Devon Theater for the Performing Arts
6333 Frankford Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19135
6333 Frankford Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19135
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 107 comments
I believe the Loews Jersey page has some other comments about digital projection, and some other people also disliking it. As I said, I’ve seen films presented from the expensive units in other cities, and looked ok to me. I mean the DLP etc, equipment, NOT DVD’s. Maybe I’m just not noticing whatever problems there are.
I saw a videotape Clint Eastwood movie at Philadelphia’s Trocadero but it didn’t look well on the big screen. It was free, but still not worthwhile for me.
For classic films, I’ve rejected any calls for anything less than 35 MM at the Boyd (at least until classics are put into digital format for the expensive digital projectors). We shouldn’t be showing DVDs with the quality they have now. It isn’t easy to return real film projection to a theater that primarily needs live shows to fill the seats, but we are volunteering hard towards that goal!
A Digital projector is just that a projector and any type of signal can be feed into it. Sat. signal, dvd, computer etc. The projector resolution is much higher than your ind. or home theatre units. But like all the units it’s what you put into it that counts. Garbage in garbage out. One of the big problems light output to fill a large theatre screen and color reproduction (flesh tones). Granted it is the future but maybe not next week.
I’ve seen new movies digitally projected in other cities. The quality seems no better and no worse than 35 mm projection. Digital projectors are very expensive. I’ve not kept track as to how many cities they are in and whether only certain exhibitors (movie theater chains) have used them, so I can’t answer for sure as to why not in Philadelphia yet. Eventually, digital projectors will replace 35 mm for all new movies.
If I read correctly a comment on the Pacific (Hollywood, Los Angeles) page, then the industry is testing digital projection for a classic film, South Pacific. There are often very few, sometimes just one, print available of a classic film, so this could have advantages IF the quality is up to par. There’s been no report that technology can yet compare to a 70 mm experience.
Digital projection, of course, shouldn’t be confused with videotapes or DVDs. The digital projectors a few movie auditoriums use have more resolution/pixels/etc. than a tape or DVD.
If I recall right all the buildings that were theatres in the area are gone (stores, med. office, fur or furniture store, etc). To buy one of these building and try to return it to a movie house would be be to costly and would the neighborhood support it?????? To build a new structure, well I don’t think soooooo. The old Esquire on broad st. at Olney Ave. has been store for a very long time. The store that was in it close (a golden opertunity to turn it back into a theatre) but a fried chicken store is in it now. Just down the street is the old Logan. Once a beautiful theatre, close, a church now falling apart. Soon it will come under the wrecking ball if someone doesn’t buy it soon (bad roof). I guess we will have to live with are memories and be happy for that.
And now comes digital cinema to shake the industry up again, while I find it very curious that there are no digital theaters in Philadelphia as of yet. Perhaps the man who’s in charge of restoring a certain downtown movie palace, and who I’d rather not name, can explain this to us.
As for the Devon, I think it should become a live performance theater exclusively and forget about showing movies completely. Showing movie in this area should be reserved for the Mayfair and Pennypack Theatres if: A) By some miracle they survive (the Mayfair’s currently being remade into a bank and the Pennypack into a mini mall); B) The insanity that’s now governing (and overshadowing) Philadelphia at some point dissipates.
With the Devon being a live performance theater and the Mayfair and Pennypack being movie theaters, I think the three would be very complementary of one another. But we’re in a major storm right now, so my saying this is bit like saying the front entrance of the beachfront hotel should be here, and the health/fitness center over to that side, and the outdoor amphitheater over there, while Katrina is bashing the coast full force. Though the ideas are totally practical, there is a right time and a wrong time to try to make them a reality.
Meantime, motion pictures exhibited in a well-run theater I see as the inherant successor to live stage, meaning that it would make perfect sense for the Devon to become a live performance theater for right now but without any movie theaters around in close proximity for the time being. Going by how successfully the Pennypack Bandshell was brought back to life, I have every faith that those currently in charge of restoring the Devon Theatre to become a live performance theater can pull it off. But movie theaters coming back to this area will all have to come later, and, of course, that’s only if the Mayfair and Pennypack Theatres can survive the current blitzkreig. And who can predict when that will finally subside? I’m not going to try to, but others can attempt it if they so wish.
