Mastbaum Theatre
2001 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19103
2001 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19103
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 56 of 56 comments
Here is a link to a picture of the Mastbaum, taken in mid to late 1957: [url]http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?42180[/url]. you can also see, in the background, The Erlanger Theatre. Sadly, The Mastbaum Theatre, The Elanger Theatre, and the PTC 8000 series trolley cars are gone now.
They don’t make theatres like that anymore. It is a shame, that Philadelphia tears down their theatres to put up a parking lot, which they did with this theatre. THis building took up a complete city block. There are now two office buildings on the site. It could have served as a great concert hall today, it it survived.
I would have loved to have sat there, and watched movies all day.
Little known fact about the Mastbaum is that it was used in 1953 by Spyros Skouras and his Fox technicians as a test house for Fox' new CinemaScope process. The following year when the 3D craze kicked off, Stanley Warner quickly removed all of the 3D paraphenalia from its Aldine Theatre where “Bwana Devil” had just played a few blocks away and put it in the Mastbaum for the opening of “House of Wax.”
This theatre was built in 1929, screen size was 27' x 60'. Stars like Judy Garland, Matin & Lewis, Danny Kaye performed live. The theatre closed April 16, 1958. A sad day for Phila.
The Mastbaum was one of Center City Philadelphia’s grand theatres. the others included: The Stanley, The Boyd/Sameric 4, The Aldine/Sam’s Place Twin, the Fox, The Stanton, The Palace and The Earle Theatres (At one point, all of Center City Philadelphia’s grand theatres were owned by The Stanley Warner Theatre Co.
Architects were Hoffman & henon who did a lot of work for Stanley Theaters in eastern U.S. They did a few theaters in Atlantic City; none of which survive