Comments about Warner Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA

carolgrau on October 18, 2005 at 9:06 pm

Patsy, I worked this theatre for years, and no one ever said anything about an organ, was and still is the very best theatre I ever worked. Will always be my favorite. I cried my eyes out when they tore it down. I could not go near fifth ave. for a long time after. I still tear up even reading this.
Norelco

Patsy on October 17, 2005 at 7:22 pm

Cinematour.com provides a small photo that shows the vertical marquee.

Patsy on October 17, 2005 at 7:19 pm

I wonder if this theatre had an organ in its heyday? It’s a shame that the elaborate interior of a major movie theatre in Pittsburgh PA was gutted and turned into a 2 story shopping center thus the name Warner Center!

Patsy on October 17, 2005 at 7:14 pm

If anyone can contribute exterior and interior photos of the Warner, please do so. The Warner Theatre in Erie PA is beautiful and worth a visit as it has never closed since it first opened!

tomovieboy70 on April 22, 2005 at 10:08 pm

When I was in high school in North Hills in the 1970s, my friends and I often drove “into the city” to see movies here. What a gorgeous, huge palace this place was, with a massive curved screen and an immense interior. I remember how incredibly loud the soundtrack was for “Jesus Christ Superstar” and how, on New Year’s Day in 1974 I stood in the freezing cold to see “The Exorcist”, during the screening a lady stood up in front of me and fainted into the aisle! I’ll never forget that. I returned to see “The Way We Were” when I was in college in Boston, but then I never went back to Pittsburgh. What a wonderful theater the Warner was!

Ron3853 on February 8, 2005 at 1:07 pm

Warner Centre was sold at Allegheny County’s sheriff’s sale yesterday (February 7, 2005) for $2,700,000. It was purchased by Allied Capital, a Washington DC-based investment company who was acting for LaSalle Bank. LaSalle Bank was owed $3.7 million by the building’s owners and the property is assessed at $4.9 million. Allied says that it will seek to acquire new tenants for the retail, restaurant, and office areas of the building, in order to raise its market value.

BLE73 on February 8, 2005 at 7:31 am

currently the former theatre/current shopping center has gone into sheriff’s sale. just as recently as 1998 the mall had over a 98% occupancy rate, currently it is close to vacant. i know it was supposed to be torn down and made replaced with a parking structure in two of the failed attempts to revitalize downtown. the building still stands awaiting its next phase of life.

veyoung52 on January 22, 2005 at 4:44 am

A little footnote to the Warner’s Cinerama history. As part of the arrangement between S-Warner and the Dept. of Justice, SW did not have to ask permission to show non-Cinerama films in its Cinerama houses if the theatre had not been specifically acquired by SW to show Cinerama. This meant, in most cases, if the theatre originally was owned by SW. When the 4th Cinerama travelogue “Search For Paradise” quickly ran out of steam, and the 5th, “South Seas Adventure” wasn’t anywhere near ready, a non-SW house like the Melba in Dallas simply closed down. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Warner was able to switch to non-Cinerama fare with no legal hassles. In this case, Paramount’s “The Ten Commandments” took over until there was Cinerama product to show again.

Ron3853 on October 7, 2004 at 9:36 pm

Thanks. I do have the research completed for Pittsburgh from December 16, 1959 to December 31, 1977 for Pittsburgh first-run theaters. It’s just a matter of time getting it all onto this site. I also have been compiling the same information for NYC, LA, CHIC, PHILA, DET, SF, DC, BOST, STL, DAL, BALT, CLEVE, HOUS, MPLS, ATL, SEAT, MILW, CINC, SD, BUFF, KC, MIAMI, DENV, IND, TAMPA,
NO, COL, PHNX, PORT, PROV, SA, CHAR & TOR – have 17 cities beside PGH finished from 1959-1975…it’s a slow process getting microfilms of other cities newspapers Inter-Library Loaned to Carnegie Library in Oakland. I’d love to see your collection sometime – I have a huge collection of ads cut from pressbooks and newspaers myself. I live in Dormont – originally from Bethel Park. You can reach me at
or

jimkastner on October 7, 2004 at 8:57 pm

Ron3853 you are wonderful! I thought I was the only one interested in what movies played at Downtown Pittsburgh theatres. I commend you on you research. I cannot tell you have much pleasure it gives me to read what played at The Warner, Stanley and Fulton[site of my first job as an usher]. I would love some day to assist you in finishing the list for all 3 theatres and other in Pittsburgh such as the Gateway, Penn, Fiesta, Chatham Cinema, Nixon [Liberty Ave, site]. As part of my Pittsburgh movie theatre collection I have many original ad clippings from the newspaper etc. etc. I live in Murrysville, PA [outside of Monroeville]. Again THANK YOU!!!

