TOD:
I'm having trouble placing my earliest movie house. I could swear that it was the
Stanley Theatre in Camden, NJ. But according to all reports, it was demolished in 1965 and I'm sure of my memories of going to see movies with my parents beyond that date. I'll have to check this out with my mom and sisters.
The next movie house I regularly attended was the
Crescent Theatre, which has had a sad little history. Movie house, porn parlor, auto tire repair. This theatre was a bit of a hike for ten year olds--about two miles--so we were generally dropped off and given bus fare to get back home. Of course, we would pocket the bus money and walk and stop off at our favorite corner store, Stems, and buy candy and comics instead.
When we moved to Pennsauken in 1971, I began attending the
Walt Whitman Theatre with my new chums. By then, it was just a $1.00 movie slum, but what did we care! We could go see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS every night of the week if we wanted. And then, there was the very special night on which the Walt Whitman played host to "An Evening With Moe Howard" (which turned out to be a fun evening, at that!)
As I got older and began making trips into Philly on my own, there were a ton of theatres that surrounded the Market and Chestnut Streets area. All but two are gone. The survivors are the Midway (now the Prince Musical Theatre) and the Boyd, which just last year was saved from certain demolition and is slated to be renovated as a legit theatre that will house touring musicals. Some stories do have a happy ending.