Shooting for an Elizabethan architectural style, the Fairmount Theatre launched September 8, 1913. It was J. Fred Zimmerman’s third theatre. Patterned Weber and Fields' Music Hall, the white exterior theatre with white marble floors was nicknamed, “The Little White House.” Bathed in green and gold on its interior, the theatre would transition from vaudeville and plays to movies. The Stanley-Warner took on the venue modernizing it and later closing it at the end of lease on August 12, 1958 with “Bridge of the River Kwai” and “Man from God’s Country.”
The local paper says that the Motion Picture Guild which operated art houses in Washington (its first house in 1926 was the Wardman Park), Baltimore and Detroit, built this theatre in 1928 to the plans of Solomon Kaplan. The Little Theatre launched on October 8, 1928 with Fritz Lang’s UFA film, “Siegfried” supported but the one reel UFA film, “Killing the Killer.” The theatre became the Vogue Theatre and was sold off on December 11, 1936 becoming a furniture store.
Charles Segall opened the New Apollo Theatre in October of 1915. It had a 45 year run under that name closing on April 3, 1960 with “For Here to Eternity” and “Sabrina.” The theatre was overhauled under new owner, Paul Klieman, becoming the Capital Theatre with a preview opening on May 23, 1961 and grand public opening the next night both with “Sanctuary” and “The Unforgiven.” Klieman defied the odds operating the aged movie house as an independent, single-screen operation for 31 years. It closed June 21, 1992 with “Class Act.” It was retrofitted for other retail purposes.
The Star Theatre was a $20,000 venue built in 1914 for John Knoell. Louis Sheffitt performed a 1941 remodeling to the plans of David Supowitz. James Milgram closed the theatre at the expiry of a second 20-year lease in 1954 and was taken over by new operators becoming the Starlite Ballroom later in 1954. A picture of the new Starlite Ballroom is in photos.
The Capitol Theatre launched September 15, 1919 with Wallace Reid in “Valley of the Giants.” The Capitol was equipped for sound ten years later to remain viable. Stanley Warner Circuit closed the venue after 30 years with “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Singing Guns” on July 6, 1950.
Why does it state that there is “little information on this theatre”? That seems to be quite untrue. Virtually every booking is listed in the local paper and it is given coverage in the trade press of the day. It has complete coverage in film yearbooks. What more does one want?
A . Fred Zimmerman launched the New Liberty on December 5, 1910 with acts ranging from the DeCosta Troupe to The Four TransAtlantics. It was located at 1425-1431 Columbia Avenue. The former Liberty Theatre was to have been razed with the new theater in the same spot according to articles in 1909 when the project was announced. However, when the project was actually created, the building plans allowed the former Liberty to remain in place continuing as a low-priced vaudeville house at 5 and 10 cent matinee shows. The upgraded New Liberty was proposed as a 2400-seat facility but reduced to a 1900-seat facility that had 800 balcony seats supported by a cantilever system 72 feet long. The venue was steel reinforced, fireproof, and had an exterior of brick and terra cotta. The venue was created with a Louis XV architectural style with decorations to match. The architect was famed Boston, Philadelphia and New York theater designer, Albert E. Westover. It opened with M.W. Taylor at the helm as a vaudeville house.
The Liberty switched away from vaudeville to motion pictures and equipped for sound to remain viable. It celebrated its 58th birthday in December of 1968 but that would be its swan song. “The Liberty Theater closed January 1, 1968 with “Africa Addio,” George Peppard in “Rough Night in Jericho” and James Drury in “The Young Warriors.” It was later demolished.
Mae Desmond’s Desmond Theatre had opened October 14, 1922 with live theatre in the long-standing People’s Theatre. She ceased operations in 1926. The former People’s/Desmond building which had opened August 23, 1890 to the plans of George Plowman - was then sold to Mercantile and Stores Properties, Inc. and demolished in 1927. In its place was a $2 million mixed use property containing a proposed Kenton Theatre designed by Hoffman-Hebron later shortened to the Kent Theatre.
