Roth's Parkway 1-2-3
4816 Boiling Brook Parkway,
Rockville,
MD
20852
4816 Boiling Brook Parkway,
Rockville,
MD
20852
2 people
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I happen to drive by the old Roth’s just a few weeks ago and it certainly brings back memories. It’s quite interesting to see the original building intact.
I grew up around and frequently saw movies at Roth’s Parkway throughout my teens. After I left for college in 1988, the theater, as well as the a few of the places at the shopping center, were a few venues to hangout and catch up with friends during the summers. Compared to other theaters at the time, even in the late 80s and early 90s, the theater felt pretty dated but given that is was a five minute walk from my parent’s house, I couldn’t complain.
To my recollection, the theater closed sometime in 1992, the same year I graduated from college – I just remember walking to the theater one day only to find it was no longer operating. I didn’t frequent the shopping center too often afterwards (since my parents moved out of the neighborhood) but from seldom visits in the following years I recall the building sat vacant before a discount store took over the space in the mid-to-late 1990s.
This was the first movie theater my parents took me and my sister to. It was 1987, I was five years old, my sister was six, and the movie was Disney’s animated “Cinderella.” Actually, that might have been the only time we ever went to this theater. I used to live on Boiling Brook Parkway, within easy walking distance to this theater, but it closed before I was old enough to go to a movie by myself. I can’t remember the exact date it closed, though, I want to say sometime in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s. But it’s interesting to see the place with the movie theater signs again.
December 25th, 1969 grand opening ad in photo section. It was the first triple cinema in the area.
Btw the location listed is correct. When Butch Cassidy opened there the line was around the building on weekends. As ushers we would literally stand in the back of the theater during the whole feature. I learned to read a book with a flashlight.
I worked there the summer of 1970 as an usher. I made $1.60 an hr and 2 movie tix each payday. It had 2 regular sized theaters (on the right entrance) and very small screened theater (left entrance). Some people would be very upset at the size of the screen when they entered theater #1 and leave. Did not have freshly popped popcorn (heated up). Fun summer job.
From my recollection, the theater closed in 1991 or 1992. After that it changed hands with a series of retailer occupying the space in succession. As of August 2014, it is now a Goodwill Retail Store.
we had cheap cinema in our old hometown and it had only one projector (one feature =4 intermissions )
Saw over a dozen flicks at the Parkway throughout my childhood, starting with “Paint Your Wagon” in 1970 and finishing with “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” in 1985. When it shifted to bargain movies in the early eighties, I remember the projection bulb was so wretchedly dim it could really hurt the movie. I kind of wish I could go back there tomorrow and see “The Towering Inferno” again.
At the Parkway 2, I saw “The Arrangement” on 5/29/70 and “One More Train to Rob” somewhere between 6/2/71-6/5/71 and 6/7/71-6/8/71.
Roth’s Parkway 1-2-3 opened on 12/25/69. Theater 1 had “Barefoot in the Park” (1967); Theater 2 had “The Great Race” (1965); and Theater 3 had “Last Summer” (1969) which had just finished a 7 week stint at the Trans-Lux in downtown D.C. on 12/24/69.
Some more on the Milo/Villa: It opened in October 1935 as the Milo, and the first film to be shown there was “Anna Karenina” with Greta Garbo and Fredric March. Original admission prices were 25 cents for adults, 15 for children. The lower seating area had a capacity of 600, while the balcony (restricted to black customers for many years in those segregated times) sat 150 and had a separate entrance.
In 1955, the Milo was closed for renovations and reopened that December under a new name, the Villa. Its new owners believed the Rockville Drive-In was getting preferential treatment from film companies, and sued Loew’s (parent of MGM) in December 1957; have no idea how the lawsuit ultimately turned out. In addition to movies, occasional stage shows were held there; one of them, on Dec. 21, 1958, had later country legend Patsy Cline as the headliner.
The Villa was closed sometime in the second half of the 1960s as part of the ill-fated Rockville urban renewal project, but I don’t have a precise date or what was its final movie. Anyone care to do some research?
This is an incorrect location. Roth’s was on Randolph Road, south of central Rockville, not far from the White Flint mall and Metro station. This part of Rockville is downtown.
However, there were two movie venues, both closed, before the current multiplex nearby. First, there was the Villa Theater, also later known as the Milo, on East Montgomery Avenue, across the street from the Montgomery County Courthouse. It was a single-screen theater that showed films into the mid-1960s, when it (and much of downtown) was razed as part of an urban renewal project.
What was built was something called the Rockville Mall, which opened in early 1972, never gained much traction (its main tenant, a department store, folded, as did its successor) and it shut about a decade later. However, for several years it featured a twinplex movie theater which, to be honest, was nothing special. I saw a revival of “Doctor Zhivago” there, and I remember that when “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” premiered, Fiona Fullerton, who played Alice (and was a Bond girl in the ‘80s), appeared to promote the movie.
This was turned into a Dollar theater in the mid-80’s until it closed in early 90’s (not sure on close date). My buddies and I referred to it as the “Cheapies.."
There was a bar right next store that featured Metal bands and we would hang there after seeing flicks.
The $1 movies were awesome, especially when dating.
The Parkway was built as a triplex with a total seating capacity of 900 (400 in two auditoriums and 100 in the third). Philip Mason was the design consultant.
Here are 2008 photos of the Parkway. It is hard to conceive that this was ever a triplex. Front, Side, Interior
My first job was at Roth’s Parkway back in September of 1980. It was the local theater we could walk to from our home on Schuylkill Road. I worked there for about a year and from there transferred to and filled in at several other Roth locations over the next eight years. During that time I learned the platter’s projection system and was promoted to assistant manager, and eventually manager of what was Roth Village 3.
It was a great ride and one I would always suggest to any teen who needs to work during school years.
In the 80’s it was showing 2nd run movies, I saw “Blue Thunder” and the 1st “Back to the Future”, its now a store.