Galaxy Theater

71dude on February 19, 2013 at 3:50 pm

Closed June 18, 1987 with “Lethal Weapon”.

edblank on May 29, 2008 at 8:41 pm

Great picture, Ken.

In addition to its original identity as the Rankin, the theater was known as the Villager before it became the Galaxy.

If memory serves, the Villager suffered a fire in the 1960s.

By the time the Villager was repaired and ready to reopen, RKO Stanley Warner had constructed a plush 1,303 single-screen theater about four miles away called the Village. (That one is now Carmike 10, a wholly refurbished building with 10 stadium-seat auditoriums.) The new Village was in Bethel Park about 100 yards from South Hills Village, which is divided between Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair.

Correctly sensing that Bridgeville’s Villager Theatre needed a new name to avoid confusion, they picked Galaxy as its new identity.

I only saw a couple of movies there – one, I think, when it was the Villager and one at the Galaxy. One of the films was a late run of “Fantastic Voyage” when I first returned from the Army and was doing a lot of catching up.

What I remember is buying a ticket outside, as in the old days, then walking through the lobby door only to be sold my popcorn in the lobby by the same lady. She was on double duty at the concession stand and had only to wheel around and hop off her box-office stool to sell concessions at the stand directly behind rthe box office.

As I recall, the theater had peculiar acoustics. Something about the lack of carpeting and curtains created a bit of an echo. Does anyone else remember this?

kencmcintyre on January 5, 2007 at 10:07 pm

The Galaxy was also called the Rankin. Here is a photo of the fire in 1985:
http://tinyurl.com/y55kh4