I agree rg; looking down from the booth was great. Working as an usher/projectionist/asst. manager/candy stand worker was a great high school job, and still the best job I ever had. Ironically, it was people like me that (in part) put the professional projectionists like rg out of a job. The owners put in a system that did not require manual switching between reels, then fired the projectionists. The manager then ran the projector. And when he wanted a day or two off, they paid me $2.85 an hour to do it.
At my theater (the Mayfair) they fired a projectionist that had been there 50 years.
Thats cool, sounds like you guys really enjoyed doing what you did. I enjoy reading both your posts on cinema treasures. You both have a lot of insight. Thank you for sharing it.
Maybe I’m getting to old. The above is Jack. sorry
Jerry, When I was projectionist one of the neat things was looking through the porthole down on all the people waiting for the show to start. The aud. seats filled and the smell of popcorn. One theatre I managed had three projectors in the booth.
I’m old enough that my favorite DVD set is the Harold Lloyd collection. (In my case that’s 41.)
RG and I have something in common. I was a projectionist at the Mayfair. (Although admittedly that’s not too impressive since it was a platter system with a xenon bulb, rather than the old carbon arc twin projectors. No watching for circles at the top of the frame or switching between reels for me!)
John, Old enough to remember the good days of the movie theatres. The days of great Sat. Mat. double features, Sat. evening shows 6, 8 & 10pm. Cartoons before the show,2 reel shorts. When you were a guest not just a dollar sign. Then I grew up and became a projectionist at the Keswick theatre in Glenside. Ran cinerama after it left phila. Then when on to manage D-I’s and hardtops in the Tri-state area. Life was GOOD.
Jack Ferry and RG, how old are you?
I have seen it return elsewhere, but it was someone that put a pile of money into a theater knowing full well he’d never get it back.
It’s hard to find someone like Wolfe to take the time and MONEY to run a theatre like the Devon. I don’t think the days of your neighborhood theatre will every come back. To put that kind of money in that type of theatre would be wrong. If the Devon was in a small town with off street parking and no multiplexes close by it maybe a different story. To make it work the cost to redue the theatre and upgrade the booth, it would take forever to get your money back. I grew up going to the neighborhood theatres in my area and a least twice a mo. going to the city for the roadshoe pictures. BUT IT’S OVER and GONE NOT TO RETURN. Very sad but true. Just my thoughts
Oops.
Theaterbuff says NO! There are no more discount or 2nd run houses in the immediate Philadelphia area. Multiplexes now have exclusives on movie, keep film as long as they want it. By time multiplexes no longer want film, it is on videotape or DVD and not enough paying customers. Devon owners kept the theater open as long as they could.
Devon is not going to be restored! It is being gutted!
Devon won’t have film like a real moviehouse, in 35 mm! Theaterbuff saw many movies over many years at the Devon! That time is past.
Devon will open again, with live performances. That’s good.
I think the Devon could still be in business today if it were run properly. You can’t just open the doors and expect people to come. If the Devon were run as a second run movie house, I do believe it would make it. First off you as the owner/manager would have to be a “showman” and provide showmanship. You want to give the people who come to your theater something that they don’t get at other theaters. Second , a great postive aditude one should have. Customers can tell that right off the bat. And if your an idiot, they can tell and they will vote with their feet and never return. Third, one should take a page out of Richard Wolfe’s book (the owner of the Roxy theater in Northampton Pa.)and follow what he does. Then you will be a sucess. Four, remember people can see a lot more movies at 3 bucks a ticket then at 8 or 10 bucks a ticket. Sorry I am not the best writer when it comes to organizing my thoughts into sentences by I am sure you get my drift.
One thing that stands out so distinctly in my memory is that I saw Raiders at the Devon not long after having seen “Dead and Buried” either at the Tyson or Crest, and being how I was so totally put off by “Dead and Buried” and the other rash of totally senseless horror films that came pouring out of Hollywood at that time, feeling so grateful to Stephen Spielberg for demonstrating with his “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that great filmmaking was still very much alive and well. It was also reassuring that when I saw “Dead and Buried” just a small handful of people were in attendance, but with Raiders showing at the Devon it was just totally packed with people. Both films, incidentally, were released in 1981, so given that it was probably in 1981 that I saw Raiders there, for I seriously doubt that “Dead and Buried” was rereleased in area theaters. As I recall, that horror movie pretty much marked the end of James Farantino’s career and was a very sad last film for Jack Albertson to have made right before his death.
