Crown Theatre

This theatre is not open. It has been closed for many years.

My fondest memory of the Crown was when my friends and I opened a can of a newly created scent we had just cooked up with a chemistry set that was popular at the time. It had all the properties of low tide, rotten eggs, dead rats in a haunted house, and then some. Needless to say the theatre emptied out quicker than if someone had screamed “Fire.”

The CROWN Theater 1960s showed many fine films—-I remember being impressed with THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, LOVE ON A PILLOW and other foreign films, even indie-freak stuff like INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES. Louis Lunch, iconic lunch spot that has the BEST burgers in New Haven [for over 100 years !] was right on the corner. But what really made the CROWN THE REAL DEAL was their Sunday-Monday horror film twin-bill. For years, I drank deep on horror films that were a mix—-some as recent as the previous year’s, like THE TERROR/DEMENTIA 13, BLACK SABBATH/EVIL EYE, etc. Now and again they would pair up two disparate horror films to great effect: BLOOD AND ROSES/THE FLY is one twin-bill that stands out. Horror movie double-features, vanished world.

I finally made it inside. Too many times I was in New Haven at a time when it was closed. First off, I went in the original front doors of “The Rice Tower” and there was a nice chandelier and nice banisters. Downstairs is nothing but a hospital clinic. Upstairs, on the right is a glass tile wall and if you look through it, you can make out theater doors and ornate tiles where the wall meets the ceiling. Almost like looking through blurry windows to another reality.

Then I went inside Hula Hanks where they were hanging Halloween decorations and I told them why I was there. They were receptive. Pretty lively joint inside. Lots of islandy aesthetics. The proscenium is quite clear as a bar is below it. The paint scheme is all blue skies and white clouds. This place was quite small, smaller than the Whalley Avenue Theater by 500 seats. The balcony behind has one large window and a few to the right and that seems kind of small. No door on the upstairs leads to it but fronm the ground floor near the entrance. There is a catwalk/stairwell on both sides wrapping around the orchesra with a DJ booth/tent in the far right corner at the stage. There’s a bar on the left and on the right is booths with a tv in the wall at each booth. Not a bad scheme, but it definitely feels narrow and I’m sure it did in those days, too.

I was in Hula Hank’s recently—the former Crown Theatre. Once inside you can tell it was a movie palace. The proscenium’s shape is still there, as well as the now walled-off balcony. The signage for Hula Hank’s was the theatre’s marquee in its later years. I’m guessing the original entrance was at the center of the building—which currently serves as the lobby for the rest of the space. There is a ballroom and office space upstairs. The uppermost floor was added onto the building. If you look at the side of the building from the outside, you can tell it was a theatre.

In the early ‘60s, the Crown showed an eclectic mix of first-run foreign films, classic revivals, and some lesser but often off-beat Hollywood product. The screen had an extra-wide ratio that worked to the disadvantage of registering sub-titles too low on the frame and of cropping too severely the tops and bottoms of classic revivals. But the theater was comfortable and well-lit, with a bluish light bouncing off the cream-colored plaster walls. It vied with the Lincoln for showing foreign and revival films. With its barn-like Tudor interior, the Lincoln was less comfortable than the Crown. Or so I thought. Both theaters lost out to their clientele when the hideous York Cinemas popped up in the 70s. Likely then the Crown turned to X-rated fare.

The Crown Theatre seated 445 people.