Many times making a day of it. Shopping in Wanamakers, dinner somewhere, and then the Boyd/Sameric. I have wondered why they have not used “tours of the theatre” as a fund raiser. I have not been in center city since the last “Indiana Jones” film played at this
theatre. However, to take a tour I would travel in. Also, could not a book be published of pictures and history of this theatre. It is too important not to miss out on any fund raising events. I would also attend the Stanley, Fox, Midtown, and Goldman Theatres to see the big screen film presentations. They are all gone now, sadly missed by any true film/theatre fan.