Other great movies I saw at the Devon, by the way, were “The Eye of the Needle” (1981) and “The Elephant Man” (1980). And they had fairly good crowds. But Raiders no doubt was custom made for the Northeast Philadelphia movie going audience, as the huge crowds it drew truly attested to. And that audience is still there, I believe. It just needs the right films is all…and, of course, a theater to see them at!
I remember calling the Devon Theatre to hear whats playing and I remember at the end of the message. “Remember it pays to wait, the best movies at the best price come to the Devon. Thank you for calling the Devon Theatre”
When the Devon changed over from porn to regular films the admission price was 99 cents. They kept it at 99 cents for several years, then went to $1.00 because it was a pain to keep getting rolls of pennies.
The only reason I remember how long Raiders played at the Mayfair and the Devon is that once the run ended I tried to add up the number of times I had seen the film. Don’t remember the exact count now, but I know it was over 100. (Keep in mind that unlike in multiplexs, the candy stand in both theaters was in the back of the auditorium. I therefore heard – and usually saw – the film both while working in the candy stand and when standing in the back as an usher.)
I don’t think the Devon went to $2 until sometime after I quit in 1983.
Jack, although it was quite a long time ago and I can’t remember all the details specifically, I can’t see why I would have gone to see Raiders at the Devon if I could’ve seen it at the Mayfair, which, of course, was a much nicer theater. According to what I can recall, the Devon was doing very well because it was the last theater in Mayfair still in operation. Or…maybe I did choose to see Raiders at the Devon over seeing it at the Mayfair simply because of the much lower admission cost as you mention. Like I say, when we’re talking that long ago it’s hard to remember the specifics, or at least in my case simply as a customer. But since you were directly involved with the Devon during that era, I’ll take your word that it wasn’t doing all that well. Also, I’m pretty sure when I saw Raiders there it cost me $2 admission, if that indicates anything.
Incidentally, looking at the here and now, at the all new Mayfair Community Center that bears Perzel’s name I see that they’re planning to run movies in some fashion. It won’t be quite the same as full movie theater going experience, of course, but, it will be interesting to see just how popularly it catches on.
As for Mayfair the way it is right now over all, in all fairness to the man who’s currently trying to restore the Devon, it is a very rough place to do business at this moment, meaning that if I myself tried running a business there the way it is right now, others would probably be posting comments at this website and elsewhere saying how “reptilian” I seem to be!
As for the taxes they still had to pay on the Devon after it fell on hard times, politically speaking they should have been given a major break on this, though the case would’ve been much better made had it been with regards to the Mayfair Theatre, which is Mayfair’s major centerpiece after all. If the Devon does eventually reopen as a live performance theater I hope at the least that it will operate tax-free (presuming it’s to be a nonprofit.) Because otherwise it’s going to be a long time in coming before it eventually gets its purchase and restoration costs paid off, if ever. For don’t forget that with live performance theater heavy advertising on the part of the theater itself is an absolute must if it’s to be successful. Movie theaters on the other hand, so long as they’re showing top line movies, never have to worry about that.
The Devon was not “obviously doing very well”. Yes, Raiders of the Lost Ark and some other movies filled a lot of seats in the early and mid 80s, but there were many many films that did not. (Even 300 people on a Saturday night do not bring in that much money when you’re only charging 99 cents a person.) Raiders ran as a second run film for 5 weeks at the Mayfair, then it went to the Devon for 4 weeks, and a few months later it came back to the Mayfair. (The Devon and the Mayfair had the same owners.) I mainly worked at the Mayfair, but went over to the Devon to help out when they got Raiders. To this day I have most of the dialogue memorized! (And there were a lot of empty seats at both theaters after the first 2 weeks.)
When the Devon closed, it was simply due to market forces: it was not generating enough income to pay the employees and the electric bill. The same owners still had it, and still had to pay taxes and insurance with it sitting empty. If they could have kept the doors open at even a small profit they would have done so. It had nothing to do with politics. The John Perzel types didn’t come along until it had been closed for years.
