Al Weiss dropped the lease of the Capitol which closed permanently on September 30, 1956. After nearly two years of vacancy, it became the Bingo parlor that was protested by a number of local churches worried that it was cutting into their Bingo profits. Though not for changing in the theater’s name, it was officially renamed as the Capitol Auditorium for its post-theatrical Bingo and meeting usage in 1958 to 1964. It seems to have been repurposed for a retail store in 1964.
This venue opened as J.P. Harris Memorial Theatre on April 26, 1929. It wasn’t changed until Associated Theaters dropped the J.P Harris to simply the Memorial Theatre in the 1960s. It was then converted to a twin-screen venue called the McKees Cinemas 1 & 2. It is assumed that it went out of business on May 21, 1976 when it was damaged by a fire that destroyed two blocks of Tube City’s downtown.
This project’s roots dated back to 1905 when Dr. A. James P. White of White’s Opera House decided to build a mammoth new stock theater on five lots in downtown McKeesport. White’s New Theater opened at 629-635 Walnut in downtown McKeesport on March 19, 1908 with Julia Marlowe starring in a live performance of “As You Like It.” The Henry J. Lohman architecture wowed with what was called a Corinthian architectural style in a venue that seated 2,118 with 22 dressing rooms at launch. The $200,000 theater was underway; but stock theater proved to be a challenging environment entering the 1910s, especially for the Tube City which had fewer than 45,000 residents at that time. So the venue followed the trend of Hippodromes all over the country that eschewed live stage plays in favor of heavy doses of vaudeville and short novelty films changing to White’s Hippodrome late in 1909.
In 1913, Rowland & Clark Circuit took on the venue which mostly went by Hippodrome Theater. In 1917, John P. Harris of Harris Amusement Circuit took over the venue giving it a major refresh. The house was reduced to 1,984 seats with a more modern outlay. It relaunched for Harris on January 29, 1917 as Harris' Hippodrome / Hippodrome Theatre retaining that name into 1926. The venue became known as the Harris Theater. The building of the new Harris Theatre in 1928 and opening in 1929 appears to be the impetus for this venue’s long period of vacancy in the 1930s and into the 1940s.
Warner Bros. inherited the property in June of 1930 when it purchased the Harris Amusement locations. It announced later in the 1930s that the former Hippodrome would be razed. That demolition finally was taking place but in a manner that proved fatal to a young boy. In partially razing the building in 1943, a boy fell into a pool of rain water drowning. An unfortunate ending for the entertainment showplace from decade’s past.
The Hotel Newell opened on this spot on December 1, 1892 in a building that had previously held the offices of the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper and a famous tavern that predated the hotel and survived until the hotel’s closure in April of 1919. The hotel was well known, according to reports, throughout the country due to its open door policy for high profile athletes who frequented the hotel and its tavern. But the beginning of Prohibition and the death of owner John Newell took away the venue’s mystique. The entire contents of the building were sold at auction on April 29, 1919. Isaac Guckenheimer had the building overhauled to create a movie theater on the ground floor with offices above.
He launched the Blackstone Theater on August 7, 1919 with Tom Moore in “Heartsease” supported by a Universal short subject and E.G. Klaphake at the venue’s pipe organ. The theater was bathed in colors of old rose, ivory and gold in Adam architectural style but also featuring an atmospheric ceiling with night sky lighting effects. Rowland and Clark took on the venue’s operation. When the Circuit began wiring houses for Vitaphone sound in 1927, it - under the Stanley-Clark-Davis operation just prior to Warners taking over the operation - decided that the 400-seat Blackstone wasn’t worth converting.
The circuit dropped the venue closing the Blackstone permanently on October 5, 1927 with the film, “Metropolis.” The theater’s space was converted to a long-running men’s fashion store. Until Stanley sold the building in 1933 for a million dollars, the structure remained named the Blackstone Building. The building has since been razed.
The Greater Pittsburg (sic) Cameraphone Company was the first U.S. circuit to attempt to market itself as a sound movie exhibitor. It launched its second Pittsburgh-area theater here on October 16, 1908 with “Krausmeyer’s Birthday,” “Foolishness” and “Roller Skaters.” The five-story building housed many other tenants.
Billed as the “marvelous Cameraphone,” the venue was a quick success. The Company then added the East End Cameraphone that opened within two months. This venue became marketed as the Downtown Cameraphone Theater when the fledgling circuit was growing. It would have a half dozen local locations.
The theater would drop the sound films’ concept and find new operators. The Downtown Cameraphone closed along with the other Pittsburgh theaters for the Spanish Flu pandemic on November 6, 1918. Rowland & Clark acquired the venue and reopened it as the Savoy Theatre in 1919. Rowland & Clark dropped the venue at the end of a leasing period on June 29, 1922.
Universal Film Co. exhibition took on the venue giving it a shocking transformation making it a movie palace. The three month, high-profile project was carried out to the plans of architect W.E. Snaman. It cost north of $150,000 including a Wurlitzer Hope Jones pipe organ upon completion.
