Dixie Rose Theatre

Joe Vogel on April 7, 2012 at 6:37 am

The December 7, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World ran this item:

“Philadelphia, Pa. — A. W. Barnes, 130 South Fifteenth Street, is preparing plans and specifications for alterations and additions to the Dixie Theater, Manayunk; alterations to consist of one-story brick, 50 by 75 feet.”

The theater had already been renovated in 1911, according to Manayunk, by Thom Nickels, which features a photo of the neighborhood showing the rooftop sign “Dixie Vaudeville” from across a valley. The Dixie was apparently a popular neighborhood vaudeville house for quite some time. This biography of Imogene Coca, who was born in 1908, says that she made her vaudeville debut at the Dixie Theatre in Manayunk at the age of 13, which would have been about 1921.

If Google Street View is getting the address right, it looks like the Dixie Rose Theatre has been demolished. There are no surviving buildings on this block that could have housed a theater of its size.