Spruce Theatre
5949 Spruce Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
5949 Spruce Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
1 person
favorited this theater
A small neighborhood theater that opened in 1914. It was equipped with a Kimball organ. It went over to showing adult films and advertising as the Art Spruce in its last years. It was closed on December 25, 1969. Now a church, the New Birthing Worship Center.
Contributed by
RickB
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Here is a picture of the theater building today in use a church.
The Spruce Theatre began in 1914 converting to sound to remain viable. In the mid-1950s, it started showing art films, repertory films, and some adult titles to audiences that had drifted during the television age. Provocative titles seemed to be preferred. So on October 4, 1960, the venue was rebranded as AAA Art Spruce Theatre. That theatre title placed it just behind another AAA art house and ahead of four AA-plus theaters at the top of the newspaper film listings which were alphabetical.
The first true booking of AAAAST was what it called a “new wave” of directors with “Private Property!” - a film condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency - and Antonella Lualdi in “Good Girls Beware.” The local paper clamped down on the strangely titled “AA” and the gratuitously-prefixed “AAA” titled theatres. The AAA Art Spruce became simply the Art Spruce Theatre. The AST ended its run permanently on Christmas Day 1969 with Guillermo De Cordova in “Love After Death,” Senjo Ichiriki in “The Bite. The Bite” and Suzan Thomas' opus, “Karla,” in Fleshtone. If you’re going to go out of business, go out big!