Loew's Colonial Theatre
651 Penn Street,
Reading,
PA
19601
651 Penn Street,
Reading,
PA
19601
4 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Loew's Inc., Stanley-Warner Theatres
Architects: William Harold Lee
Previous Names: Colonial Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Colonial Theatre was one of Reading’s first large theatres built specifically for movies, and opened on April 15, 1917, with Pauline Frederick in “Sleeping Fires”. The opening seating capacity was given as 2,000-seats. It was operated by Carr & Schad, which had the local franchise for Paramount-Artcraft releases. In September, 1925, the Loew’s Inc. circuit took over and they installed a Wurlitzer 2 manual 10 ranks organ in 1926. Loew’s Inc. ran the Colonial Theatre through its peak years as home for all the major MGM releases, including “Gone With the Wind”.
In 1963, Loew’s declined to renew its lease when it expired, and Stanley Warner took over for five years. In 1968, some “indies” took over but lasted only one year.
The Colonial Theatre closed in 1969 with Fred Astaire in “Finian’s Rainbow” & The Beatles animated feature “Yellow Submarine”. It was demolished in 1970 to make way for a shopping mall that was never built. A similar fate awaited its rival and near neighbor, the Embassy Theatre.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
Here is a 1967 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/o5x72n
Nice photo, you can tell that it was an old LOEWS marquee, redone for the new owner.
Grand opening ad can be seen at View link (2 pages)
Nice ad Mike R.
Nice ad Mike R from another mike R.
A 1924 Program from this theater is at the Silent Film Still Archive.
April 15th, 1917 grand opening ad in photo section
I have owned the Wurlitzer Theater organ from the Colonial since 1969.It is installed in my home & still sounds great. Does anyone on here remember when it was in the theater?
Douglas, I would love if you could post a photo of the organ some day.
Andrew Lenz, I uploaded a picture of the console of the Colonials Wurlitzer to the photo gallery.