Hollywood Theater
1449 Potomac Avenue,
Dormont,
PA
15216
1449 Potomac Avenue,
Dormont,
PA
15216
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 128 comments
About a month ago all the floor seats were quickly ripped out and thrown into dumpsters in pieces. Is there any demand for old theater seats? The balcony is still filled with old seats,
which will most likely destroyed this week (oct 23-27). I offered the contractor a way to raise some money by selling the seats, but he was not interested.
If any one is interested, I recently took some photos inside the old HOLLYWOOD “gutted out"
One lone seat remains on the floor. Nice shots of an old local favorite.
In my day, the early 70’s, the HOLLYWOOD was well known to admit under age kids in to R rated movies. I remember seeing The Exorcist back in 73, I was 12, plus many many more.
E-mail me if you would like to see some images from inside the HOLLYWOOD as it looks now,
Thanks
Doug
wow.this has been closed for sometime//
Here is a link to the newspaper article online!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06257/721532-55.stm
This is the best news I’ve had all day!!!
Thank you Ron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I forgot to mention that my preiviois post was found on page S-4 of the September 14, 2006 edition of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Dormont theater to reopen this fall to show second-run films
Thursday, September 14, 2006
By Al Lowe
Dormont Councilman John Sparvero, 69, had his first kiss at the Hollywood Theater.
He doesn’t remember other details. “I wasn’t looking at the movie,” he said.
Mr. Sparvero and other Dormont officials are happy that the Hollywood Theater, 1439 Potomac Ave., which closed in 1998, is to reopen this year.
“I’m excited that young families in the South Hills can once again enjoy what I did growing up in Dormont, motion picture entertainment you can walk to and near to dining choices,” Dormont council President Linda Kitchen said.
“We’re on our way,” Mr. Sparvero said of the theater restoration and other revitalization efforts attempting to change the face of the borough.
Bradley Center has agreed to lease the theater for 10 years with options to renew and, after renovations, wants to open it by Thanksgiving. But center officials said that contractors' work might not be finished until the holiday season in December. Mayor Thomas Lloyd announced at last week’s council meeting that Bradley has applied for a building permit to start renovations.
No money details were released.
Bradley Center, a foster care program with services for children in need of a safe and structured environment, houses 76 abused, neglected, orphaned or abandoned children at its Mt. Lebanon site, a quarter-mile from the theater.
Other sites are in North Strabane and Robinson, said Garry McGrath, the center’s chief financial officer, who will oversee the program.
The Hollywood Theater venture is the first time the center has tried another kind of business.
Bradley will employ three youngsters daily during the week and seven or eight on the weekends under supervision of adults from the center, in addition to two full-time theater staff members who are not center personnel. They will collect admission, staff the refreshment stand and clean the theater.
“This will be the cleanest theater anyone has ever seen,” said Mr. McGrath, of Upper St. Clair.
Plans call for two movies daily, one at 6 or 6:15 p.m. and another at 8 or 8:15 p.m. On the weekends, there will be two children’s movies shown before the regular films. Admission will be $2.50 or $3.
The movies will be second-run features previously shown for three or four weeks at theaters such as the Galleria or South Hills Village. A movie classic will be shown occasionally during one of the weekdays.
The seating is being replaced and reduced from 700 seats to 300, with 50 resembling coffeehouse seating and situated on the side of the theater. The regular seats will be farther from each other, giving people room to stretch along the flat floor of the theater.
There also will be balcony seating. “There are not too many theater balconies left,” Mr. McGrath said.
He estimated the cost of buying theater equipment and seating to be $113,000. Other renovations, such as replacing heating, air conditioning and wiring, will be done by the landlord, Hollywood Partners LLC. Brian Kelly, one of the owners, declined to give those costs.
Refreshments will be cheaper than those sold at other theaters and will include bakery goods and sandwich wraps, Mr. McGrath said.
Paintings by the students will be on display in the lobby and will be for sale.
The advantages of the Dormont location are its proximity to the Potomac Station T stop and parking spaces in a lot across the street and on West Liberty Avenue. It also is near several Dormont restaurants, including one next door, Fredo’s Deli. The restaurant’s owner, Alfredo Shaheen, head of the Dormont Business Association, brokered the deal.
The theater operation by the nonprofit organization will give the students work experience and an opportunity to earn money. The students have jobs at the center, but this will be a chance for them to interact with people other than supervisors or peers. An adult supervisor will be on hand to help the students if they make mistakes, such as giving out the wrong change. Some students will get a chance to become licensed projectionists.
“They never had an opportunity before to be part of the community,” he said.
The operation is modeled on a successful theater in upstate New York, Scotia Cinema, in Scotia. That theater has shown second-run films for 25 years but has no affiliation with any organization such as Bradley Center.
Mr. McGrath said his attorney advised against revealing the specifics of the lease agreement because part of it is still being negotiated.
Plans are to retain the name unless the attorney finds legal objections.
He said he was pleased recently when he and contractors inspected the site and found themselves questioned by numerous people. They were eager for the theater to reopen, he said.
“With the right mix of movies and events, it could become a great theater again.”
