New Bluebird Theatre

Joe Vogel on January 13, 2015 at 5:19 am

Here are some lines from a June 19, 1968, Petersburg Progress-Index article tracing the history of the Bluebird Theatre name:

“The present location of the Bluebird was originally the Old Lyric Theater back in 1910 or 1911. It was then used for vaudeville comedy acts. Then in 1918 or 1919 it became the Bluebird. Later the Bluebird Company moved the Bluebird to where the National Shoe Store is now and the old site became the Palace Theater. Neighborhood Theaters bought Bluebird from the Bluebird Company about 30 years ago.”

The name Bluebird had returned to its original location in 1959. That year, the September 9 issue of the paper said that the Palace Theatre would close for remodeling on September 16. The Rex Theatre, which had been closed for about a year and was being refurbished, would reopen on September 17. When the Palace reopened it would replace the Bluebird Theatre, which had closed on Labor Day and was being converted into a shoe store.

The Lyric Theatre was actually opened before 1910, and was mentioned in the September 8, 1908, issue of The Billboard, which said that the coming season in Petersburg promised to be bright, with the opening of the “…Majestic, Virginia and Lyric moving picture and vaudeville houses….” It added that contracts had been let for two more vaudeville and picture houses, and improvements had been made to the Academy of Music, the town’s legitimate house.

The September 20, 1964, issue of the Progress-Index noted that there was also a Palace Theatre in operation at Petersburg before the once-and-future Bluebird took that name. It was located on the east side of Sycamore Street a few doors below Franklin. The article did not mention its years of operation.

dsketch on November 29, 2010 at 6:29 pm

My grandmother was the manager at the Bluebird during the 70’s and early 80’s. She was also married for a while to the projectionist who worked there. I remember seeing Piranha there and a few spaghetti westerns among others since I was able to get in free. They mostly showed exploitation films, B movies and a lot of black exploitation films during the 70’s (Shaft, Superfly, Blackula etc.) The clientele at that time were largely students from VSU. They may have shown XXX films during the 80’s but I can’t remember since my grandmother left and went to the Walnut Mall theater. It has since been restored but not into a cinema to my knowlege.