The Bala name was in use here by the late ‘60s at the latest. At that time the theater mostly ran foreign films; it was booked day-and-date with the Castor in northeast Philadelphia and the Yorktown in Elkins Park.
The theater site was on what is now Admiral Wilson Boulevard (US Route 30). It was right on the border between Camden and Pennsauken and it appears that at the time the theater was in operation the highway changed name from Admiral Wilson Boulevard to Crescent Boulevard at the city limits. After multiple renamings and realignments over the years, today’s US 30 continues east over the Pennsauken line as Admiral Wilson Boulevard for about a third of a mile to the Airport Circle; there, 30 combines with US 130, which is the highway currently known as Crescent Boulevard. On a map this may be slightly easier to figure out, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyway, the address for the theater site would roughly be in the 2800 or 2900 block of Admiral Wilson Boulevard, on the odd-numbered side. The Zinman Furs building at 2901 is usually cited as the current occupant of the site, but that may not be precisely correct.
If memory serves, in the late ‘60s/early '70s the Bryn Mawr mostly played foreign and art films day-and-date with the World in center city Philadelphia until the latter theater was demolished.
I believe this building was originally called the Diamond Theater. The actual address was on Germantown Avenue, a diagonal street that passes very close to the 6th & Diamond intersection. In the ‘80s this theater would occasionally show up in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s neighborhood movie listings; by then the films were typical Hollywood releases but the theater was still called the Puerto Rico.
Boy, the stuff you could do with a theater called the Henn. Serve chicken nuggets at the concessions…ROOSTERS and CHICKS signs on the restroom doors…Foghorn Leghorn cartoon marathons…midnight showings of “The Egg and I”…
Address of the theater is now 835 Moorlyn Terrace, Ocean City NJ 08226. The entrance to the theater has been moved around to the south side of the auditorium, fronting on a ramp that conects the Boardwalk to the street. The building that replaced the old lobby on the Boardwalk proper contains the box office (as well as stores and condos), but no entry to the theater; you buy your tickets and walk around a corner to get in. The big marquee is history; there’s sort of a mini-marquee above the box office, with a small vertical and a flush-mounted now-showing sign at the entrance.
Shows up on Yahoo’s movie listings as the Frank Theatres Moorlyn 4; ads in the Press of Atlantic City are calling it the Moorlyn Stadium 4. The original theater was at least partially demolished two or three years ago; the lobby area and adjoining retail space on the Boardwalk were torn down, revealing an old sign advertising the long-gone Shore Fast Line trolley to Atlantic City (the sign was removed and given to the city’s historical museum for preservation). The old auditorium was still standing at that point; I haven’t been up there recently so I don’t know if the original auditorium was kept and renovated or replaced with new construction.
Address is 915 White Horse Pike, Oaklyn NJ 08107. Although the theater is in Haddon Township, it has an Oaklyn mailing address and was always shown as an Oaklyn theater in movie listings.
The Hollywood building was up until at least the early ‘80s—I remember seeing it out the window on a casino bus trip. It was not open when I saw it, but that was during the winter and it might still have been open seasonally. If it has not been demolished since then, it has been converted to another use. The last cinema to operate in Atlantic City was the Beach Theatre, which was gutted by a fire in the late '80s or early '90s.
Did anyone else notice the Riviera’s cameo in a TV commercial last year? It was an ad for an auto service chain that featured people saying “I brake for” various things. One segment must have been shot across the street and south of the theatre as the marquee was visible on the left side of the screen—only for a few seconds, but once you noticed it it was obvious. It ran a lot during the baseball playoffs (although there must have been more than one edit as the Riviera shot was not included every time).
The Howard closed during or before 1976; some print reports in later years said that the city had shut it down over health code violations. By then the vertical sign and ornate marquee had been removed, replaced by a plain oblong marquee in shades of brown, very similar to the dark blue one in use on the Lake Shore at Broadway and Belmont at the time.
The new marquee was removed around 1978 or ‘79, after a plan was announced to convert the building into a mixed-use development called “The Howard,” probably inspired by the then-successful “The Main” in Evanston. The theater would have been restored under this plan, most likely as a music or stage venue. Apparently the financing did not work out and the project never got underway.
This theater opened as the Family Theatre in the late 1920s. By the early ‘30s it was already being described in print as a grind house. In the '50s it was staying open all night, and the Shore Patrol declared it off limits to Naval personnel. After a homicide in the theater in 1969, the police reported finding a number of weapons stashed around the auditorium, as well as large quantities of empty bottles and discarded food. Later that year the name was changed to the Apollo, supposedly to commemorate the moon landing.
The booking policy eventually shifted from last-run features to adult films. After the Convention Center was built in the area the Apollo’s location became more valuable and the building it was in was sold and demolished in the late 1990s.
