Denis Theatre
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
685 Washington Road,
Mount Lebanon,
PA
15228
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 62 comments
Updated official link for the Denis Theatre, as the link under Related Websites is dead. Also the Wikipedia page for the Denis Theatre.
https://www.denistheatre.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Theatre
The Denis opened in 1938 says one source and was named after a senator’s son Denis Harris. Twinned 1965, quadrupled 1981, closed 2004. Purchased by a focus group, one screen reopened 2013 although probably not full-time, ongoing renovations.
I believe I saw a restored Gone With The Wind around 1973 at the Denis. I remember it had a lot of Red Velvet And Brass.
Nice to see some conversation here about The Denis! We are still in the midst of fundraising to re-open the theatre as “Four Spaces for Art” ((two theatres, a learning center/screening room, and year-round visual art gallery). Please follow along with our progress at www.denistheatre.org and https://www.facebook.com/denistheatrefoundation
Back in 2010 I linked to a Boxoffice article about theater renovations which included a photo of the Denis Theatre in Mount Lebanon. That link is dead. The bad news is that Boxoffice is reconfiguring its digital archive and will be moving everything to a new format. The good news is that, for now at least, the old archive is still online, though somewhat altered, and I don’t know for how long.
In any case, while it lasts, here is the page with the photos of the Denis, from the issue of October 15, 1938. You can’t navigate directly from one page to the next anymore, so here is a direct link to the second page of the article with the text about the Denis.
CSWalczak: Thanks!
Two articles, each with an interior picture:
View link View link
And then there is this page from the Denis Theater Foundation’s site; it looks like very little of the theater’s original decor remains, probably lost when the theater was converted to a quad.
Yes, any photos?
any photos of the interior?
It’s nice to read about this Oscar night fundraiser and to see a photo of the Denis Theatre on Washington Rd.
This article appeared on January 19, 2012. The group working to advance the theater’s restoration has a webpage (see above for the official site) and there is a news tab there.
Any new news on the Denis?
I remember the Denis and Encore theaters being “connected” somehow, but I never knew the whole history. Plus, in my head I always remember the Encore to be more associated with the Forum theater in Squirrel Hill because, as mentioned, movies played in BOTH theaters and were always advertised as ‘Forum&Encore’ (did they have the same private owner negotiating the deals?). Anyhow, the first film Iever saw at the Encore was HARRY AND TONTO in the winter of 1975 with my grandfather. It was to be the first of many … Apocalypse Now … Missing … The Big Chill … Boogie Nights …
Denny: Good research! Whenever I add a theatre I try to include as much information as I can.
I found the grand opening ads from the Carnegie library. The Denis opened on June 1, 1938 and its Encore counterpart opened July 15, 1965.
CWalczak: Thanks for posting the article!!
I think you probably are thinking about this item, announcing good news on the fundraisng efforts on behalf of the Denis: View link
I just learned that a recent article was in the Pittsburgh paper concerning this theatre.
Here’s some news on a fundraiser they tried to hold. Alas the snow gods of this past year weren’t kind to them View link
Here are some cool photos http://www.denistheater.org/Construction/Archive
The plan will not be to return it to a single screen theater. The Denis originally had 1200 seats – 700 in the orchestra and 500 in the balcony.
According to the Foundation’s website, the plan is (or at least was) to make it a triplex. I would guess that their business consultants would discourage a return to single-screen status as not being economically viable. Here;s a recent article on their fundraising efforts: View link
This may have been discussed, but now that I see the theatre had or has 4 screens I wonder if the renovation will return this theatre to a single screen format?
Joe: Always enjoy seeing the Boxoffice posts. Thanks for bringing them to Cinema Treasures! In the Spring I hope to see this theatre in the Pittsburgh area along with the site where the Granada recently stood and the Dattola in New Kensington which still stands and is being renovated.
A photo of the recently remodeled facade of the Denis Theatre appeared in this article in Boxoffice of October 15, 1938. The architect for the remodeling was Victor A. Rigaumont.
And many informative past news articles can be found here, by date:
http://www.denistheatre.org/News/Archive