The exterior around the entrance was designed to look like a little old-time village, thus the name. Since neither the design nor the location were good for a conventional marquee, the Village had a free-standing attraction board (topped by a huge neon arrow pointing at the theater) on the roof of a Boardwalk store. The sign is still there (although the neon is shot), advertising go-kart rides or some such attraction.
When they say the Village was bought by a “paper company,” I think they mean that it was bought by a corporation created to conceal the identity of the real owners, not that somebody was using the building to store pallets of notebook filler. The new owners had renovated the theater and were a day or two from opening for the season when the fire struck.
I think it’s still the same structure though; Boyd’s just took out some walls and expanded their store from the western part of the building (1818 Chestnut) eastward into the former theater space.
The Joy plays a central part in No More Joy, a new documentary about the rise and fall of the movie theaters of New Orleans. A review (with a small picture of the Joy) here: View link
According to the Yahoo uptownadviser list (quoting the Chicago Tribune of March 16), the Fine Arts Building has been sold for $10.4 million to real estate investor Robert Berger. No word on future plans for the building.
The message says that there are two auditoriums in the building. Were the Studebaker Theatre and World Playhouse two names for the same hall, or were they two separate venues under one roof?
Operated by Stanley Warner at one time; by the ‘70s it was run by Sameric (which advertised it as the Eric-Terminal). More of a B-movie venue than the typical Sameric theater. Don’t know how long this one stayed open; early '80s maybe?
A story years ago in Philadelphia Magazine said that the competition to lease this theater was once so heated that the management of a chain that lost out ordered its employees not to speak to employees of the chain that won!
Actually that outside view is not completely different from how it looks now. The round marquee and box office are still there, although the box office is no longer used (neither are those entrance doors) and the “STRAND” letters atop the marquee have been replaced by less distinctive ones. I think that that glass block along the right side of the picture (ramp to 9th Street) has been replaced by retail space and the new entrance to the theater.
From what I’ve read the Arlo was built in the late ‘40s. It lasted until the early '70s as a theater (the next to last indoor theater to operate in Camden, outlived by the Midway), stayed open for a while after that as a catering hall, then was abandoned.
What is with the idiot who posts to Cinema Tour who seems to think that every theater in Philadelphia closed in 1964? I started paying attention to the movie listings in late 1968 at the earliest, and the Logan was still advertising then.
Sorry for the rant. I’m not setting myself up as God’s Own Cinema Expert, and I’m not blaming Charles, who is certainly just trying to do the best with the information that is out there. But those guys have a 1964 closing date for the Avenue (not listed here yet), which burned down with C.H.U.D. (1984) on the marquee! Maybe it’s somebody who never got over the Phillies blowing it that year. Maybe if I hit the lottery I will spend all my days going through microfilm to straighten this stuff out. Grrr.
This was the last indoor theater to operate in Camden, surviving into the ‘70s showing B double features. Part of the local Savar chain along with the Savar a couple blocks away, the Walt Whitman in Pennsauken, the King in Gloucester City and the Garden State Drive-In in Cherry Hill—all now gone.
Now open as a Mandee women’s wear store. The marquee structure is still there and is used as the store’s sign; other than that, there isn’t much left to identify this as an ex-theater to the casual passerby.
The Stanley site is currently a parking lot (it also hosts a billboard). I don’t think any building larger than a Fotomat booth has stood on any part of that ground since the theater was demolished.
The Frank Theatres chain appears to have two seasonal houses on the South Jersey shore: the Strand 5 in Ocean City (Cinema Treasures #7144) and the Beach 4 in Cape May (not yet listed).
Was an RKO Stanley Warner theater up to the early ‘70s, then an independent before the closing. If memory serves Philadelphia Magazine ran a long article—maybe even a cover story—about the difficulties the Lane’s last operators faced trying (ultimately unsuccessfully) to keep it open.
The 60-cent admission price survived well into the 1970s; by 1980 it was up to 90 cents. The Milford’s newspaper ads in those years looked similar to the Bryn Mawr’s, but I don’t know if they were under the same management.
When the World building was sold there was a clause in the deal stipulating that the office building that was to be constructed on the site would have space for a theater. That did happen; the theater was called the New World and had an entrance on South 19th Street, around the corner from the original. The new theater never really caught on—I think the side-street location was a handicap—and it only lasted a couple years before becoming a health club or something.
Some people have said that the World was part of the William Goldman chain, but its advertising did not identify it as such (unlike Goldman’s more mainstream Chestnut Street theaters).
By the ‘70s the Troc was showing adult movies along with its strippers, and after the burlesque operation shut down it was used to show Chinese films for a while. (Lest anyone complain that it is not quite a “cinema” treasure.)
Philadelphians of a certain age probably get a good giggle out of the idea of the ol' Troc as a historic site…but not many Victorian-era theaters like it are still around.
The exterior around the entrance was designed to look like a little old-time village, thus the name. Since neither the design nor the location were good for a conventional marquee, the Village had a free-standing attraction board (topped by a huge neon arrow pointing at the theater) on the roof of a Boardwalk store. The sign is still there (although the neon is shot), advertising go-kart rides or some such attraction.
When they say the Village was bought by a “paper company,” I think they mean that it was bought by a corporation created to conceal the identity of the real owners, not that somebody was using the building to store pallets of notebook filler. The new owners had renovated the theater and were a day or two from opening for the season when the fire struck.
