Randolph Theatre

my name is jack swartz,I was the last assistant mgr of the randolph theatre. norman cohen was our district mgr. and his office was located in the randolph. my office was located just down the hall from the old ice house,which was used for early air conditioning efforts during the keiths era.since the randolph was built inside of the keiths we used to store our supplies up the old marble staircase which led to the balcony of the keiths theatre.any information that I may have I will be glad to furnish. there may be some lapses of memory to to a recent stroke I sustained but I hope I may be able to help out some people.

This theatre is listed as a former Loews does anyone know why?

Thanks for all the great pictures.“Ice Station Zerba” looked great and the ad for 2001 was just like the one Nick sent me from an ad he saved from the Tampa newspaper in 1968.

I’m weighing in late with this, but I’m fairly sure the feature that played immediately after 2001, was Russ Meyer’s Vixen. In fact I remember seeing the film there noting a window to the right of the box office had been broken, and the management exploited the damage with a sign that read
“A film so hot, it blew out our window!”

RE: the May 6th Almeda photo. It brought back painful memories of when the Fox and Milgram were being demolished because that was the exact view I had of the theaters via a hole in the fence I peered through surrounding the demolition site.

As for as the Randolph, the economy must have been great during those times! It seems other theaters adopted similar lighting structures but on a smaller scale. Never saw the Randolph, sadly. And I certainly never saw an air duct (or is it a medallion?) poking through in that fashion. Can only remember the large circular backlit medallion on the Nixon’s balcony underside. It glowed orange during a film, then slowly morphed to white during the credit roll/curtain close.

I was BLOWN AWAY by the “BoxOffice” article and pix of The Randolph! It truly reminded me of The Goldman, with the big outer neon sign and the auditorium’s wall panels. The architects really paid attention to detail back then, even with a theater this small. Were there acoustical panels in the Goldman as well?

I don’t.
www.google.com

then enter exactly

Boxoffice April 1, 1950

I proceed down to the 5th item and there it is.

If you google search exactly “Boxoffice April 01, 1950” and punch page 130 in the box, you will find a 2 page spread with photos including auditorium facing screen. Page 153 has an ad by the carpet manufacturer with another auditorium photo and a lobby photo.

From Boxoffice magazine, February 1955:

PHILADELPHIA-Arthur Kerns, manager of the Randolph Theater, died at the age of 45. He had been with William Goldman Theaters for 11 years, and before that was with Warners.

MikeRa- That dramatic ending is already in the Introduction.

I don’t remember seeing this theater between 11th and 12th before its demolition in the early seventies. The Greyhound bus station where we used to meet my grandmother was around 16th and Market. I recall very well the theaters on Market near City Hall, but we didn’t go east of Broad Street very often.

The Los Angeles Times reported a downtown fire in Philadelphia on 1/22/47 that routed the 1200 patrons at the nearby Keith Theater. The theater sustained some smoke damage but was otherwise unmarred.

Oops “2001” opened 5/22/68! So much for proofreading!