Crest Theatre
5425 Reisterstown Road,
Baltimore,
MD
21215
5425 Reisterstown Road,
Baltimore,
MD
21215
4 people
favorited this theater
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RickB, when I lived in Philly in the 1950’s, the Benner on Castor Avenue was my local theater.
Jammer, in Philadelphia United Artists releases, including the Bond films, always seemed to show up at the Sameric theaters. Perhaps the chain that owned this theater had a similarly tight relationship with UA.
The Crest wasn’t the best in the area but I liked it . One thing no one commented on was that Muriel on the back wall where the projector window was . It had Disney characters painted on it with Mickey , Goofy and others . At this theater I saw my first …. James Bond Film Thunderball at 8 years old , the Crest was the only theater in the area that shown 007 films . strange huh ?
I grew up on Tippett Ave. one block away from the theater. I spent many a Saturday mourning mowing lawns or shoveling snow to spend the afternoon at the Crest watching a Cowboy or Horror movie. One of my fondness memories is seeing the Wizard of Oz three times in a row and not being able to sleep that night because I knew a Witch was lurking in every dark shadow. We moved away from there in 1963 but I will always remember the 25 cent admission ticket and the 10 cent popcorn that consumed a lot of my Saturday afternoons.The Crest may be gone but it will remain a part of my child hood memories.
Much of the auditorium area is now occupied by offices of the Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration (MVA). Small shops have been added to the area outside the southeast wall.
Update: The auditorium has been completely gutted. Iron beamwork has been built inside the auditorium, extending to the land outside of it.
The businesses in the former lobby are still open.
Here is a 1987 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ylb3wlu
Construction in progress at the Crest: about a month ago I rode by there, and there was a huge hole in the southeast wall (to the right of where the screen was). Obviously the tabernacle is closed; the pawn shop and carry-out in the former lobby are still open.
The Crest had two incarnations as a bargain house: first around 1976-77, then from 1981 to about 1983 or 1984. The 1980s run was under the so-called “Smart Bros.” chain, and had such a poor reputation for rowdy audiences, that it was known in its last days as the “New Family Crest.”
The property the Crest Theater was built on I believe was previously part of a farm owned by the Bell family. Two of their daughters, Miriam Bell and Elizabeth McDaniels lived in the big white house adjacent to the strip mall for many years. I was born in 1950 and lived on Lewiston Avenue, one block up from the Crest. Our backyard opened onto the parking lot for the Crest. My grandfather often made “side money” by directing traffic or parking cars on their lot. He would have a barrel with a fire going in it on cold nights. My aunt worked behind the candy counter while she was in school. Another of my aunts worked at the Hilltop Diner as a waitress for awhile. My grandmother would send Sunday dinner to the man that took the tickets at the Crest, we just called him “Pappy”. When he would see me walking by he would motion for me to come in and ask if I would like to see the show. I spent many happy days in the cool comfort (we had no air conditioning but the Crest was always a haven in the summer) of the Crest watching Doris Day, John Wayne, Natalie Wood, etc. Great memories. There was a little jewelry store next to it on the right side. On the left side was the dairy store, the Jewish butchershop, Eddie’s Supermarket, Mandell & Ballow (I do remember Dave, I was always very shy and he would give me bubble gum-he had a very shiny bald head and for some reason, it scared me, even though he was an extremely nice man). At one time there was a toy store but it disappeared after the fire, I think that is when Mandell’s left, also. There was Barcelona-a candy and nut store, the bakery-best chocolate donuts ever, a bank and a bowling alley around the corner downstairs. I believe there were other office buildings upstairs. Just across Rogers Avenue was Weiner’s Drug Store where you could buy coddies, fountain cokes of all flavors, and snoballs with marshmallow topping or ice cream. The Crest used to have premieres, complete with flood lights (reminded me of Gotham City calling Batman!). On those nights, the parking lot would be overflowing as well as most of the side streets around the theater. The lounges upstairs were very lush. The stairs were covered with plush carpeting. It was very nice.