It relaunched as the Cameo Theater for the Universal subsidiary Cameo Theatre Co. on September 18, 1922 with the Universal Jewel feature “Human Hearts” supported by a newsreel and comedy short. Lowry Curran and A.H. Ritter shared opening day organ playing.
In 1925, the Cameo subsidiary was folded into Universal’s portfolio. The Cameo was destroyed by fire on July 4, 1928 that shot straight up and out collapsing the building’s roof and out across the street to the Grand Theater. Although blamed on the beauty shop in the third floor, the projection booth appears to be a significant player in the theater’s spectacular finale.
The Uptown Cameraphone Theatre launched August 9, 1913 with Clara Kimball Young in “A Faithful Servant.” The buff brick and stone new-build venue was a Mission Revival-styled theater bathed in green. It should be aka Uptown Cameraphone as it was marketed briefly as the Uptown Cameraphone Theatre.
Victor Rigaumont designed the Grecian style Capitol Theatre for Rowland & Clark Theatres in 1922. It launched June 18, 1923 with a Peloubet Reed pipe organ and the film, “Wandering Daughters.”
Announced in 1911 with plans by architect Albert Storch was the Crystal Theater, a nickelodeon by the Union Amusement Company which opened in 1912 but was a quick casualty closing in 1913. The Crystal was reopened January 1, 1915 with Evelyn Nesbit and Russell Thaw in “The Threads of Destiny” under new management and with an improved auditorium.
Under final owner A.G. Thomas, the theater was accused of using non-union personnel and was spattered with a malodorous chemical on May 22, 1922. Thomas got the message and closed the theater by year’s end. He offered the theater’s 200 seats, organ, piano, Powers 6-A projectors, and everything else for sale on December 31, 1922 ending the venue’s run. It was converted into a retail spot for a wallpaper merchant.
Guessing by ads that this launched on March 7, 1913 as the Cameraphone Theatre’s, the Cameraphone - East Liberty. Its proximity - within two blocks - of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s bustling East Liberty station. The venue was the longest-lasting Cameraphone operation closing just two months shy of its 54th anniversary for the small chain. The Cameraphone - East Liberty location was equipped for sound in 1929 to remain viable. With daily ridership of over 10,000 passengers a day, it was safe to assume a lot of foot traffic reached the Cameraphone.
The Cameraphone - East Liberty was modernized in 1941. The programming was a grind policy and the management was open to exploitation titles and independent films in addition to double and triple feature third-run Hollywood fare. The clientele and neighborhood were changing dramatically. The combination and television and the use of automobiles made for a challenging environment to operate a parking-starved aging movie theater. Passenger traffic at the East Liberty had gone from about 11,000 passengers a day in 1930 to just 500 daily passengers in 1960 - a 95% decrease. The venue turned to risqué, soft core adult fare in the early 1960s before going all-in with adult films and live burley shows trying to hang on. The East Liberty Station closed in 1961 and was bulldozed in 1962 - a portent of things to come in East Liberty’s business district.
The Cameraphone Theatre - East Liberty closed January 7, 1967 at the end of its lease and under litigation from ASCAP for copyright royalties owed; and under pressure from the local law enforcement for showing obscene content; and, ultimately, under eviction notices by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) which targeted the East Liberty area for a 254-acre renewal zone which was part of Penn Circle.
A classified ad in January of 1967 offered all of the movie equipment and fixtures at the Camerphone for sale. The neighboring Rio Bar and Restaurant offered all of its fixtures for sale which included the “longest bar” in Pittsburgh. The corner hotel housing the Rio and offered everything in and attached to its 63 rooms and lobby for sale. And even the other long-time Cameraphone neighbor, the shoe shine parlor, offered all of its equipment and fixtures as the East Liberty businesses in the URA zone scrambled to get anything of value out ahead of the bulldozers. They came a month later.
For at least two decades, the spot was just a grassy patch with some benches looking forlorn. However, in the 2020s, a large apartment / condo building sits on the spot of the former Cameraphone Theatre - East End while a large Target department store took up the opposite side of the street which once housed late 19th Century and early 20th Century retail structures. The few period buildings that survive can be found a block away.
Opened by Harris Amusement Company with live vaudeville on October 20, 1913 the Italian Renaissance Sheridan Square Theatre was an East Liberty destination theater rivaling the downtown houses. The Harris circuit selected the name of Sheridan to honor Civil War figure, Union Cavalry General Philip Sheridan. The Sheridan Square Theatre’s best days were when Gene Kelly ushered there and during the Golden Age of Hollywood when RKO Theatres assumed control of the venue on November 4, 1929 under the moniker of the RKO Sheridan Square. Warner Bros. Circuit took on the venue in 1933. Cinemette Corp. took over 17 venues from Warner in 1973 including the Sheridan Square which was likely at the end of a leasing point at its 60th anniversary. Its oddest moment was when an abandoned baby was left in the theatre and, when the parent(s) could not be located, the baby was adopted under then name of Catherine Variety Sheridan.
