Oh, Pittsburgh was positively brimming with movie palaces as I was growing up. Beautiful downtown Pittsburgh was a twenty mile drive, though, so my family didn't get there often, but, Thanksgiving weekend of 1964, a major treat was taking a streetcar into town from one of the suburban areas (Bloomfield) where we had relatives and free parking to go to The Nixon Theater on Liberty Avenue for an exclusive seating run of MARY POPPINS.
After that, The Nixon truly held a special place in my heart and I saw many first run, road-show engagement films there including THE SOUND OF MUSIC (our seats, as I may have stated as I do on many occasions) were in the top row of the balcony), THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, PATTON and touring companies as well. . .I saw Howard Keel in some salute to the American Musical. . .
Sadly, very sadly, the only photo I could find of The Nixon, is one just before it was about to be demolished:
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As well as The Nixon, we had The Stanley, which was home to big band concerts in the 1940s, national tours and films in the 50s, 60s and 70s. The Stanley underwent MAJOR renovation to become The Benedum Center, which houses Pittsburgh's Civic Light Opera season, national tours and special events. Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Conner shared a bill when The Benedum opened, Kenneth Brannagh's HENRY V was the first film shown there and The Benedum can be seen in all its glory in Jeff Goldblum's mockumentary, PITTSBURGH.
We also had The Penn Theater, which is now Heinz Hall, where the symphony plays. Until it became Heinz Hall, unfortunately, it was one of the few theaters in the downtown area which I had never been in. My stongest memory of The Penn, however, is the billboard for CLEOPATRA, which seemed to be omnipresent throughout the Allegheny Valley.
The now defunct - but turned into a shopping arcade, Warner Theater, was still in operation into the late 70s/early 80s and had a humongous Cinerama screen. From HELLO, DOLLY!,PETE N TILLIE on through to GREASE and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE EXORCIST, CARRIE. . .oh, my what memories.
Though not a PALACE by any means, the most important movie theater as I was growing up was The Manos Theater, in Tarentum PA - the birthplace of Miss Evelyn Nesbitt - where I first saw MY FAIR LADY (as a reward for a fine report card) and where my Saturday and Sunday pre-teen days were spent with the Hammer horror films, the James Bond double bills, Herman's Hermits' flicks, THE SINGING NUN, the DARK SHADOWS double bill; in other words, a safer, saner world then, when a parent or two, could drop a child off in full knowledge of that child's safety, and trust that the child would be doing exactly what that child said he wanted to.
If I've gone on (and on and on) it's because I found today's topic to be so bittersweet, and I thought that sharing a few of these memories would be a bright spot in a (so-far) very depressing week.
Also, I have a recent photo of The Manos, which is now a real estate office:
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