I moved to Baltimore from Philly in 1959 at the age of 14. As soon as I could drive, the Crest became one of my favorite theaters to take dates to. Saw many a James Bond movie there.
The protocol on Friday nights was to hang with the boys across the street at the Hilltop Diner (made famous by Barry Levinson) after dropping off our dates.
Saturday night was movie date night, which meant either the Crest, Uptown, Avalon or Ambassador, and then to Mandell’s & Ballew’s restaurant next to the Crest for a ‘four-by-four’ burger and fries. The doorman, Dave, made life miserable for us kids by letting us in only a few at a time while seating the adults.
Best thing about the Crest and several other theaters of the day were the smoking loges upstairs, where one could either smoke or make out during the movie :–)) A glass screen kept the smoke from the rest of the theater.
I did see a few movies there in the 1970’s, after it had been turned into a dollar house.
The Crest Theatre opened on February 26, 1949. The opening program featured the Errol Flynn movie, “The Adventures of Don Juan.”
The architect of this remarkable Art Moderne theater was Julius Myerberg, who was also one of the theater’s owners. His brother Harry Myerberg was the head of the operating company, and for many years the manager of the house. Boxoffice Magazine gave a two-page spread to the Crest in its issue of November 5, 1949.
Among the Crest’s unusual features was a spacious, semi-circular television lounge on the second floor, with a 6'x8' screen set in the wall over the curving stairway leading up from the lobby. This lounge could accommodate 200 seated patrons. Near the bottom of this web page, Jerry Shargel, who grew up in the neighborhood, tells of seeing television for the first time in the Crest’s lounge, on the theater’s opening night.
The large, four-aisled auditorium of the Crest also had some unusual features. Passage between the auditorium and lobby was through several pairs of doors at the center of the back wall, where there was a broad standee area. The central third of the standee area was surmounted by a semi-circular canopy, with the projection booth above it, recessed to minimize the noise reaching the audience from the projectors.
Each side wall was divided into four sections, each gracefully curved, and between each section were vertical lighting coves which extended in troughs across the ceiling. The walls were covered in a forest green fabric, partly painted with decoration in an over-sized, abstract floral pattern, providing additional interest. The proscenium end of the house featured flaring side wings which concealed the lighting for the plush curtain, which was fuchsia.
The interior decoration of the Crest was done by the Paramount Decorating Company of Philadelphia. The Boxoffice article cites the seating capacity as 1700, but judging from the photo of the auditorium that seems a bit large. Still, the figure of 1000 cited by Cinema Treasures seems a bit small for this auditorium. Perhaps seating was reduced in the theater’s later years.
The December 15, 1975 issue of Boxoffice carried an announcement that the Crest would reopen on Christmas Day, after having been closed for eight months, and would be operated by Rome Theatres. However, the item noted that the theater was still owned by a company headed by Harry D. Myerberg.
i remember as a young pup, all the ladies in the family going off to see valley of the dolls here, and i was confused because i wasnt allowed to go.
later i remember seeing Great White Hope, diamonds are forever here.
and wasnt that American Theatre film series shown here, Iceman Cometh, Delicate Balance, etc
My mom, Janet Bien Culver, used to work at the Crest theater from 1952-1954 when she was in college at Towson. She was a cashier and also worked the candy counter. She remembers when the owner/manager said they were going to have to raise their movie ticket prices to 50 cents. They thought that would be the downfall of the theater. It wasn’t. People would line up around the block for the most popular movies, which usually were the Martin & Lewis movies.
It’s a shame that the lobby of the theater was turned into a pawn shop. Some cities and towns are trying to refurbish their old theaters and bringing them back to life. We just went to an old theatre to see a stage show here in Waco, Texas (The Hippodrome) and they are still in the process of fixing it up to it’s original condition. They have many supporters who donate their time and money to help with the refurbishing. They put on stage shows like Evita and vaudville-type acts and show old movies to help with the cost. It brings back lots of memories and shows young people how the theaters were in their “heyday”. I hope that other cities/towns think about bringing history back.