Manchester Playhouse Theatre
Main Street,
Manchester Center,
VT
05255
Main Street,
Manchester Center,
VT
05255
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The Manchester Playhouse Theatre is one of several movie theaters serving Manchester. It opened as early as 1936 although I cannot find as much information about its early days. It first operated seasonally, but later became a full-time movie house right after World War II.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Manchester Playhouse Theatre also served as the only first-run movie theater operating in town following the closure of the nearby Modern Theatre (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures), which both theaters share an equal amount of first-run titles beforehand.
The Manchester Playhouse Theatre closed for the final time in September 1966 following the opening of the nearby Manchester Cinema at the Manchester Shopping Center, and the former Playhouse building was converted into Cochrane’s Furniture Store in November of that same year.
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Manchester had six theaters in its early history, including one drive-in. Unfortunately it was unknown if this theater was either its third or fourth to open because for two reasons. One is that there’s a lot of venues in the area that were named Playhouse and I don’t want to be confused, and the other is that this start life as a seasonal theater that screened first-run movies. It wasn’t until around 1946 when the Manchester Playhouse Theatre began running first-run movies all-year round. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of showtimes being demonstrated on the Manchester Journal during its early heyday.
During World War II and beforehand, the nearby Modern Theatre was the only theater that runs first-run movies all-year during its heyday. Throughout its history, both theaters share an equal amount of first-run mainstream titles throughout its history.
A history of Manchester published in 1961 (Internet Archive scan) says that the Playhouse Theatre operating in 1961 had opened as the Arcade Theatre (“The Arcade opened in the Village. It later became the Playhouse and has survived a number of openings and closings.”) The 300-seat Arcade is listed in the 1926 FDY, at Manchester. In fact an “M. P. Arcade” (the M. P. probably for Motion Picture) is listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and if that was the same place, the Playhouse had a very long history.
Also listed at Manchester in the 1926 FDY was a 200-seat house called the Equinox. Listed at Manchester Depot were two 300-seat houses, the Colonial and the Old Depot.