The Kent was a $1.4 million investment and leased to the Stanley Circuit for 40 years. It opened January 16, 1928 with Reed Howes in “The Racing Fool.” Stanley Warner closed the Kent Theatre with a double-feature of “Shuttered Room” and “Vengeance of Fu Manchu” on March 5, 1968 at the end of lease. Home to drug dealers and prostitutes, in the late 1980s, the building was razed in February of 1989.
Movie Tavern by Marcus Green Oaks was closed permanently by Marcus in December of 2020. Look Cinemas took on the location scheduled to open in later in 2022.
Stanley Warner closed the Circle on December 6, 1953 with a double feature of :Blowing Wild" and “Sea of Lost Ships.” According to the local paper, the theatre building was repurposed for retail stores in July of 1954 and then sold in late April 1955.
This was likely a converted fraternal hall that operated as a silent film theatre called the Midvale from 1914-1929 in its silent era and the Falls Theatre from 1929 to 1939 as a sound venue on a 25-year lease. George Bennethune Theatre Circuit took on the operation of the venue in 1919 with Henry Martin managing almost the entire ten years ending its silent operation.
The venue then operated the final ten years on its lease as a sound theatre in the East Falls neighborhood as the Falls Theatre. Operators Charles Goldfine decided to build a New Falls Theatre nearby - a streamline moderne venue - to better accommodate sound films. During planning, however, that building project became the Alden Theatre launching in 1939. It would operate all 30 years of its 30-year lease and has its own Cinema Treasures page. The former Midvale / Falls Theatre was auctioned off on August 16, 1939 becoming a grocery store.
The Parkwood Theatre was announced late in 1963 in the 1962-built Parkwood Manor Shopping Center anchored by an A&P grocer. The 1,400 seat single-screen theatre had 70mm capability and a Colonial design for Robert Theatre Corp. It was a $450,000 suburban built by Leonard Shaffer Co. John T. Brugger was the architect of the theater.
The venue became the Parkwood Twin Theatre operating as a discount house in 1980 and closed as the RAM Parkwood Twin Theatre in 1981 which had experimented with first-run films. It was reopened as a sub-run discount house under the Premium Parkwood Twin Cinema nameplate with “The Twilight Zone.” It received a minor refresh in 1983 with new silver screens as the Parkwood Twin Cinema.
The twin departed after 20 years at end of lease on November 29, 1984 with “American Dreamer” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” (The theatre missed on opportunity to close with its opening film - the appropriately-titled, “What a Way to Go.”) In 1986, the space was converted for other retail purposes by the Korman Co. in a $1 million overhaul.
Harris & Richards were the original architects who designed the $25,000, 900-seat Eureka Theatre for Eureka Amusement in 1913. It had a brief run beginning in February of 1952 as the Fine Arts Theatre until September 8, 1952. It had some additional bookings as the Eureka closing at the end of a second, 20-year lease and auctioned off. It became a retail furniture store in 1954.
Built in late 1913, this venue opened as the Wayne Theatre in 1914. Owner Helen Albert gave the venue a refresh in 1920. It was later wired for sound to remain viable. The Wayne closed after 35 years of operation in June of 1949 at the expiry of a leasing period.
The venue reopened as the Wayne Avenue Theatre on November 11, 1950 showing British cinema and the film, “Kind Hearts and Coronets” with Joseph Conway of the Egyptian Theatre in charge. In early 1951, it was known as the Wayne Avenue Playhouse. It closed December 6, 1966 with “Sins of the Fleshapoids” and “Zero in the Universe.” It had a non-theatrical period as home to a car dealership next.
The venue returned as a live music venue in the late 1970s and into the 1980s when it was briefly known as Theatre on the Avenue. It then was sold for $65,000 and became a house of worship.
Lewen Pizor and Charles Segall opened the Chelten Theatre on September 21, 1938 with Ginger Rogers in “Having Wonderful Time.” It closed January 1, 1952 with “Little Egypt” and “Bowery Batallion.”
Reverand Harry Bristow Jr. of the Christian Youth Cinema bought the Chelten and renamed it the Reel Pulpit beginning on October 23, 1954 showing Christian films. The venue was renamed the Christian Youth Cinema and then the Chirstian Cinema while retaining its Chelten marquee. Bristow ran Christian films there for 12 years until a police officer was killed in front of the theater and he moved on.
