Kings Court Theater

3807 Forbes Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

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Showing 26 - 33 of 33 comments

hmw
hmw on October 5, 2005 at 6:37 am

we are pittsburgh. we still love rocky. we need a home again.
we miss kings court. we hate scott kramer.

elwin15208
elwin15208 on August 1, 2005 at 11:53 am

If anyone here happens to have current info about the Kings Court, please drop me an email at I am preparing to write an article about vacant movie theatres. Thanks!

Nicoletteann
Nicoletteann on July 3, 2005 at 3:21 am

Femmeshui,
Thank you so much for your intrest in what I plan on doing. I would love any help from anyone you know.

Thanks again!

carolgrau
carolgrau on May 25, 2005 at 1:28 pm

Very sad to read this, I had the pleasure of running movies at this Theatre when I aws a member of local 171 of the I.A.T.S.E. The good old days of strong unions, before Ronald Reagan and his union busting,Marty Torreanno (not sure of spelling) would roll over in his grave if he saw his theatres today. All gone.
Dave Grau (Mungo)
Norelco

femmeshui
femmeshui on May 25, 2005 at 3:14 am

Nicolette I can assure you that Pittsburgh would be lucky to see the Kings Court reopened. I can offer my memories of the original interior, and where to find the original suit of armor from the lobby. More so Iknow several people who ran the theater back in the day who may be some help to your project. Good luck, I’ll be a devoted patron.

Nicoletteann
Nicoletteann on April 14, 2005 at 7:26 pm

I’ve lived in Pittsburgh all my life and I’ve been interested in leasing Kings Court since I became a business student at the University of Pittsburgh. I plan to make it into a movie theater/ concert venue with a possible coffee shop in the front where the bar used to be when it was the Beehive. This should be started in about 2 years, so look for it then. The building is looking pretty shabby now but I hope to ristore it and bring back its shine. If anyone has any resouces/knowledge to help me do this I would love to hear it. I need all the help I can get.

Thanks all!

femmeshui
femmeshui on December 23, 2004 at 12:19 am

I spent many weekends at the Kings Court during 1988/89. It was a beautiful theater with original projectors that burned rods instead of using bulbs. The theater closed when Cinema World took it’s interests elsewhere. It sat vacant until it’s conception in the mid nineties as a coffee house called the Beehive, and later on a nightclub upstairs that originally housed a video arcade and a tuxedo shop. The property was abused and mismanaged by the coffee house owners resulting in the loss of the theaters original screen (which was replaced by a large screen television) and seating areas which were torn out and replaced with Goodwill furniture. Hopefully someone will resurect this treasure to it’s original glory.

TomBryant
TomBryant on December 14, 2004 at 2:17 pm

The Kings Court (no apostrophe) was originally a hard-ticket, reserved seat operation, exhibiting films such as “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” (the opening attraction), “The Blue Max”, “A Man for All Seasons” (played about 8 months), “Oliver” (ran just shy of an entire year), “Song of Norway” and “Half a Sixpence”.
Between the roadshows, the theatre booked films like “Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice”, “Easy Rider”, “Nicholas and Alexander”, “A Thousand Clowns” and “The Comedians”. Not until much later did the Kings Court take aim on the college market.

It was a class operation: management and floor staff always in tuxedos, first class projection and sound, ownership that really cared about the condition of the building.

Alas, those days are long gone.