If you look at the picture you can see the little circular hole which was the box office. The theater was an old barn. But it had great movies. It premiered most of the early Fellini films like 8 ½; it premiered the Graduate; and it got shut down for showing I am Curious Yellow and I Am Curious Blue (look it up if you are too young). Sampson and Spodick came up from the Bronx after WWII and their mission was to bring the art cinema to Connecticut, which they did admirably. Both are recognized by the National Association of Theater Owners as Pioneers of the industry.
The Crown changed its format many times to respond to the changing film market and audience. It was tough to stay open in the 60s in New Haven, as witnessed by the demise of the nearby Lowis Poli, Paramount, and College Theaters. The Crown, Lincoln, and York Square Theaters were all owned locally by Leonard Sampson and Robert Spodick. The Crown, once an art theater, shifted to repetory (and not in competition with the Lincoln as noted above), horror films, and then e-rated films. Among its colorful history, the theater was raided by the police and closed for showing Milo O'Shea in Ulysses due to language (it was a different time then; later is was the house that showed Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, and other “classics” of the genre. It did have a small marquee, but that was in part because the original marquee was hit by a truck and badly damaged in the 50s. When the Crown and Lincoln closed, the two owners shifted their art and foreign films, and repetory to the York Square.
If you look at the picture you can see the little circular hole which was the box office. The theater was an old barn. But it had great movies. It premiered most of the early Fellini films like 8 ½; it premiered the Graduate; and it got shut down for showing I am Curious Yellow and I Am Curious Blue (look it up if you are too young). Sampson and Spodick came up from the Bronx after WWII and their mission was to bring the art cinema to Connecticut, which they did admirably. Both are recognized by the National Association of Theater Owners as Pioneers of the industry.
The Crown changed its format many times to respond to the changing film market and audience. It was tough to stay open in the 60s in New Haven, as witnessed by the demise of the nearby Lowis Poli, Paramount, and College Theaters. The Crown, Lincoln, and York Square Theaters were all owned locally by Leonard Sampson and Robert Spodick. The Crown, once an art theater, shifted to repetory (and not in competition with the Lincoln as noted above), horror films, and then e-rated films. Among its colorful history, the theater was raided by the police and closed for showing Milo O'Shea in Ulysses due to language (it was a different time then; later is was the house that showed Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, and other “classics” of the genre. It did have a small marquee, but that was in part because the original marquee was hit by a truck and badly damaged in the 50s. When the Crown and Lincoln closed, the two owners shifted their art and foreign films, and repetory to the York Square.