Loew's Capitol Theatre

Any suggestions on how to find out the names of films which played at Loews in the years prior to 1957?

We lived in Washington in 1947 and my dad used to meet me and my mother every Friday after work to see vaudeville at the Loew’s Capitol. Of course we watched the movie too but it was the vaude we went for. My mother was once picked from the audience to direct Sammy Kaye’s orchestra and I still have the souvenir autographed baton he gave her. They also had “Follow the Bouncing Ball” singing between pictures. It was a great theater and I love to think about those days of my youth.

As a senior in high school, my father recalls skipping his final exam in English in order to attend a Glenn Miller concert at Loew’s Capitol. Based on his current age (87), I estimate this would have been in May/June of the late 30’s or early 40’s. He is very interested in finding out what movie was playing on that day when he and a buddy hitchhiked to D.C. to hear Glenn Miller. Does anyone know how I might find that information? Many thanks.

Here is another 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y7lbtnj

I worked at Loew’s Capitol Theatre in Washington, DC part time while in the Air Force. I was there from the summer of 1960 until May 1963. I began as an usher making 55 cents per hour. We wore uniforms with cardboard dickies and bowties. Later I was one of the assistant managers and we wore a tuxedo every night. There were three assistant managers and one manager. The regional manager also had an office on the ground floor. There were three fulltime cashiers and a fulltime switchboard operator.
There were six floors of dressing rooms backstage. I was the elevator operator while still an usher for a ballet in October 1960. I think it was The Bolshoi Ballet but am not sure. The Bolshoi ballet was attended by President and Mrs. Kennedy November 14, 1962. They sat in the front loge on the right hand side of the theatre.

In his first social outing since the Cuban crisis began, President Kennedy led a wildly cheering audience at the Bolshoi Ballet, then went backstage with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin to meet the dancers. Mr. Kennedy left early to prepare for talks today with Chancellor Adenauer, who arrived last night. (1:6)
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Robert Kennedy and his family would show up periodically to see movies.
The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse premiered February 2, 1962. I remember that Glenn Ford and Yvette Mimieux attended.
Some of the cast came for the opening of Hatari in June 1962.
Some of the dressing rooms still had some of the old props and costumes from the stage shows. At night after the theatre closed I would wander around all the rooms. There were nooks and crannies everywhere. There were catwalks above the whole theatre. I felt like I was part of Phantom of the Opera. The cleaners had to get on the catwalks to lower the three giant chandeliers to clean them.
In late 1962 and early 1963 I helped remove the pipe organ that had been used for stage shows. It was bought by someone in the construction business. He had a special building built for it on the property next to his home. It was built behind and into the walls covering three or four stories of the theatre.
I was too young to really appreciate the beauty and history that I was experiencing.

Would love to see more photos of this beautiful theatre. This is almost a forgotten theatre, but its was our DC’s flagship theatre and was first run until it closed. brucec

I am new to this forum. I would like to know what other people knew about this theater. I got interested in this theater after taking a(local"washingtonwalks") tour and a guide told the group about the fantastic design and marquee outside of the theater. Which I had walked by a thousand times before but never ever had thought before that it was a movie theater at one time. I thought the building always had been an office building and the design was just their, before I went on the tour. I will say that the design is really beauliful and I so glad that it was saved. Please if anyone know anything more that they might like to share with me please pass the information along to me. I would like to know and learn.

Thank you
Stephen Hosmer

Photo of grand lobby:
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My Grandmother, aka Lynn Allison, sung with Sam Jack Kaufman at the Capitol Theatre for 7 years or so until about 1950. Does anyone know where I might be able to find old recordings or photos of her? The photos I have found online are low quality reproductions from The Washington Post.

Very interesting info about Capitol. I only know it from 1957 until I left for Air Force in 1960. I remember a fellow worker and ballet lover telling me that since the National Theater stage wasn’t big enough, the Bolshoi Ballet played the Capitol. Truly, it was a huge theater !

The two weeks marked as “Stage Show” in the listing of films that I provided are instances where the theater was used either for a touring legitimate show or possibly something like a ballet or orchestra. In those days the big legitimate theater was the National Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue, particularly for future or past Broadway productions on the road. Washington was one of the cities that Broadway producers used for previews prior to taking the show to the Great White Way. Occasionally the National may have already been booked and a downtown motion picture palace was used instead.

rlvjr-

I can understand why you still dream about the Capitol (or Fox, really). It was an incredibly beautiful theatre. In my view, it’s the most underappreciated Rapp and Rapp theatre. I don’t know why it isn’t more well known.