The Saco Drive-In Theatre closed for the season on September 19, 2021 with “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” and “Candyman.” It was sold to a trailer dealer and did not reopen for the 2022 season.
The theatre at Germantown and Tulpehocken was announced in 1913 as part of a $95,000 project. It sat unfinished and in foreclosure in latter 1913 and into 1914 when Bader & Simpson Co. completed the project. Constantly changing hands in rapid succession in its first 18 months, the theatre was labeled as a “failure” by the trade press. But in February of 1916, the Tulpe was taken over by Stanley Mastbaum as an early Stanley Corp. venue and renamed then as the Rialto.
Mastbaum had the right answer and the Rialto became a success. It was wired for sound to remain viable. It received a streamlined makeover in 1938 to the plans of David Supowitz. The Rialto Theatre closed September 15, 1959 at end of lease with “The Big Circus” and “Gunfight at Dodge City.”
The trade press reported that the Leigh Palace Company announced this project in 1909 and then built the new Lehigh Palace Theatre in 1910 opening that year. It was located at 937 West Lehigh Avenue. The installation of a Kimball organ in 1916 was the impetus to raise prices from a nickel to a dime. Ten years after it had opened and likely at the beginning of a new 10-year lease, operator Carl Hess gave the Lehigh Palace a new front and box office as well as an interior refresh in 1920. It was purchased by the Stanley Circuit in 1925 which apparently made a decision to not equip the theatre for sound and closed it in 1929.
The Villa Theater opened October 8, 1928 by the Stanley-Benn Theatre Circuit. The $500,000 theatre opened with William Haines in “Telling the World” with a capacity of 1,000
Shooting for an Elizabethan architectural style, the Fairmount Theatre launched September 8, 1913. It was J. Fred Zimmerman’s third theatre. Patterned Weber and Fields' Music Hall, the white exterior theatre with white marble floors was nicknamed, “The Little White House.” Bathed in green and gold on its interior, the theatre would transition from vaudeville and plays to movies. The Stanley-Warner took on the venue modernizing it and later closing it at the end of lease on August 12, 1958 with “Bridge of the River Kwai” and “Man from God’s Country.”
The local paper says that the Motion Picture Guild which operated art houses in Washington (its first house in 1926 was the Wardman Park), Baltimore and Detroit, built this theatre in 1928 to the plans of Solomon Kaplan. The Little Theatre launched on October 8, 1928 with Fritz Lang’s UFA film, “Siegfried” supported but the one reel UFA film, “Killing the Killer.” The theatre became the Vogue Theatre and was sold off on December 11, 1936 becoming a furniture store.
Charles Segall opened the New Apollo Theatre in October of 1915. It had a 45 year run under that name closing on April 3, 1960 with “For Here to Eternity” and “Sabrina.” The theatre was overhauled under new owner, Paul Klieman, becoming the Capital Theatre with a preview opening on May 23, 1961 and grand public opening the next night both with “Sanctuary” and “The Unforgiven.” Klieman defied the odds operating the aged movie house as an independent, single-screen operation for 31 years. It closed June 21, 1992 with “Class Act.” It was retrofitted for other retail purposes.
The Star Theatre was a $20,000 venue built in 1914 for John Knoell. Louis Sheffitt performed a 1941 remodeling to the plans of David Supowitz. James Milgram closed the theatre at the expiry of a second 20-year lease in 1954 and was taken over by new operators becoming the Starlite Ballroom later in 1954. A picture of the new Starlite Ballroom is in photos.
The Capitol Theatre launched September 15, 1919 with Wallace Reid in “Valley of the Giants.” The Capitol was equipped for sound ten years later to remain viable. Stanley Warner Circuit closed the venue after 30 years with “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Singing Guns” on July 6, 1950.
Why does it state that there is “little information on this theatre”? That seems to be quite untrue. Virtually every booking is listed in the local paper and it is given coverage in the trade press of the day. It has complete coverage in film yearbooks. What more does one want?
