Shadyside Theatre
5518 Walnut Street,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15232
5518 Walnut Street,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15232
7 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Firms: Hunting, Davis & Dunnells
Nearby Theaters
The Shadyside Theatre, in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh, opened on March 21, 1941 with The Lane Sisters in “Four Mothers” & Jack Benny in “Love Thy Neighbor”. With 751 seats it operated as a late-run neighborhood playing three double bills a week. That changed to two double bills a week in the late-1940’s. In May 1958 it became a first-run art house with 623 new seats, beginning with “The Confessions of Felix Krull”. Sadly, during the final year or so, it was booked mainly with softcore sex films and “soft” versions of “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones”. Closed April 28, 1975 with a late run of “Chinatown”.
Contributed by
Ed Blank
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
this theater was gutted completely to make a mini-mall. It used to be directly across the street from Lou’s bar, I think it was Filbert Street. Hard to tell that a theater was even on Walnut street!
Part of the Morris M. Finkel chain in the early Seventies, along with the Arcade, Chatham Cinema, Echo Drive-In and Mt. Oliver, all in Pittsburgh.
The Shadyside was listed at 5520 Walnut in the 1960 Pittsburgh yellow pages. Click on the second photo on the page for a view of the Pottery Barn at that address today:
http://tinyurl.com/ywf25z
The Williams-Sonoma store is at 5514:
http://tinyurl.com/yqcfc7
I’m looking for first hand accounts of seeing The Night Porter at this theater in connection with film history research I am engaged in. Anyone with memories of The Night Porter, however vague, please feel free to get in touch with me. .co.uk
Renewing link.
When I moved to Pittsburgh the former Shadyside Theater was home to The Balcony, a live music venue and high end restaurant on the top floor of the building, whether it was located in what was once the actual balcony of the theater I don’t know. The first floor of the building at the time was a small shopping gallery which also housed a small restaurant called Hot Licks. The building is still standing and houses Pottery Barn.
The Shadyside Theater had no balcony. The Balcony restaurant, as it was called, was named for the fact it was upstairs. It did, in fact, occupy the area formerly used for the theater’s projection booth plus the (former)air space over the smallish lobby and the back several rows of seats.
For the record, nothing about the floor plan of the theater changed after it ceased being a late-run neighborhood house and started being a first-run art house. The seats were replaced, I seem to recall, but the structure and layout were the same.
March 21st, 1941 grand opening ad in photo section
Full page ad:
Shadyside theatre opening Fri, Mar 21, 1941 – Page 35 · The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com