Arcadium Theatre

While most early film exhibition stories begin rightfully with Pittsburgh’s Nickelodeon created by Harry Davis and partner / brother-in-law John P. Harris in Pittsburgh circa June 1905, the Fifth Avenue Arcade and Arcadium Theatre located just two blocks away are deserving of more than an asterisk. The Fifth Avenue Arcade was an existing - though modified - late 19th Century stone-front building that reopened as an arcade in late-April of 1905. George Balsdon lined the Arcade’s storefronts that ran from entryways on 230-232 Fifth Avenue to entries/exits at 225 Diamond Street and McMasters Way with penny arcade machines, the preponderance of which were self-serve peep show boxes and Mutoscopes.

So popular were these arcade units, that lines of waiting patrons would make it challenging to enter the Fifth Avenue Arcade stores which numbered 28 at launch. Stores included a florist, a cigar store, a newsstand, a beauty shop, a luncheonette, and many others. Fast forward three months where just two blocks away, the aforementioned Davis and Harris - noting the success of such arcade units in Pittsburgh - created The Nickelodeon that took short films and put them on a big screen. It was an exhibition type that had previously existed but more aligned with circuses as moving pictures were placed in traveling shows, tent shows and open-air spaces sometimes called airdomes. A permanent theatre store-show, Pittsburgh’s Nickelodeon proved to be much more efficient in servicing audiences and providing a better experience when accompanied by music and live acts.

Professor Leo Gerechter - also noting the success of the Fifth Avenue arcade units and The Nickelodeon nearby - carved out a space for a 300-seat venue known as the Arcadium Theatre. It officially launched on November 21, 1906 with Gerechter at the piano as a combination of movies, live acts, and illustrated songs provided a full show for a nickel. It was one of three Pittsburgh venues called the Arcadium during the silent era but the only one with relevance and staying power. The trade press lauded Gerechter as “a fine pianist, (who) is wide awake and has used novel methods (and “dint”) in stimulating business” that has “given his patrons the best the market affords".

Gerechter would seek tenure and promotion elsewhere at even larger area movie theatres including Pittsburgh’s Alhambra Theatre. Balsdon, himself, may have taken a turn at operating the Arcadium Theatre which proved to be very successful in transitioning to full-length photoplays and dropping live vaudeville-style acts. Thanks to the high foot traffic that only increased when uber-popular Moore’s Cafeteria moved into the Fifth Avenue Arcade’s basement in 1923, the Arcadium Theatre was successful into the start of the major circuit movie palace era. Unlike The Nickelodeon that was disbanded by February of 1913, the Arcadium Theatre fulfilled nearly 25 years of leasing agreements lasting until 1930 when advertisements ceased.

The trade press noted that the Arcadium Theatre just outlasted the Olympic Theatre just a block away in 1930. As such, the historic venue actually made it to the end of the Fifth Avenue Arcade’s life which ceased at the completion and anniversary of the Arcade’s 25 years leasing arrangement. Because the venue had stopped advertising, final features at the Arcadium Theatre are unknown at this time. It is highly unlikely, however, that the operation was wired for sound.

The complex and neighboring Haussey Building were both razed in favor of the G.C. Murphy Building in April of 1930 that housed the once-famed dime store. Entry ways survived that, when later razed, revealed the copper Fifth Avenue Arcade signage from decades prior. The Murphy Building still stands tall in the 21st Century now called Market Square Place.

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