A . Fred Zimmerman launched the New Liberty on December 5, 1910 with acts ranging from the DeCosta Troupe to The Four TransAtlantics. It was located at 1425-1431 Columbia Avenue. The former Liberty Theatre was to have been razed with the new theater in the same spot according to articles in 1909 when the project was announced. However, when the project was actually created, the building plans allowed the former Liberty to remain in place continuing as a low-priced vaudeville house at 5 and 10 cent matinee shows. The upgraded New Liberty was proposed as a 2400-seat facility but reduced to a 1900-seat facility that had 800 balcony seats supported by a cantilever system 72 feet long. The venue was steel reinforced, fireproof, and had an exterior of brick and terra cotta. The venue was created with a Louis XV architectural style with decorations to match. The architect was famed Boston, Philadelphia and New York theater designer, Albert E. Westover. It opened with M.W. Taylor at the helm as a vaudeville house.
The Liberty switched away from vaudeville to motion pictures and equipped for sound to remain viable. It celebrated its 58th birthday in December of 1968 but that would be its swan song. “The Liberty Theater closed January 1, 1968 with “Africa Addio,” George Peppard in “Rough Night in Jericho” and James Drury in “The Young Warriors.” It was later demolished.
Mae Desmond’s Desmond Theatre had opened October 14, 1922 with live theatre in the long-standing People’s Theatre. She ceased operations in 1926. The former People’s/Desmond building which had opened August 23, 1890 to the plans of George Plowman - was then sold to Mercantile and Stores Properties, Inc. and demolished in 1927. In its place was a $2 million mixed use property containing a proposed Kenton Theatre designed by Hoffman-Hebron later shortened to the Kent Theatre.
The Kent was a $1.4 million investment and leased to the Stanley Circuit for 40 years. It opened January 16, 1928 with Reed Howes in “The Racing Fool.” Stanley Warner closed the Kent Theatre with a double-feature of “Shuttered Room” and “Vengeance of Fu Manchu” on March 5, 1968 at the end of lease. Home to drug dealers and prostitutes, in the late 1980s, the building was razed in February of 1989.
Movie Tavern by Marcus Green Oaks was closed permanently by Marcus in December of 2020. Look Cinemas took on the location scheduled to open in later in 2022.
Reopened March 4, 2022
Stanley Warner closed the Circle on December 6, 1953 with a double feature of :Blowing Wild" and “Sea of Lost Ships.” According to the local paper, the theatre building was repurposed for retail stores in July of 1954 and then sold in late April 1955.
This was likely a converted fraternal hall that operated as a silent film theatre called the Midvale from 1914-1929 in its silent era and the Falls Theatre from 1929 to 1939 as a sound venue on a 25-year lease. George Bennethune Theatre Circuit took on the operation of the venue in 1919 with Henry Martin managing almost the entire ten years ending its silent operation.
The venue then operated the final ten years on its lease as a sound theatre in the East Falls neighborhood as the Falls Theatre. Operators Charles Goldfine decided to build a New Falls Theatre nearby - a streamline moderne venue - to better accommodate sound films. During planning, however, that building project became the Alden Theatre launching in 1939. It would operate all 30 years of its 30-year lease and has its own Cinema Treasures page. The former Midvale / Falls Theatre was auctioned off on August 16, 1939 becoming a grocery store.
Appears to have closed at the end of a 30-year lease in January 1969. Designed in 1938.
The Parkwood Theatre was announced late in 1963 in the 1962-built Parkwood Manor Shopping Center anchored by an A&P grocer. The 1,400 seat single-screen theatre had 70mm capability and a Colonial design for Robert Theatre Corp. It was a $450,000 suburban built by Leonard Shaffer Co. John T. Brugger was the architect of the theater.
The venue became the Parkwood Twin Theatre operating as a discount house in 1980 and closed as the RAM Parkwood Twin Theatre in 1981 which had experimented with first-run films. It was reopened as a sub-run discount house under the Premium Parkwood Twin Cinema nameplate with “The Twilight Zone.” It received a minor refresh in 1983 with new silver screens as the Parkwood Twin Cinema.
