Alcazar Theatre

The Alcazar Theatre launched in a converted church building in 1916 by Abe Corrin. The Southwestern Syracuse neighborhood theatre made it through two, 20-year leasing periods and was run by Corrin in each of its 39 years except the last one as Corrin died in October of 1954.

The venue had three different addresses despite having never moved from its original location. It began service 1330-1332 Grape Street. The street name was then listed in the 1930’s as 1330-1332 S. Townsend Street. In early urban renewal, Townsend Street was split into two names with all addresses south of Taylor Street renamed as Oakwood Avenue. The theatre’s third and final address was listed at 374 Oakwood Avenue. It was located at the corner of East Raynor Avenue - a stretch renamed just once to Truth Terrace.

The Alcazar Theatre was contractually linked with the Universal Studios for much of its silent era operational cycle but set its all-time box office record in 1921 with Charlie Chaplin’s non-Universal comedy, “The Kid” released by First National. Corrin installed sound in 1929 to keep the Alcazar financially viable. The programming policy was consistently second and third run double-features in the sound era.

The Alcazar Theatre struggled with Corrin initially announcing a 1951 closure. He reversed course keeping the venue operational into the Fall of 1954. The family ran it upon his death until August 1, 1955 closing with a double-feature with Millard Mitchell in “My Six Convicts” and Robert Alda in “Two Gals and a Guy". In November of 1955, $800 was spent to convert the theatre back to a church. The building has since been razed.

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