Sadly, the theatre’s predictable last act was rather sketchy by all counts. Cinemette Circuit subleased the venue to two different operators in 1976-1978. Theatre manager Martel Unman was charged with drug trafficking when several ounces of heroin were found in the Sheridan Square Theatre’s managerial office in December of 1976. Then an adult policy was instituted by Gilbert “Gibby” Katz in June of 1977 dropping first-run. Katz also programmed the Palace and Ritz-Mini adult theaters. Katz claimed that teenagers had come to the Sheridan’s first-run fare but had caused $15,000 of damage to the theater seats and were scaring off adult patrons. A neighboring church protested the adult films with 1,500 signatures. The adult films were finally stopped in early August of 1977. The second-run discount policy was discontinued after Katz died late in 1977 with Cinemette taking back over the lease in 1978 but not reopening the venue.
Two investors bought the facility planning to restore it. But the roof damage alone would have cost some $200,000 to repair making the project financially impossible. Reports about the theater’s demolition beginning in September of 1987 suggest a 1979 closing date but there is no evidence of the screenings. Part of the terra cotta front was salvaged during the demolition but little else was kept.
The Fiesta was in the Central Business District of Pittsburgh and closed on September 1, 1986 with “The Fly.” It closed on the same day as the Chatham Cinema and three days after the Bank Cinema I & II as options in downtown were scaled back almost instantly.
The Bank Cinema I & II closed permanently on August 28, 1986 with “Manhunter” and “Aliens” at end of lease. Four days later, the Pittsburgh Central Business District then lost both the Fiesta and the Chatham Cinema.
Cinemette placed the Chatham in part-year functionality in its final years of operations when business went to nearly zero for the venue that lost money in its 1980s operation. It cited end of lease, lack of business, parking woes, and an amusement tax as the reasons for closure following Labor Day weekend of 1985. It closed on the same day as its downtown cohort, the Fiesta and two days after the Bank Cinema I & II closed.
The opening sentence of this entry reads, “not much is known about this theatre.” But I’m not sure what ISN’T known about the Davis Theatre. There are shots of it being built in 1914 and numerous accounts from both the trade press and the local newspapers. We know that its initial cost was pegged at $225,000 for the Harry Davis Stock Company and Harry Davis’s Theatre Circuit but approached $920,000 at completion if reports are correct. The building’s final cost, however, also included an arcade of shops and three entries into the theater for reasons of safety and convenience. The original structure was a more simple five-story venue with roof-top garden, open-air theater in addition to the main indoor auditorium. The finished three-story building was a more ambitious, multi-use property which the Pittsburgh Press called, “(T)he handsomest and costliest theater of the varieties in America.” The land it sat upon was comprised of three lots acquired from Colonel Oliver S. Hershman adjoining Smithfield Street, Oliver Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and Cherry Street turned William Penn Place facing the new $5 million William Penn Hotel.
The Davis Theater’s interior was bathed in ivory and gold. Its framework was steel hidden underneath a facing of Bedford stone, terra cotta and light grey brick. Its entrances were from Oliver Avenue and Sixth Avenue (see photos). The architectural style was said to be Adam with the lounge and balcony owing its look to the period of Louis XVI. It sported a copper marquee. Its lobby was 35 feet high resplendent in marble. Fred Zweifel was its opening manager.Its opening scenery was created at the nearby Alvin Theatre. Its capacity was 2,500 at opening. Its main drop curtain was created by Arthur Lowell (see photos). The asbestos curtain was created by George A. Little. Portraits included Marie Antionette, Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, and Julie Adélaïde Récamier. The four seasons were reflected on the auditorium’s ceiling. A series of dancers were found in a frieze above the proscenium (see photos).
Harry Davis opened the venue on February 15, 1915 with his Davis Players in “Baby Mine” (see opening ad in photos). Gill Friar was in charge of the orchestra. Dedication speeches were by Eleanor Fitzgibbon of the Drama League of America, Mayor Joseph G. Armstrong, and Samuel Black McCormick, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. Big attendance was reported for the opening which launched with great floral displays throughout its lobby and auditorium. And because Davis and his partner and brother-in-law, John P. Harris, had famously opened the first movie theaters some ten years earlier in Pittsburgh, the Davis Theatre was also equipped with movie projection at launch.
It was fortuitous that the Davis had installed film projection because plays did not appear to be the road to profitability for Harry Davis’s new house. The trade press reported the first films in the Davis Theatre started in May of 1915 under a new policy and the Davis’s first major film screening in June of 1915 with an exclusive of “The Eternal City.” And it’s possible that the Davis' future might have been that of a movie house until just two months later when the Keith Vaudeville jettisoned its long-standing agreement with the Grand Opera House in favor of the Davis. The venue was soon under the Davis and Rowland operational banner.
