Allerton Theatre
744 Allerton Avenue,
Bronx,
NY
10467
744 Allerton Avenue,
Bronx,
NY
10467
4 people
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I saw many a movie in that theatre from Joseph Losey’s “Boom” to Tim Burton’s “Batman,” and a lot of other films in between. I always went to the first show when films opened there on Wednesdays during the summer. It wasn’t a whole lot of money back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I had a wonderful time seeing all those films on the big screen in my neighborhood.
If anyone is interested, my short story “Bezillgo Versus The Allerton Theatre” has been published in the Grinning Skull Press anthology, “Attack! of the B-Movie Monsters: Night of the Gigantis. It is available through Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/ATTACK-B-Movie-Monsters-Night-Gigantis-ebook/dp/B00GXMWVII/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419461816&sr=8-2&keywords=Grinning+Skull+Press
I’m confused.. Is the Allerton & Barnes the same theatre?? I remember seeing Class of 1990 w/ a date when I was in H.S then went across the street to a Chinese Restaurant. It was on Allerton, a couple of blocks from the 2train Station
The Payless store was the entrance and lobby. The CVS is the auditorium
I remember seeing Born American starring Chuck Norris' son Mike here in 1986.
When I was a kid in the 1950s' the price of admission was 26 cents. For this price on a Saturday afternoon, you got 2 movies, 5 cartoons, & of course, coming attractions. It was a great place to spend the day. They were very strict regarding behavior & wouldn’t hesitate to toss you out. You weren’t allowed to bring in what we called “polly-seeds” since the shells would stick to the floor. They also had sweepstakes of a sort when they gave out dish ware etc.
When I moved into Parkside Projects as a kid in 1973 I saw “The Exorsist” at the Allerton. It was my first time in the theater and it was huge. I spent my teen years watching movies like “The Taking of Pelham 123”, “Serpico”, the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre"My friends and I were there every Saturday, two movies and a cartoon for $1.25 (kids). I also remember the lady at the consession stand. Short old lady with a beehive hairdoo. She never smiled. I also remember sneaking in the rear emergency exits on Cruger Ave. My friends and I would pry open the doors and run into the theater during a show on a Saturday afternoon. Light would flood into the theater and we would all spread out into the seats. (Yea, I was one of those retards) As per the above posts, yea, after they changed it into a triplex it just wasn’t the same. The theaters were long and narrow, like a large hallway. I have many fond memories of growing up in the Bronx in the 1970s and the "original” Allerton Movie Theater will always have a place in them.
I spent many hours at the Allerton Theater in the fifties; along with the Globe and the Pelham, it was one of the three places we saw movies in the neighborhood. Most memorable: Land of the Pharoahs in 1955.
thr majority of the movie theatre is the cvs pharmacy cruger avenue on the side street would have been behind the movie screen and the emergency exits
Whoops, sorry — that link didn’t seem to work; go to http://maps.live.com, put in 744 Allerton Ave, Bronx, NY as the location, and choose Bird’s eye View; you’ll see the building on the south side of Allerton.
The street view photos on Google Maps and the Bird’s eye View photos on LiveSearch both show Payless still there, and those appear to be fairly recent. Interestingly, viewing the building from the rear in the Live Search Bird’s eye View (http://tinyurl.com/3ocwn6) you can see that the theater building has a stepped roof that actually peaks in the middle, rather than at one end — which seems kind of curious to me.
Thank you for that information, bx11211; is the Payless Shoe Store still there? Has the theatre structure behind the stores been converted for other uses?
the payless shoe store was actually the marqeed entrance the actual theatre ran PARRELEL BEHIND THE STORES
I’m trying to imagine, from the July 29, 1982 certficate of occupancy Lost Memory cited in his post from this past May 3rd (great research, as always, on the behalf of LM) and based on the seating capacities in 1979 and 1982 – and presuming the Allerton had a balcony, what the division from a twin to a triplex must have been…
thats a great pic of the allerton ….. thanks lost memory my grandmother has been in the neighborhood for like 65 years im sure she can tell me every store that was in the pic
Comparing the two photos, it appears that allegation is correct — although the actual theater entrance and marquee would have been to the left in the second photo, behind the corner building in the foreground.
This site alleges that the building with the “for rent” sign is the former Allerton:
http://tinyurl.com/6fggon
So let’s see: it went from 1232 seats, to 918, to 771, to 0. Guess that’s progress.
the allerton was a great theatre before they made it a multiplex…. you could spend a whole saturday afternoon and see 2 movies and a cartoon for like $ 1.50 to $ 2.00….. i love the early 70’s prices…… if we were not there we were at the allerton library…. i can still remember the lady in the booth and at the concession stand
I remember that the manager ruled that place with an iron fist.
He was like the movie theater version of the “Soup Nazi” from the Seinfeld show.
What was so bad about the Allerton, jackeboy?
I lived around the corner from the Allerton from about 1978-1980, and I remember it as a twin, and one of the worst places you could go to see a movie. As I recall we would take the train into Manhattan to see something that was also playing at the Allerton, because it was such a bad place to see a movie. It might have been a different experience as a single screen, but as a twin you didn’t wasnt to know from it.A good reminder that not every theater was a treasure.
One present tenant at 744 Allerton Avenue in The Bronx is a Payless ShoeSource location; whether it’s based in the former Allerton Theatre space or an altogether new building is something I can’t attest to.