Although I’m totally certain there wasn’t any correlation, I can recall how back when it had been a porno theater no one thought twice about it, and it didn’t seem to contribute to Mayfair’s demise in any way. I guess there was just too much positive stuff going on at that time for the Devon Thestre as a porno house to matter much to anyone. It was all very much live and let live back in that era, a much freer and happy go lucky period in Mayfair’s history as it were. And rather than the Devon closing down as porno theater due to any sort of neighborhood protests it more seemed to be the case that it wasn’t getting enough business to stay open. For I never went there when it was that, nor did I know anyone else who did. Later, when it reopened as a regular theater, I went there regularly, and the times I went it was doing especially well. I went to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” there, and this when that movie was no longer a first run. And the theater was doing so well that night that I and hundreds of others had to wait outside the theater till the earlier showing was over and the theater was fully cleared of those who came to see the earlier showing before we could then get in to see the movie. And afterwards we then all had to clear out of the theater so that the next crowd after that could get in to see it! And this, as I say, for a movie that was no longer first run mind you!
Then came along the reptilian type businessmen (or whatever you prefer to call them), who were well organized, and suddenly everything in Mayfair started changing for the worse. Well meaning, honest businessmen who genuinely cared about their customers got cast aside by whatever means of hook and crook, and suddenly shopping in Mayfair or going there for entertainment became a very ugly experience. And the only reason why this new breed of businessmen was able to endure from what I can tell is because they were kept afloat by the Pennsylvania taxpayers who really had no say in the matter, and who continue not to.
To run a theater and to run it well, you have to be able to love people, just as it’s true to run any business successfully. And the Mayfair of old very much thrived on that principle. But nowadays we don’t have that principle going on in Mayfair really. Rather, it’s people who would be much better off in jail or six feet under running everything, and with the taxpayer being given no choice but to constantly keep them afloat. All told, I wish this could be left up to the free market decide once again. For as I say, the Devon Theatre obviously was doing very well before the CDC and whatever else came along. And whenever politics appears quite relevant to why a theater shuts down, I think it should be discussed here at this website as well as elsewhere rather than dismissed as you suggest.
Your right TheaterBuff. It will be no where as classy as the porno theater it once was or the asian supermarket that it was going to be before Perzel and the CDC stepped in. The high bidding stopped a market that would have just left the building abandoned in a few years and gave the CDC an opportunity to create a place where children and adults from the community could benefit. Oh and please don’t turn this into a political message board. Enough of those already.
I met the man who’s in charge of restoring the Devon Theatre when I took a walking tour of Holmesburg’s main consumer business district with Fred Moore, the president of the Holmesburg Civic Association, last September 2005). And based on that brief moment I had in meeting him I can pretty much advise all of you not to have too high expectations if and when it ever reopens as a live performing arts theater. As I recall, it was a hot, summer like day, yet the man who’s in charge of restoring the Devon, whose name totally escapes me now (not that it matters), was wearing a long sleeved dress shirt and tie! I mean, talk about hokey! Not only that, but his whole thinking was totally in terms of money. In brief, it was easy to see after just a few words I had with him that he didn’t have an innovative bone in his body. As I watched his lips move as he conversed with Fred, I couldn’t help but think, if anyone meets the definition of being a reptilian it was clearly him! All told, the entire encounter was totally creepy!
Later on last Autumn, when I rode my bike down to Mayfair to take some digital photos of the Devon Theatre (still all closed up of course, and no surprises there) I saw a sign at its main entrance saying words to the effect that this theater was being brought to you by Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel. And the sign might just as well have gone on to say, “So don’t hold your breath!”
This is not to say that the Devon Theatre building couldn’t become a classy neighborhood live performance theater. But there’s just no way that could be possible — at least in terms of its being CLASSY — with those two men, the man in charge of restoring it who I met back in September plus John Perzel, being major players.
It also needs to be noted that the $740,000.00 that it was purchased for in June 2004 was waaaaaay too high! Had it been sold on the open market it never could’ve commanded that high a price. In this case, however, the Pennsylvania taxpayers, having little to no say in the matter, got bilked to the tune of that amount. And I wouldn’t at all be surprised if I found out that John Perzel and family were the owners of the Devon Theatre building when it was sold for that lunatically high amount, quite similar to the scandal surrounding the history of the New Foundations Charter School, uh, which all of you know about, right?