The Davis stayed with vaudeville, primarily, and spotted in motion pictures as plays were completely gone in the 1920’s era Davis Theatre. It became the town’s leading vaudeville house in the 1920s. A child labor charge in 1921 was brought when youngsters Jane and Katherine Lee graced the Davis' stage. The victorious defense by the Davis turned out to be a significant precedent for child actors seeking work in theatrical or other art forms. In 1925, the Davis added a modern air conditioning plant (see photos) to improve comfortability. When Harry Davis suffered a stroke in 1927, his Davis Theatre began to slide after its final profitable year of 1927. At that time, the theater was said to have made some $262,000 in profit. But with the new Penn Theatre launching in September of 1927 followed by the Stanley Theatre which opened five months later in 1928 - both of which made the Davis seem out of step. Further, vaudeville revenues began to slide as talking pictures and variety shows on radio chiseled away audiences.
The aging Davis Theatre venue and the other Davis' locations were combined under the short-lived Stanley-Davis-Clark Theatres Circuit under the Stanley-Davis-Clark-and-Rowland banner (a mouthful) which - in less than two years - was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit as Stanley-Warner and then, simply, Warner Theatres. Warner’s entry into Pittsburgh’s film exhibition space allowed which more emphasis on movie exhibition and transitioning to Warner’s Vitaphone for silent houses. With new movie palaces in the city and without founder Harry Davis to champion it, the Davis Theatre’s halcyon period(s) were clearly behind it under Warner.
The venue was experimented with as a talking movie house but was not considered an ideal sound movie auditorium. It was downgraded being leased out for lectures, promotional sales pitches, and other events at the onset of the Depression and closed in 1930 as Warner refreshed it with a new color palette. The Davis was reopened in 1931 as a vaudeville house with sound films. Vaudeville would be excised in favor of the Davis becoming a double-feature, second-run grind house until, apparently, being dropped by Warner at the end of its 20-year leasing cycle in 1934.
Late in 1934, it returned to full-time live plays and, under manager Ed Siegal in 1935, returned in its final stage of operation with films combining radio station tie-ins. It appears to have closed on April 18, 1936 with a double-feature of George Brent in “Snowed Under” and Chester Morris in “Woman Trap.” The Davis property was sold by Hershman Estate to Pittsburgh interests later in that year and left vacant by all reports for two years. That group would finally have the venue razed in 1938. A final attempt to save the Davis and turn it into a nightclub, sadly, were nixed that spring.
A November 1938 ad listed what one could purchase from the Davis and that included its $15,000 organ, French doors, maple flooring, steel, brass railings, chandeliers and more from R.J. Omslaer Wrecking Co. (see photos) The Davis auditorium and lobby space was finally cleared in 1939 and would be replaced at the time with a parking structure with the arcade shops and two Davis entries remaining until 1954. All of the structures would then be razed for the visionary Mellon Square project that placed parking below the surface with a Modernist park above the parking structure. It was a plan that was copied in major cities in the U.S.
So basically, the planning stages of the Davis Theatre’s pre-launch from 1914 and 1915 are very well documented. One could look up every single booking at the theatre. Vaudeville performers included Fanny Brice, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Marie Dressler, and Edward Everett Horton. Every owner of the theatre is known. And even the contractor for its demolition (other than the adjoining arcade) and contents offered for sale are known. The 1955 demolition of the remaining elements of the 1915 structure - likely reaching end of a second 20-year leasing arrangement, are pretty well documented, as well. And Mellon Square now occupies its spot. So, yes, other than all of that, “nothing is known about this theater.”
The Super 422 opened on July 10, 1953 with “Siren of Bagdad,” two cartons and a Three Stooges short. On Sunday, July 19, 1953, the theatre was padlocked by police for illegally operating on Saturday. That got straightened out and the theatre was open the next night. Manos Circuit announced that the Super 422 would not be reopened for the full 1981 season and was discontinued after a movie marathon on July 7, 1981 with “Escape from Alcatraz,” “Dirt,” “Coach,” “Convoy,” and “The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.”
The Ritz opened April 3, 1924 with Norma Shearer in “Lucretia Lombard.” Just four months later, it had competition from the Indiana Theatre which was opened July 16, 1924. It closed September 16, 1980 with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
M.J. Peris of Buffalo was at the Marr & Colton organ for the opening of the Indiana Theatre which launched with Louise Fazenda in “Listen Lester” on July 16, 1924.
EVO Entertainment Hampton in Hampton, Virginia was re-opened May 27, 2022 by EVO Entertainment Group just in time for the release of 2022’s major summer films including “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion.” Originally, Cobb Theatres had opened the locations as the CineBistro at Peninsula Town Center 12 years prior. It closed the venue in July of 2017.
On July 27, 2017, Phoenix Theatres Entertainment renamed it as Peninsula Movie Bistro. The revolving door of owners continued with Studio Movie Grill taking on the venue as Studio Movie Grill Hampton in February of 2019. The Hampton closed along with the rest of the circuit’s locations on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Studio Movie Grill downsized in bankruptcy reorganization and shuttered the Hampton location and many others. As the location’s fourth operator in 12 years, EVO kept the eight screens with in-theater dining while retaining the bowling alley and video arcade. The Hampton was EVO Entertainment’s tenth location, first in Virginia and first outside of Texas.