The Bala name was in use here by the late ‘60s at the latest. At that time the theater mostly ran foreign films; it was booked day-and-date with the Castor in northeast Philadelphia and the Yorktown in Elkins Park.
The theater site was on what is now Admiral Wilson Boulevard (US Route 30). It was right on the border between Camden and Pennsauken and it appears that at the time the theater was in operation the highway changed name from Admiral Wilson Boulevard to Crescent Boulevard at the city limits. After multiple renamings and realignments over the years, today’s US 30 continues east over the Pennsauken line as Admiral Wilson Boulevard for about a third of a mile to the Airport Circle; there, 30 combines with US 130, which is the highway currently known as Crescent Boulevard. On a map this may be slightly easier to figure out, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyway, the address for the theater site would roughly be in the 2800 or 2900 block of Admiral Wilson Boulevard, on the odd-numbered side. The Zinman Furs building at 2901 is usually cited as the current occupant of the site, but that may not be precisely correct.
If memory serves, in the late ‘60s/early '70s the Bryn Mawr mostly played foreign and art films day-and-date with the World in center city Philadelphia until the latter theater was demolished.
Is that a really narrow front entrance for an 1100-seat theater, or does the photo just make it look that way?
I believe this building was originally called the Diamond Theater. The actual address was on Germantown Avenue, a diagonal street that passes very close to the 6th & Diamond intersection. In the ‘80s this theater would occasionally show up in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s neighborhood movie listings; by then the films were typical Hollywood releases but the theater was still called the Puerto Rico.
Boy, the stuff you could do with a theater called the Henn. Serve chicken nuggets at the concessions…ROOSTERS and CHICKS signs on the restroom doors…Foghorn Leghorn cartoon marathons…midnight showings of “The Egg and I”…
Address of the theater is now 835 Moorlyn Terrace, Ocean City NJ 08226. The entrance to the theater has been moved around to the south side of the auditorium, fronting on a ramp that conects the Boardwalk to the street. The building that replaced the old lobby on the Boardwalk proper contains the box office (as well as stores and condos), but no entry to the theater; you buy your tickets and walk around a corner to get in. The big marquee is history; there’s sort of a mini-marquee above the box office, with a small vertical and a flush-mounted now-showing sign at the entrance.
Shows up on Yahoo’s movie listings as the Frank Theatres Moorlyn 4; ads in the Press of Atlantic City are calling it the Moorlyn Stadium 4. The original theater was at least partially demolished two or three years ago; the lobby area and adjoining retail space on the Boardwalk were torn down, revealing an old sign advertising the long-gone Shore Fast Line trolley to Atlantic City (the sign was removed and given to the city’s historical museum for preservation). The old auditorium was still standing at that point; I haven’t been up there recently so I don’t know if the original auditorium was kept and renovated or replaced with new construction.
Address is 915 White Horse Pike, Oaklyn NJ 08107. Although the theater is in Haddon Township, it has an Oaklyn mailing address and was always shown as an Oaklyn theater in movie listings.
The Hollywood building was up until at least the early ‘80s—I remember seeing it out the window on a casino bus trip. It was not open when I saw it, but that was during the winter and it might still have been open seasonally. If it has not been demolished since then, it has been converted to another use. The last cinema to operate in Atlantic City was the Beach Theatre, which was gutted by a fire in the late '80s or early '90s.
Did anyone else notice the Riviera’s cameo in a TV commercial last year? It was an ad for an auto service chain that featured people saying “I brake for” various things. One segment must have been shot across the street and south of the theatre as the marquee was visible on the left side of the screen—only for a few seconds, but once you noticed it it was obvious. It ran a lot during the baseball playoffs (although there must have been more than one edit as the Riviera shot was not included every time).
The Howard closed during or before 1976; some print reports in later years said that the city had shut it down over health code violations. By then the vertical sign and ornate marquee had been removed, replaced by a plain oblong marquee in shades of brown, very similar to the dark blue one in use on the Lake Shore at Broadway and Belmont at the time.
The new marquee was removed around 1978 or ‘79, after a plan was announced to convert the building into a mixed-use development called “The Howard,” probably inspired by the then-successful “The Main” in Evanston. The theater would have been restored under this plan, most likely as a music or stage venue. Apparently the financing did not work out and the project never got underway.
This theater opened as the Family Theatre in the late 1920s. By the early ‘30s it was already being described in print as a grind house. In the '50s it was staying open all night, and the Shore Patrol declared it off limits to Naval personnel. After a homicide in the theater in 1969, the police reported finding a number of weapons stashed around the auditorium, as well as large quantities of empty bottles and discarded food. Later that year the name was changed to the Apollo, supposedly to commemorate the moon landing.
The booking policy eventually shifted from last-run features to adult films. After the Convention Center was built in the area the Apollo’s location became more valuable and the building it was in was sold and demolished in the late 1990s.