AMC Orleans 8
2247 Bleigh Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19152
2247 Bleigh Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19152
9 people
favorited this theater
The Orleans Theatre was opened in 1963 by local movie operator William Goldman.
Budco acquired Goldman Theatres in 1972, and they twinned the Orleans Theatre on May 24, 1972. Two smaller screens were added to the original building on July 22, 1977, and four screens were added in the back of a Pathmark Supermarket in December 1983.
AMC Theatres acquired the Budco theater chain in 1986. It was closed in 2007 and demolished.
Contributed by
Michael R. Rambo Jr.
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Recent comments (view all 153 comments)
Eddie, thank you very much for taking the time to take the pictures and re-posting the link.
A sad site, indeed.
Guys… let’s take this discussion offline for a while.
Thanks,
Patrick
So 3 and a half years later and we can comment again! (I hope, if this goes thru) While I do miss the convience of the AMC Orleans 8, its time was up, if it got a nice renovation sometime in the 90s or even early 2000s it could’ve still been here today, but either way we have the memories of it. I do enjoy the Target there (which has been opened for over 2 years now) I won’t lie, and the last movie I would see at the orleans was the simpsons movie.
The Orleans was a prefabbed monstrosity. The Fox (2,423 seats), Stanley (2,916 seats), Boyd (2,450 seats), Oxford, 1,964 seats), Erlanger (1,890 seats), Uptown (2,040 seats) are only a few of Philadelphia’s grand movie palaces of the past. Comparing the Orleans is contemptible! Any quality Orleans might have possessed was destroyed when Budco split it in two. And adding four screens to the back of a grocery store never seemed to fit. There are great memories associated with the Orleans but certainly not for the building itself. Rest in peace you pile of rubble.
Tiny grand opening ad in the photo section as well as from its source at http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer%201963/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer%201963%20-%208807.pdf
rivest266 is Mike Rivest from Montreal, Canada who has created his own website of theaters in the United States and Canada which is available on a down loadable spreadsheet at movie-theatre.org. He has amassed some very interesting material on US theaters figuring he lives in a different country.
The Cottman-Bustleton Center is on Cottman Avenue (2139), not Bleigh Avenue!
I remember Mom dropping us kids off for an afternoon at the movies. We each got one dollar. It was 50 cents to get in, and then we had 50 cents to spend on a candy and a drink. Those were the days!
2 screens on May 24th, 1972, 4 on July 22nd, 1977 and eight on December 1983.
A few weeks from now will be 10 years since the orleans closed (Labor Day 2007).