Al Weiss dropped the lease of the Capitol which closed permanently on September 30, 1956. After nearly two years of vacancy, it became the Bingo parlor that was protested by a number of local churches worried that it was cutting into their Bingo profits. Though not for changing in the theater’s name, it was officially renamed as the Capitol Auditorium for its post-theatrical Bingo and meeting usage in 1958 to 1964. It seems to have been repurposed for a retail store in 1964.
This venue opened as J.P. Harris Memorial Theatre on April 26, 1929. It wasn’t changed until Associated Theaters dropped the J.P Harris to simply the Memorial Theatre in the 1960s. It was then converted to a twin-screen venue called the McKees Cinemas 1 & 2. It is assumed that it went out of business on May 21, 1976 when it was damaged by a fire that destroyed two blocks of Tube City’s downtown.
This project’s roots dated back to 1905 when Dr. A. James P. White of White’s Opera House decided to build a mammoth new stock theater on five lots in downtown McKeesport. White’s New Theater opened at 629-635 Walnut in downtown McKeesport on March 19, 1908 with Julia Marlowe starring in a live performance of “As You Like It.” The Henry J. Lohman architecture wowed with what was called a Corinthian architectural style in a venue that seated 2,118 with 22 dressing rooms at launch. The $200,000 theater was underway; but stock theater proved to be a challenging environment entering the 1910s, especially for the Tube City which had fewer than 45,000 residents at that time. So the venue followed the trend of Hippodromes all over the country that eschewed live stage plays in favor of heavy doses of vaudeville and short novelty films changing to White’s Hippodrome late in 1909.
In 1913, Rowland & Clark Circuit took on the venue which mostly went by Hippodrome Theater. In 1917, John P. Harris of Harris Amusement Circuit took over the venue giving it a major refresh. The house was reduced to 1,984 seats with a more modern outlay. It relaunched for Harris on January 29, 1917 as Harris' Hippodrome / Hippodrome Theatre retaining that name into 1926. The venue became known as the Harris Theater. The building of the new Harris Theatre in 1928 and opening in 1929 appears to be the impetus for this venue’s long period of vacancy in the 1930s and into the 1940s.
Warner Bros. inherited the property in June of 1930 when it purchased the Harris Amusement locations. It announced later in the 1930s that the former Hippodrome would be razed. That demolition finally was taking place but in a manner that proved fatal to a young boy. In partially razing the building in 1943, a boy fell into a pool of rain water drowning. An unfortunate ending for the entertainment showplace from decade’s past.
The Hotel Newell opened on this spot on December 1, 1892 in a building that had previously held the offices of the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper and a famous tavern that predated the hotel and survived until the hotel’s closure in April of 1919. The hotel was well known, according to reports, throughout the country due to its open door policy for high profile athletes who frequented the hotel and its tavern. But the beginning of Prohibition and the death of owner John Newell took away the venue’s mystique. The entire contents of the building were sold at auction on April 29, 1919. Isaac Guckenheimer had the building overhauled to create a movie theater on the ground floor with offices above.
He launched the Blackstone Theater on August 7, 1919 with Tom Moore in “Heartsease” supported by a Universal short subject and E.G. Klaphake at the venue’s pipe organ. The theater was bathed in colors of old rose, ivory and gold in Adam architectural style but also featuring an atmospheric ceiling with night sky lighting effects. Rowland and Clark took on the venue’s operation. When the Circuit began wiring houses for Vitaphone sound in 1927, it - under the Stanley-Clark-Davis operation just prior to Warners taking over the operation - decided that the 400-seat Blackstone wasn’t worth converting.
The circuit dropped the venue closing the Blackstone permanently on October 5, 1927 with the film, “Metropolis.” The theater’s space was converted to a long-running men’s fashion store. Until Stanley sold the building in 1933 for a million dollars, the structure remained named the Blackstone Building. The building has since been razed.
The Greater Pittsburg (sic) Cameraphone Company was the first U.S. circuit to attempt to market itself as a sound movie exhibitor. It launched its second Pittsburgh-area theater here on October 16, 1908 with “Krausmeyer’s Birthday,” “Foolishness” and “Roller Skaters.” The five-story building housed many other tenants.
Billed as the “marvelous Cameraphone,” the venue was a quick success. The Company then added the East End Cameraphone that opened within two months. This venue became marketed as the Downtown Cameraphone Theater when the fledgling circuit was growing. It would have a half dozen local locations.
The theater would drop the sound films’ concept and find new operators. The Downtown Cameraphone closed along with the other Pittsburgh theaters for the Spanish Flu pandemic on November 6, 1918. Rowland & Clark acquired the venue and reopened it as the Savoy Theatre in 1919. Rowland & Clark dropped the venue at the end of a leasing period on June 29, 1922.
Universal Film Co. exhibition took on the venue giving it a shocking transformation making it a movie palace. The three month, high-profile project was carried out to the plans of architect W.E. Snaman. It cost north of $150,000 including a Wurlitzer Hope Jones pipe organ upon completion.
It relaunched as the Cameo Theater for the Universal subsidiary Cameo Theatre Co. on September 18, 1922 with the Universal Jewel feature “Human Hearts” supported by a newsreel and comedy short. Lowry Curran and A.H. Ritter shared opening day organ playing.
