Crescent Theatre
217 5th Avenue N.,
Nashville,
TN
37219
217 5th Avenue N.,
Nashville,
TN
37219
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- Oct 30, 2009 — Happy 50th, "Sleeping Beauty"
The Crescent Theatre was operating from around 1908 until 1925.
This Crescent Theatre should not be confused with the later Loew’s Crescent Theatre, located on Church Street.
Contributed by
JackCoursey
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Recent comments (view all 24 comments)
I was wondering because I found an item about the Elite Theatre on Fifth Avenue in the August 25, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World. If it wasn’t the same house as the Strand then it isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet. Do you know what become of that Elite? The 1917 item is the only mention of it I’ve been able to find.
Hold everything- I told that wrong. I have confused the two Crescents. The Crescent at 233 opened at least by 1909, became the Elite during 1910 and was listed through 1916.
The Crescent that was the result of the merger of the twins was opened in 1915 at 215-217.
Incidentally when the property at 215- 217 was being remodeled in the 1980s I spoke to Jimmy Glascock who was involved in the project and he verified that a wall had been knocked out between the two addresses (the twin theater common wall). He also referred me to a local historian (whom I will not name lest I embarrass him) who argued that there had never been a theater at 215-217!
A 1918 notice says the Dixie Amusement Company owns both the Elite and the Strand. As late at 1920 the Strand and the Elite were running separate ads in the paper.
In 1928 four (4) Elites were listed but alas none was the one at 233. The Strand at 235 lasted until 1930.
By the way, you do know how we pronounce “Elite” in Nashville, don’t you? It’s like Lafayette- just a local thing.
The 1917 item says that the Elite was then being operated by Crescent Amusement as a five-cent house, and was being renovated.
If the Fifth Avenue Elite was missing from the 1928 list, that means there were at least five Elite Theatres in Nashville over the years.
Actually, I’m not even sure how you pronounce “Lafayette” in Nashville. It gets pronounced more than one way in California. I rhyme the first two syllables with coffee.
In Indiana there’s a LAH-feyette, in Louisiana it’s LAUGH-yet but here is La-FAY-it.
Elite has always been EEE-lite as long as I’ve been listening to the local dialect (seventy-five years).
Yes, there have been five (5) Elites here. It was 1926 that four were listed: 813 Monroe (former Central as early as 1915), 837 2nd Ave S (former Colonial as early as 1917), 239 4th Ave N and 4810 Charlotte.
By 1928 two of the Sudekum brothers were managing the Monroe and 4th Ave Elites, indicating Crescent ownership.
The Elite on 2nd Ave S was eventually replaced by the new Capitol (not to be confused with the one at 6th and Church).
The building on Monroe may still be standing- it was in recent years just a half a block down from where the State later stood. The
The Elite on Charlotte was replaced in 1927 with a new one of the same name at 4700.
The Elite at 239 4th Ave COULD have been the in the same building as the 1914 Log Cabin (later the 1915-16 Victoria) which is listed at 237 and which I have been told had an entrance into the Arcade.
December 6th, 1907 first ad for an Crescent theatre in Nashville.
rivest266: I assume this must have been the one at 233
Fifth Ave North. Thanks for the into.
Does TLSLOEWS still belong to this great site?
December 25th, 1959 grand opening ad as Crescent in photo section. It opened on February 19th, 1912 as Princess. No ad found, only an article.
more grand opening ads to come to Nashville area cinemas
Mike Rivest
Montréal, QC
You’re confusing two Princesses. The old Princess was in the next block just east of McKendree Church; it opened in 1912 and closed early 1950.
The NEW Princess opened in early 1951. Was later called Crescent Downtown (that must be your ad) then became Cinerama about 1961. Loews Crescent name wasn’t used until after Loews (Vendome) burned in 1967 and Loews Corp bought the Cinerama aka Crescent Downtown aka Princess.
All of this took place on Church Street and none of this relates to the Crescent at the top of this page and which was on Fifth Avenue.
I want to go back to the subject of the twin theaters which were merged to form this Crescent Theater at 215-217 Fifth Avenue.
I mentioned above that I believed the this Crescent was the result of a merger of twins called the Ruby and the Rhinestone. I have googled this matter and cannot any reference to these two names except for my comment here.
My father had an old timer friend named Delmas Jenkins who remembered many things about the Nashville theaters before my day and I used to pick his brain. The Ruby and Rhinestone story had been told him years before by an even older timer Mr James Dale of Dale Machinery, who remembered theaters before Delmas' day.
I have found in a January 1908 periodical called the Conjurer’s Magazine, for magicians that “King the Slight-of-hand King was playing the Rhinestone in Nashville. This would indicate that at least one of the twins had a stage.
Some of you may be familiar with the Crescent Amusement Company’s 1957 publication – just a folder really- honoring Mr Tony Sudekum and the fiftieth anniversary of moving pictures in Nashville. I quote the reference to the twins. “The company (Crescent Amusement) took this name from a theater on Fifth Avenue, which "Mister Tony” had acquired. Earlier it had been the Twin Theaters- two theaters served by one ticket office. “Mister Tony” removed the partitions. He changed the name to ‘Crescent’ and gave the new name to his company."
Can anyone come up with a reference to the names Ruby and Rhinestone in Nashville? I have looked (through some but certainly not all) newspaper microfilms prior to the merger and found zip.