Cambria Theatre
2468 W. Cambria Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19132
2468 W. Cambria Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19132
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The Cambria Theatre closed permanently at the end of lease on October 30, 1966 with “Marco, the Magnificent” and “Around the World Under the Sea” as a double feature.
I lived on the 2900 block of Taylor St. and the Cambria Movie ( that’s what we called it then ) was a very familiar place for me. Those Saturday Matinees were wild with yelling kids. There were no concession stands , only the nickle candy machines. Poor Mr. Lourdasher( the manager ) always had his hands full trying to keep the kids quiet etc. I love this site and I was able to move my way around the corner to my old street and even found my old house. I’m going to try to find the TM Pierce School at 23rd and Cambria now .That’s where I went to school
I lived on Taylor street right around the corner from the Cambria in the 50’s. I believe it was open on a daily basis. It was always cold inthe winter and warm in the summer. What great memories.
I don’t know if the ramp is still there, but I remember back in the 1960’s; you had to wait down in the lower ramp area which was where you see the white cross. it had a long descending ramp and you had to wait down there until the box office opened.then the line would wind up back into the front of the theater., you exited from the ramp area, which of course some would sneak in.they would have their friends open the door for hem or maybe for anyone who knocked? the movies were mainly 1950’s space monster films and hercules epics.I believe an old couple actualy owned the place.
My grandfather had a German church in this neighborhood in the 1930s. I would love to see if that building is still standing. I have to ask my mother if she went to the Cambria or the Lehigh down the street.
The neighborhood changed really fast back in the early 1960’s. On those hot summer nights I remember hearing police sirens most of the night. The Cambria Threatre then became a Black church or spritual center. My grandmother stilled live in the neighborhood until see died. It is funny how you seem to forget things as you get older and other memories become clearer.
I used to go to the Cambria Theatre in the early 1960s. We lived nearby on Clearfield St. I went to John Greenleaf Whittier school then. Last movie I probably in saw was sometime around 1962. One of the movies I remember seeing there was “The Village of the Damned”. The neighborhood went to pot and still is a very dangerous place. We moved a few miles away in East Falls neighborhood.