In 1925, the Cameo subsidiary was folded into Universal’s portfolio. The Cameo was destroyed by fire on July 4, 1928 that shot straight up and out collapsing the building’s roof and out across the street to the Grand Theater. Although blamed on the beauty shop in the third floor, the projection booth appears to be a significant player in the theater’s spectacular finale.
The Uptown Cameraphone Theatre launched August 9, 1913 with Clara Kimball Young in “A Faithful Servant.” The buff brick and stone new-build venue was a Mission Revival-styled theater bathed in green. It should be aka Uptown Cameraphone as it was marketed briefly as the Uptown Cameraphone Theatre.
aka Downtown Cameraphone Theater
Closed September 5, 2015 permanently unable to covert to digital projection.
1897
Victor Rigaumont designed the Grecian style Capitol Theatre for Rowland & Clark Theatres in 1922. It launched June 18, 1923 with a Peloubet Reed pipe organ and the film, “Wandering Daughters.”
Announced in 1911 with plans by architect Albert Storch was the Crystal Theater, a nickelodeon by the Union Amusement Company which opened in 1912 but was a quick casualty closing in 1913. The Crystal was reopened January 1, 1915 with Evelyn Nesbit and Russell Thaw in “The Threads of Destiny” under new management and with an improved auditorium.
Under final owner A.G. Thomas, the theater was accused of using non-union personnel and was spattered with a malodorous chemical on May 22, 1922. Thomas got the message and closed the theater by year’s end. He offered the theater’s 200 seats, organ, piano, Powers 6-A projectors, and everything else for sale on December 31, 1922 ending the venue’s run. It was converted into a retail spot for a wallpaper merchant.
Guessing by ads that this launched on March 7, 1913 as the Cameraphone Theatre’s, the Cameraphone - East Liberty. Its proximity - within two blocks - of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s bustling East Liberty station. The venue was the longest-lasting Cameraphone operation closing just two months shy of its 54th anniversary for the small chain. The Cameraphone - East Liberty location was equipped for sound in 1929 to remain viable. With daily ridership of over 10,000 passengers a day, it was safe to assume a lot of foot traffic reached the Cameraphone.
The Cameraphone - East Liberty was modernized in 1941. The programming was a grind policy and the management was open to exploitation titles and independent films in addition to double and triple feature third-run Hollywood fare. The clientele and neighborhood were changing dramatically. The combination and television and the use of automobiles made for a challenging environment to operate a parking-starved aging movie theater. Passenger traffic at the East Liberty had gone from about 11,000 passengers a day in 1930 to just 500 daily passengers in 1960 - a 95% decrease. The venue turned to risqué, soft core adult fare in the early 1960s before going all-in with adult films and live burley shows trying to hang on. The East Liberty Station closed in 1961 and was bulldozed in 1962 - a portent of things to come in East Liberty’s business district.
The Cameraphone Theatre - East Liberty closed January 7, 1967 at the end of its lease and under litigation from ASCAP for copyright royalties owed; and under pressure from the local law enforcement for showing obscene content; and, ultimately, under eviction notices by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) which targeted the East Liberty area for a 254-acre renewal zone which was part of Penn Circle.
A classified ad in January of 1967 offered all of the movie equipment and fixtures at the Camerphone for sale. The neighboring Rio Bar and Restaurant offered all of its fixtures for sale which included the “longest bar” in Pittsburgh. The corner hotel housing the Rio and offered everything in and attached to its 63 rooms and lobby for sale. And even the other long-time Cameraphone neighbor, the shoe shine parlor, offered all of its equipment and fixtures as the East Liberty businesses in the URA zone scrambled to get anything of value out ahead of the bulldozers. They came a month later.
For at least two decades, the spot was just a grassy patch with some benches looking forlorn. However, in the 2020s, a large apartment / condo building sits on the spot of the former Cameraphone Theatre - East End while a large Target department store took up the opposite side of the street which once housed late 19th Century and early 20th Century retail structures. The few period buildings that survive can be found a block away.
Opened by Harris Amusement Company with live vaudeville on October 20, 1913 the Italian Renaissance Sheridan Square Theatre was an East Liberty destination theater rivaling the downtown houses. The Harris circuit selected the name of Sheridan to honor Civil War figure, Union Cavalry General Philip Sheridan. The Sheridan Square Theatre’s best days were when Gene Kelly ushered there and during the Golden Age of Hollywood when RKO Theatres assumed control of the venue on November 4, 1929 under the moniker of the RKO Sheridan Square. Warner Bros. Circuit took on the venue in 1933. Cinemette Corp. took over 17 venues from Warner in 1973 including the Sheridan Square which was likely at the end of a leasing point at its 60th anniversary. Its oddest moment was when an abandoned baby was left in the theatre and, when the parent(s) could not be located, the baby was adopted under then name of Catherine Variety Sheridan.