I think it’s still the same structure though; Boyd’s just took out some walls and expanded their store from the western part of the building (1818 Chestnut) eastward into the former theater space.
The Joy plays a central part in No More Joy, a new documentary about the rise and fall of the movie theaters of New Orleans. A review (with a small picture of the Joy) here:
View link
Wow. We need a time machine so we can see the streets from the old days that way!
BTW, A9.com is owned by Amazon, which explains the hosting (as well as the A9 search links on the IMDB, also Amazon-owned).
Carlotta Tendant…Chili Soss…Mae Lox…I think the manager/resident comic, an elderly fellow named Max something, was the one who thought up the names.
The Randolph was named for William Goldman’s son, who died in infancy.
Budco and Goldman started out as different companies. Budco bought the Goldman theaters sometime in the ‘70s.
“The Four Hundred” is an old term for the highest of high society. That’s probably what the namers were going for.
According to the Yahoo uptownadviser list (quoting the Chicago Tribune of March 16), the Fine Arts Building has been sold for $10.4 million to real estate investor Robert Berger. No word on future plans for the building.
The message says that there are two auditoriums in the building. Were the Studebaker Theatre and World Playhouse two names for the same hall, or were they two separate venues under one roof?
Operated by Stanley Warner at one time; by the ‘70s it was run by Sameric (which advertised it as the Eric-Terminal). More of a B-movie venue than the typical Sameric theater. Don’t know how long this one stayed open; early '80s maybe?
A story years ago in Philadelphia Magazine said that the competition to lease this theater was once so heated that the management of a chain that lost out ordered its employees not to speak to employees of the chain that won!
The clippings on the DVRBS site give the Grand’s location as Broadway and Mickle, which would be more like 207 South Broadway than 207 North.
The Rio lasted until the early ‘60s as a theater.
Actually that outside view is not completely different from how it looks now. The round marquee and box office are still there, although the box office is no longer used (neither are those entrance doors) and the “STRAND” letters atop the marquee have been replaced by less distinctive ones. I think that that glass block along the right side of the picture (ramp to 9th Street) has been replaced by retail space and the new entrance to the theater.
On the other hand, being close to “The Land of the Midnight Sun” must have led to some awfully late starting times for shows in June and July!
From what I’ve read the Arlo was built in the late ‘40s. It lasted until the early '70s as a theater (the next to last indoor theater to operate in Camden, outlived by the Midway), stayed open for a while after that as a catering hall, then was abandoned.
What is with the idiot who posts to Cinema Tour who seems to think that every theater in Philadelphia closed in 1964? I started paying attention to the movie listings in late 1968 at the earliest, and the Logan was still advertising then.
Sorry for the rant. I’m not setting myself up as God’s Own Cinema Expert, and I’m not blaming Charles, who is certainly just trying to do the best with the information that is out there. But those guys have a 1964 closing date for the Avenue (not listed here yet), which burned down with C.H.U.D. (1984) on the marquee! Maybe it’s somebody who never got over the Phillies blowing it that year. Maybe if I hit the lottery I will spend all my days going through microfilm to straighten this stuff out. Grrr.
This was the last indoor theater to operate in Camden, surviving into the ‘70s showing B double features. Part of the local Savar chain along with the Savar a couple blocks away, the Walt Whitman in Pennsauken, the King in Gloucester City and the Garden State Drive-In in Cherry Hill—all now gone.
Now open as a Mandee women’s wear store. The marquee structure is still there and is used as the store’s sign; other than that, there isn’t much left to identify this as an ex-theater to the casual passerby.
The Stanley site is currently a parking lot (it also hosts a billboard). I don’t think any building larger than a Fotomat booth has stood on any part of that ground since the theater was demolished.
Wow. It almost looks too clean. :–)
The Frank Theatres chain appears to have two seasonal houses on the South Jersey shore: the Strand 5 in Ocean City (Cinema Treasures #7144) and the Beach 4 in Cape May (not yet listed).
Was an RKO Stanley Warner theater up to the early ‘70s, then an independent before the closing. If memory serves Philadelphia Magazine ran a long article—maybe even a cover story—about the difficulties the Lane’s last operators faced trying (ultimately unsuccessfully) to keep it open.
The 60-cent admission price survived well into the 1970s; by 1980 it was up to 90 cents. The Milford’s newspaper ads in those years looked similar to the Bryn Mawr’s, but I don’t know if they were under the same management.
When the World building was sold there was a clause in the deal stipulating that the office building that was to be constructed on the site would have space for a theater. That did happen; the theater was called the New World and had an entrance on South 19th Street, around the corner from the original. The new theater never really caught on—I think the side-street location was a handicap—and it only lasted a couple years before becoming a health club or something.
Some people have said that the World was part of the William Goldman chain, but its advertising did not identify it as such (unlike Goldman’s more mainstream Chestnut Street theaters).
By the ‘70s the Troc was showing adult movies along with its strippers, and after the burlesque operation shut down it was used to show Chinese films for a while. (Lest anyone complain that it is not quite a “cinema” treasure.)
Philadelphians of a certain age probably get a good giggle out of the idea of the ol' Troc as a historic site…but not many Victorian-era theaters like it are still around.