Newport Theater

My first experience at the Newport was with my Mother, we walked to it one evening and saw the Creature from the Black Lagoon. As I grew up in the surrounding neighborhoods we would always go to the Newport or the Rosna which was around the corner on 35th street. Both theaters were great but I loved the Balcony at the Newport. As a younger we saw so many movies at the Newport and I ended up working at the Newport and the Rosa as a Usher and learned to be a projectionist for a while. It was a wonderful experience since most of the theaters back then were own by the Levine company and we got to help out at other places too. RoadShow movies were big in the 60’s and I worked Throughly Modern Millie, Gone with the Wind, Space Odessey ect. What a great time.

My grandfather was a projectionist in the early forties. My mother would sometimes play the organ. I remember visiting the projection booth and my grandfather holding more up to see the movie out the window of the booth when I was a small child.

Got this note from a friend that lives close to the Newport:

The end of an era. The Newport Theater in Norfolk is now an empty lot.

Went to the Newport as a kid.. saw several Disney movies there.. AKC’s address looks right, I remember the entrance around the corner on Newport Ave.

PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:

3541 NEWPORT AVENUE

THANKS

I lived in the Norfolk, VA area from 1974 until 1997. During that time, I never knew of the building to be open as a theater exhibiting films. It was a former neighborhood theater near the middle class suburb of Colonial Place. The 35th Street area was once a bustling region of Norfolk, but the area declined in the 1960s. For as long as I remember, the Newport Theater building was used as retail space, and since the impressive marquee of the theater was still intact, the area was known as Newport Plaza. It was at the corner of 35th Street and Newport Ave., with the box office entrance on Newport Ave., just around the corner from the ROSNA Theater, owned by the same management, Levine Enterprises. The Newport and Rosna theaters were so close to each other that they may have been adjacent and possibly connected at some time, which may explain why some historic records list the address for both of these theaters as 363 W. 35th Street, Norfolk, VA.

With my interest in movie theatre history, I remember driving past it on several occasions just to look at its marquee. Someone told me that in the 1960s, an attempt was made to revive the theater as a first class movie venue. It was renovated and the roadshow of “The Blue Max” (1966) starring George Peppard played at there. That may have been the last gasp of the building’s use as a movie theater.

Something is wrong with this address. The Newport Theatre and the Rosna Theatre have the same address and they sure are two different theatres. The Rosna Theatre is now St Andrews Temple which has an address of 616 W 35th Street. If I remember right the Newport Theatre was on the same block, but it’s entrance was around the corner on Newport Avenue, hence the name NEWPORT. I would guess the address should be something like 35?? Newport Avenue?
LEVINE THEATRICAL ENTERPRISES, which was a first class act, is the chain for this theatre.
I first found this theatre back in the early 1960’s and it was closed and I seem to remember a bunch of leaves had gathered in the alcove at the entrance. Later on it reopened and I seem to recall a somewhat ornate style inside (certainly not art deco or streamlined). I think at that time they showed double bills, I seem to remember seeing older movies I had never seen before such as GRAND HOTEL and SHOWBOAT. I don’t live in Norfolk any longer, but I understand it was converted to stores and had it’s sign changed to Newport Plaza, but I think it’s now closed. Can anyone out there add anything else?

After submitting this theater, I have discovered that it still exists but that it is closed. It was important in that it was the first suburban theater built in the Norfolk area. 35th street was the suburbs in those days, I guess. I went there in 1961 or 1962 to see a movie but I don’t remember what it was.