Sadly, the theatre’s predictable last act was rather sketchy by all counts. Cinemette Circuit subleased the venue to two different operators in 1976-1978. Theatre manager Martel Unman was charged with drug trafficking when several ounces of heroin were found in the Sheridan Square Theatre’s managerial office in December of 1976. Then an adult policy was instituted by Gilbert “Gibby” Katz in June of 1977 dropping first-run. Katz also programmed the Palace and Ritz-Mini adult theaters. Katz claimed that teenagers had come to the Sheridan’s first-run fare but had caused $15,000 of damage to the theater seats and were scaring off adult patrons. A neighboring church protested the adult films with 1,500 signatures. The adult films were finally stopped in early August of 1977. The second-run discount policy was discontinued after Katz died late in 1977 with Cinemette taking back over the lease in 1978 but not reopening the venue.
Two investors bought the facility planning to restore it. But the roof damage alone would have cost some $200,000 to repair making the project financially impossible. Reports about the theater’s demolition beginning in September of 1987 suggest a 1979 closing date but there is no evidence of the screenings. Part of the terra cotta front was salvaged during the demolition but little else was kept.
Currently open in 2022
The Fiesta was in the Central Business District of Pittsburgh and closed on September 1, 1986 with “The Fly.” It closed on the same day as the Chatham Cinema and three days after the Bank Cinema I & II as options in downtown were scaled back almost instantly.
The Bank Cinema I & II closed permanently on August 28, 1986 with “Manhunter” and “Aliens” at end of lease. Four days later, the Pittsburgh Central Business District then lost both the Fiesta and the Chatham Cinema.
Cinemette placed the Chatham in part-year functionality in its final years of operations when business went to nearly zero for the venue that lost money in its 1980s operation. It cited end of lease, lack of business, parking woes, and an amusement tax as the reasons for closure following Labor Day weekend of 1985. It closed on the same day as its downtown cohort, the Fiesta and two days after the Bank Cinema I & II closed.
The opening sentence of this entry reads, “not much is known about this theatre.” But I’m not sure what ISN’T known about the Davis Theatre. There are shots of it being built in 1914 and numerous accounts from both the trade press and the local newspapers. We know that its initial cost was pegged at $225,000 for the Harry Davis Stock Company and Harry Davis’s Theatre Circuit but approached $920,000 at completion if reports are correct. The building’s final cost, however, also included an arcade of shops and three entries into the theater for reasons of safety and convenience. The original structure was a more simple five-story venue with roof-top garden, open-air theater in addition to the main indoor auditorium. The finished three-story building was a more ambitious, multi-use property which the Pittsburgh Press called, “(T)he handsomest and costliest theater of the varieties in America.” The land it sat upon was comprised of three lots acquired from Colonel Oliver S. Hershman adjoining Smithfield Street, Oliver Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and Cherry Street turned William Penn Place facing the new $5 million William Penn Hotel.
The Davis Theater’s interior was bathed in ivory and gold. Its framework was steel hidden underneath a facing of Bedford stone, terra cotta and light grey brick. Its entrances were from Oliver Avenue and Sixth Avenue (see photos). The architectural style was said to be Adam with the lounge and balcony owing its look to the period of Louis XVI. It sported a copper marquee. Its lobby was 35 feet high resplendent in marble. Fred Zweifel was its opening manager.Its opening scenery was created at the nearby Alvin Theatre. Its capacity was 2,500 at opening. Its main drop curtain was created by Arthur Lowell (see photos). The asbestos curtain was created by George A. Little. Portraits included Marie Antionette, Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, and Julie Adélaïde Récamier. The four seasons were reflected on the auditorium’s ceiling. A series of dancers were found in a frieze above the proscenium (see photos).
Harry Davis opened the venue on February 15, 1915 with his Davis Players in “Baby Mine” (see opening ad in photos). Gill Friar was in charge of the orchestra. Dedication speeches were by Eleanor Fitzgibbon of the Drama League of America, Mayor Joseph G. Armstrong, and Samuel Black McCormick, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. Big attendance was reported for the opening which launched with great floral displays throughout its lobby and auditorium. And because Davis and his partner and brother-in-law, John P. Harris, had famously opened the first movie theaters some ten years earlier in Pittsburgh, the Davis Theatre was also equipped with movie projection at launch.
It was fortuitous that the Davis had installed film projection because plays did not appear to be the road to profitability for Harry Davis’s new house. The trade press reported the first films in the Davis Theatre started in May of 1915 under a new policy and the Davis’s first major film screening in June of 1915 with an exclusive of “The Eternal City.” And it’s possible that the Davis' future might have been that of a movie house until just two months later when the Keith Vaudeville jettisoned its long-standing agreement with the Grand Opera House in favor of the Davis. The venue was soon under the Davis and Rowland operational banner.