Along with the Denis, Cinema 4, King’s Court, New Granada, Parkway and the Eastland. :)
It is a shame that such a nice theater such as the Hollywood in Dormont is still closed.
With the right mix of movies and events, it could become a great theater again.
Just like so many theaters in the area, The Roxian, among others, the Hollywood gave so many of us hundreds of hours of movie thrills.
On another note, a 10 plex stadium seating theater is being built in the Robinson/McKees Rocks area. It should open by 2008. This is great news.
The Showcase West cinemas will finally have some competition. Hopefully the wrecking ball isn’t too far off in the future for these horrible movie theaters.
Got these pictures of the Hollywood today.
View link
View link
but can anybody telling us who currently owns the building?
the dinner theatre idea fell through because they where not able to obtain a liscense because of the church being located across the street, the hollywood still stands vacant, in its last years the biggest nights where the midnight showings of the rocky horror picture show on the weekends
To answer Longislandmovies many requests, the neighborhood isn’t terrible, it is working class, and along the trolley line making it handy to downtown. I used to live down the street from it on the corner of Potomac and West Liberty Ave and was never afraid to walk around the area, night or day. It’s a beautiful building and I’m thrilled to hear it’s being converted to a dinner theatre.
I heard through a Realtor today that the HOLLYWOOD has been sold and will be converted into a dinner theatre venue. Hooray!!!!!!! …..better than the wrecking ball.
The last time I was there this was a working-class neighborhood, old, but well-kept, not far from downtown Pgh via the Fort Pitt Tunnel or Liberty Tubes. Potomac Ave is a very steep street coming up from Banksville Road – so steep in fact, that there is no sidewalk – it is a stairway next to the avenue up to the top of the hill. And TomB is correct – parking is a big problem in the area.
still 4 sale
sorry about the typos
every one ha sbeen great with the inhfo , what kind af area is this???
The Hollywood building was gutted and rebuilt by Warner Bros. Theaters in the late 1940’s. Its seating capacity was about 914.
The Hollywood was a deluxe second run venue, playing Warner, Universal, RKO, Disney and United Artists product. The Harris SouthHills, a mile or two away (capacity about 1300) ran the Fox, MGM, Columbia and Paramount films.
The decor of the Hollywood was art deco and featured a small balcony (seating about 100). A lower level lounge beneath the lobby included overstuffed couches and easy chairs – and as the popularity of television increased back in the ‘50’s – a large screen black and white tv. The rear wall of the lobby (actually the back wall of the main auditorium) was mostly glass (usually covered with a drape that could be opened to accommodate standing room crowds who could watch the film and hear the soundtrack from speakers in the lobby ceiling).
The marquee, containing literally thousands of bulbs and two glass attraction panels, was removed when the city widened the street and the glass tile facade was replaced with stucco.
After the consent decree, the Hollywood was transferred to the Stanley-Warner circuit and was eventually sold (along with the remaining SW properties) to Cinemette Theaters. Ownership was later transferred to the Neighborhood Theaters circuit that closed the building after several years on a dollar policy. Property owner Richard Stern and his CineMagic reopened the theatre prior to its final closing.
In its day, the Hollywood was a great theatre (I saw hundreds of movies there) – great sight lines, big screen. Sadly, there is probably no one who could make a go of this location in today’s marketplace. Competition from the multiplexes and video rentals, as well as an enormous parking problem around the theatre, makes this grand old theatre – a thing of the past.
SEEMS LIKE A NICE THEATER
THANKS FOR THE INFO IS THIS A SAFE PART OF THE CITY?
This theater is located in one of the streetcar suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. The homes in the surrounding neighborhood range in age from 60 to 90+ years old. As a kid my father took me to cartoons at the Hollywood in the early 1980’s. At this time there was still a marquee and the first floor was covered in turquoise metal or structural glass panels. The theater also still had an outdoor box office. Later in the mid 80’s the marquee was replaced with a large wall sign and the first floor was covered with stucco. The box office window was covered although the room is still intact. Inside was a small lobby with concession counter. Straight ahead was the art deco auditorium with light blue walls with large light fixtures down each side. There was a small balcony, thought I was never up there as it was always closed. In its last years discounted third-run movies were shone, I was probably last inside when my brother dragged me to see “Twister,” which he had already seen several times. Supposedly the building has been purchased, although the for sale sign is still up. Hopefully the theater will be saved. Nearby, (about five blocks away), on West Liberty Avenue, is the closed C-4 Cinema, formerly the South hills. As you can guess the theater was subdivided in the 1990’s into four theaters by the same guy who owned the Hollywood. The marquee is still partially intact on the beautiful stone exterior below four large two-story arched windows. In the first of two lobbies the floor is inlaid with masks of comedy & tragedy. These and the original play bill cases can be seen through the deco glass doors that flank the stainless steel box office. The auditorium before subdivision was in a castle theme and the seating configuration had a raised semi-balcony in the rear that resembles modern stadium seating. Supposedly there are backstage facilities and several bands apparently played there. Currently the place is rotting away with the last movies to play there still on the marquee and in the outside poster cases. The please is not listed for sale, but should be saved as well.
this theater is up for sale
ANY ONE HAVE MORE INFO ON THIS THEATER
what kind of area is this/