Ron3853 on June 13, 2004 at 2:29 pm

Part of the history of a theater is the films that played there. Listed below are the films that played at the Warner Theater from June 25, 1958 to December 31, 1977. Resarch was taken from microfilms of Variety and The Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
06/25/58 Gigi
09/10/58 Windjammer
11/12/58 The Old Man and the Sea
12/10/58 DARK
12/24/58 South Seas Adventure
05/13/59 Seven Wonders of the World
06/03/59 DARK
06/17/59 Sleeping Beauty
07/01/59 The Nun’s Story
08/12/59 The Five Pennies
09/16/59 DARK
10/17/59 The Big Fisherman
12/23/59 Happy Anniversary
01/06/60 The Third Man on the Mountain
01/20/60 Ben-Hur
12/21/60 The Alamo
03/08/61 Exodus
06/28/61 Fanny
08/09/61 The Pleasure of His Company
09/13/61 The King and I
09/20/61 Carousel
09/27/61 Gigi
10/04/61 Never on Sunday
10/11/61 Rocco and His Brothers
10/18/61 The Young Lions/Anastasia
10/25/61 White Christmas
11/08/61 King of Kings
02/14/62 Judgement at Nuremberg
05/02/62 Oklahoma
06/20/62 DARK
06/27/62 The Counterfeit Traitor
07/18/62 My Geisha
08/01/62 DARK
08/08/62 The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
12/19/62 In Search of the Castaways
01/23/63 Sodom and Gomorrah
02/13/63 The Best of Cinerama
03/20/63 How the West Was Won
11/06/63 Fantasia
11/20/63 Take Her, She’s Mine
12/18/64 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
07/01/64 Circus World
08/26/64 The Night of the Iguana
10/14/64 Three Penny Opera
10/21/64 Of Human Bondage
11/18/64 The Outrage
12/09/64 Peyton Place/Return to Peyton Place
12/16/64 The Hustler/The Stripper
12/23/64 The Americanization of Emily
01/20/65 The Pleasure Seekers
02/03/65 Dear Brigitte
02/17/65 Sylvia
02/24/65 Those Calloways
03/10/65 The Greatest Story Ever Told
07/21/65 The Hallelujah Trail
10/13/65 The Great Race
01/12/66 The Battle of the Bulge
04/27/66 Russian Adventure
06/08/66 A Big Hand for the Little Lady
06/22/66 Assault on a Queen
07/13/66 Khartoum
08/31/66 A Fine Madness
09/28/66 JFK: Years of Lightning, Days of Drums
10/19/66 The Bible
06/14/67 Grand Prix
10/25/67 Gone With the Wind
06/12/68 2001: A Space Odyssey
11/13/68 Ice Station Zebra
02/12/69 The Shoes of the Fisherman
05/21/69 War and Peace
06/04/69 Slaves
06/25/69 The Love Bug
08/06/69 Ben-Hur
10/08/69 Alfred the Great
10/22/69 deSade
11/19/69 Fanny Hill
12/17/69 Hello, Dolly!
07/01/70 The Sicilian Clan
07/08/70 Myra Breckinridge
08/12/70 2001: A Space Odyssey
09/23/70 The People Next Door
10/07/70 The Seducers
10/14/70 Diary of a Mad Housewife
11/25/70 WUSA
12/23/70 Love Story
05/26/71 The Andromeda Strain
07/14/71 The Anderson Tapes
09/01/71 The Red Tent
09/15/71 Gone With the Wind
10/13/71 Doctor Zhivago
11/17/71 T. R. Baskin
12/08/71 Carry on Camping
12/15/71 Around the World in 80 Days/West Side Story
12/22/71 Star-Spangled Girl
01/12/72 The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
02/02/72 Such Good Friends
02/16/72 The Hot Rock
03/22/72 The Godfather
08/02/72 The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
08/16/72 The New Centurions
10/11/72 Doctor Zhivago
10/18/72 Ryan’s Daughter
10/25/72 2001: A Space Odyssey
11/01/72 Gone With the Wind
11/08/72 Lady Sings the Blues
12/20/72 Pete ‘n’ Tillie
02/07/73 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
02/28/73 Sleuth
04/18/73 Class of ‘44
05/23/73 Hitler: The Last 10 Days
06/27/73 Jesus Christ Superstar
10/31/73 The Way We Were
12/26/73 The Exorcist
06/26/74 Go Ape: Five “Planet of the Apes” Pix
07/03/74 For Pete’s Sake
08/21/74 California Split
09/25/74 2001: A Space Odyssey
11/13/74 Earthquake
03/12/75 Funny Lady
06/25/75 Once is Not Enough
07/23/75 Nashville
10/01/75 A Clockwork Orange/Deliverance
10/15/75 Rooster Cogburn
11/19/75 The Return of the Pink Panther/Love and Death
12/24/75 Hustle
02/18/76 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
03/10/76 Man Friday
03/24/76 The Sunshine Boys
04/07/76 The Bad News Bears
06/23/76 Logan’s Run
08/11/76 Drum
09/15/76 Mahogany/Lady Sings the Blues
10/13/76 Burnt Offerings
11/03/76 Fantastic Invasion
11/17/76 Carrie
12/22/76 Nickelodeon
02/07/77 The Cassandra Crossing
03/23/77 Airport '77
06/01/77 Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger
06/15/77 The Exorcist II: The Heretic
07/27/77 Breaking Training
08/24/77 The Other Side of Midnight
09/14/77 DARK
09/21/77 You Light Up My Life
10/12/77 Black Sunday
10/19/77 Barbarella
10/26/77 Bobby Deerfield
12/07/77 DARK
12/14/77 Close Encounters of the Third Kind

All dates listed are the Wedenesday of the opening week. Films from 1978 to 1983 when the Warner closed will be listed in a later post.

DaveGrau on June 6, 2004 at 10:57 am

I dont know why the hell they could not leave it a Theatre, just what we needed, another tower mall. The bank cinema was not doing all that well, so why the Warner? I was a projectionist at the Warner till the end (last movie was Flashdance) a special showing for the Mayor and City Officials, and guest. Then again Cinemete Corp. was not going to spend a dime on the place, even after the ceiling fell on the lady. This was their excuse to get out. Besides that there was a little shop connected to the lobby they wanted to get rid of, so one night it caught on fire. (Jewish Lightning)and that was the end. They also left the Fulton, the Bank, Chatam all go to hell. I really miss the Warner, I left Pittsburgh in 84 But there is not a day goes by I dont think of the Warner. I have been a projectionist for 48 years, and the Warner by far is still my favorite Theatre.
Thanks
Dave Grau
(Mungo)

Warner Theatre

332 5th Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

332 5th Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15222