The Davis stayed with vaudeville, primarily, and spotted in motion pictures as plays were completely gone in the 1920’s era Davis Theatre. It became the town’s leading vaudeville house in the 1920s. A child labor charge in 1921 was brought when youngsters Jane and Katherine Lee graced the Davis' stage. The victorious defense by the Davis turned out to be a significant precedent for child actors seeking work in theatrical or other art forms. In 1925, the Davis added a modern air conditioning plant (see photos) to improve comfortability. When Harry Davis suffered a stroke in 1927, his Davis Theatre began to slide after its final profitable year of 1927. At that time, the theater was said to have made some $262,000 in profit. But with the new Penn Theatre launching in September of 1927 followed by the Stanley Theatre which opened five months later in 1928 - both of which made the Davis seem out of step. Further, vaudeville revenues began to slide as talking pictures and variety shows on radio chiseled away audiences.
The aging Davis Theatre venue and the other Davis' locations were combined under the short-lived Stanley-Davis-Clark Theatres Circuit under the Stanley-Davis-Clark-and-Rowland banner (a mouthful) which - in less than two years - was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit as Stanley-Warner and then, simply, Warner Theatres. Warner’s entry into Pittsburgh’s film exhibition space allowed which more emphasis on movie exhibition and transitioning to Warner’s Vitaphone for silent houses. With new movie palaces in the city and without founder Harry Davis to champion it, the Davis Theatre’s halcyon period(s) were clearly behind it under Warner.
The venue was experimented with as a talking movie house but was not considered an ideal sound movie auditorium. It was downgraded being leased out for lectures, promotional sales pitches, and other events at the onset of the Depression and closed in 1930 as Warner refreshed it with a new color palette. The Davis was reopened in 1931 as a vaudeville house with sound films. Vaudeville would be excised in favor of the Davis becoming a double-feature, second-run grind house until, apparently, being dropped by Warner at the end of its 20-year leasing cycle in 1934.
Late in 1934, it returned to full-time live plays and, under manager Ed Siegal in 1935, returned in its final stage of operation with films combining radio station tie-ins. It appears to have closed on April 18, 1936 with a double-feature of George Brent in “Snowed Under” and Chester Morris in “Woman Trap.” The Davis property was sold by Hershman Estate to Pittsburgh interests later in that year and left vacant by all reports for two years. That group would finally have the venue razed in 1938. A final attempt to save the Davis and turn it into a nightclub, sadly, were nixed that spring.
A November 1938 ad listed what one could purchase from the Davis and that included its $15,000 organ, French doors, maple flooring, steel, brass railings, chandeliers and more from R.J. Omslaer Wrecking Co. (see photos) The Davis auditorium and lobby space was finally cleared in 1939 and would be replaced at the time with a parking structure with the arcade shops and two Davis entries remaining until 1954. All of the structures would then be razed for the visionary Mellon Square project that placed parking below the surface with a Modernist park above the parking structure. It was a plan that was copied in major cities in the U.S.
So basically, the planning stages of the Davis Theatre’s pre-launch from 1914 and 1915 are very well documented. One could look up every single booking at the theatre. Vaudeville performers included Fanny Brice, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Marie Dressler, and Edward Everett Horton. Every owner of the theatre is known. And even the contractor for its demolition (other than the adjoining arcade) and contents offered for sale are known. The 1955 demolition of the remaining elements of the 1915 structure - likely reaching end of a second 20-year leasing arrangement, are pretty well documented, as well. And Mellon Square now occupies its spot. So, yes, other than all of that, “nothing is known about this theater.”
1954
The Super 422 opened on July 10, 1953 with “Siren of Bagdad,” two cartons and a Three Stooges short. On Sunday, July 19, 1953, the theatre was padlocked by police for illegally operating on Saturday. That got straightened out and the theatre was open the next night. Manos Circuit announced that the Super 422 would not be reopened for the full 1981 season and was discontinued after a movie marathon on July 7, 1981 with “Escape from Alcatraz,” “Dirt,” “Coach,” “Convoy,” and “The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.”
The Ritz opened April 3, 1924 with Norma Shearer in “Lucretia Lombard.” Just four months later, it had competition from the Indiana Theatre which was opened July 16, 1924. It closed September 16, 1980 with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
M.J. Peris of Buffalo was at the Marr & Colton organ for the opening of the Indiana Theatre which launched with Louise Fazenda in “Listen Lester” on July 16, 1924.
EVO Entertainment Hampton in Hampton, Virginia was re-opened May 27, 2022 by EVO Entertainment Group just in time for the release of 2022’s major summer films including “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion.” Originally, Cobb Theatres had opened the locations as the CineBistro at Peninsula Town Center 12 years prior. It closed the venue in July of 2017.
On July 27, 2017, Phoenix Theatres Entertainment renamed it as Peninsula Movie Bistro. The revolving door of owners continued with Studio Movie Grill taking on the venue as Studio Movie Grill Hampton in February of 2019. The Hampton closed along with the rest of the circuit’s locations on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Studio Movie Grill downsized in bankruptcy reorganization and shuttered the Hampton location and many others. As the location’s fourth operator in 12 years, EVO kept the eight screens with in-theater dining while retaining the bowling alley and video arcade. The Hampton was EVO Entertainment’s tenth location, first in Virginia and first outside of Texas.
The Tower Drive-In Theatre launched in 1949. Sold in 1953, it would become the Yellow Jacket.
Opened with “Tycoon” on February 17, 1948