The twin departed after 20 years at end of lease on November 29, 1984 with “American Dreamer” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” (The theatre missed on opportunity to close with its opening film - the appropriately-titled, “What a Way to Go.”) In 1986, the space was converted for other retail purposes by the Korman Co. in a $1 million overhaul.
The Casino Theatre closed on June 7, 1951 with “Last Bandit” and “The Man Who Cheated Himself.”
Harris & Richards were the original architects who designed the $25,000, 900-seat Eureka Theatre for Eureka Amusement in 1913. It had a brief run beginning in February of 1952 as the Fine Arts Theatre until September 8, 1952. It had some additional bookings as the Eureka closing at the end of a second, 20-year lease and auctioned off. It became a retail furniture store in 1954.
Built in late 1913, this venue opened as the Wayne Theatre in 1914. Owner Helen Albert gave the venue a refresh in 1920. It was later wired for sound to remain viable. The Wayne closed after 35 years of operation in June of 1949 at the expiry of a leasing period.
The venue reopened as the Wayne Avenue Theatre on November 11, 1950 showing British cinema and the film, “Kind Hearts and Coronets” with Joseph Conway of the Egyptian Theatre in charge. In early 1951, it was known as the Wayne Avenue Playhouse. It closed December 6, 1966 with “Sins of the Fleshapoids” and “Zero in the Universe.” It had a non-theatrical period as home to a car dealership next.
The venue returned as a live music venue in the late 1970s and into the 1980s when it was briefly known as Theatre on the Avenue. It then was sold for $65,000 and became a house of worship.
Lewen Pizor and Charles Segall opened the Chelten Theatre on September 21, 1938 with Ginger Rogers in “Having Wonderful Time.” It closed January 1, 1952 with “Little Egypt” and “Bowery Batallion.”
Reverand Harry Bristow Jr. of the Christian Youth Cinema bought the Chelten and renamed it the Reel Pulpit beginning on October 23, 1954 showing Christian films. The venue was renamed the Christian Youth Cinema and then the Chirstian Cinema while retaining its Chelten marquee. Bristow ran Christian films there for 12 years until a police officer was killed in front of the theater and he moved on.
March 11, 2022 - opening date for the Evo Entertainment Southlake.
The Saco Drive-In Theatre closed for the season on September 19, 2021 with “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” and “Candyman.” It was sold to a trailer dealer and did not reopen for the 2022 season.
The theatre at Germantown and Tulpehocken was announced in 1913 as part of a $95,000 project. It sat unfinished and in foreclosure in latter 1913 and into 1914 when Bader & Simpson Co. completed the project. Constantly changing hands in rapid succession in its first 18 months, the theatre was labeled as a “failure” by the trade press. But in February of 1916, the Tulpe was taken over by Stanley Mastbaum as an early Stanley Corp. venue and renamed then as the Rialto.
Mastbaum had the right answer and the Rialto became a success. It was wired for sound to remain viable. It received a streamlined makeover in 1938 to the plans of David Supowitz. The Rialto Theatre closed September 15, 1959 at end of lease with “The Big Circus” and “Gunfight at Dodge City.”
August 27, 1931-September 9, 1931 program
The trade press reported that the Leigh Palace Company announced this project in 1909 and then built the new Lehigh Palace Theatre in 1910 opening that year. It was located at 937 West Lehigh Avenue. The installation of a Kimball organ in 1916 was the impetus to raise prices from a nickel to a dime. Ten years after it had opened and likely at the beginning of a new 10-year lease, operator Carl Hess gave the Lehigh Palace a new front and box office as well as an interior refresh in 1920. It was purchased by the Stanley Circuit in 1925 which apparently made a decision to not equip the theatre for sound and closed it in 1929.
The location closed March 16, 2020. It never reopened.
The Viola Theatre closed permanently on December 30, 1947 with “Ivy” and “White Pongo.”
The Villa Theater opened October 8, 1928 by the Stanley-Benn Theatre Circuit. The $500,000 theatre opened with William Haines in “Telling the World” with a capacity of 1,000