Roth's Silver Spring West Theatre
8244 Georgia Avenue NW,
Silver Spring,
MD
20910
8244 Georgia Avenue NW,
Silver Spring,
MD
20910
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Circa 1960 projection booth photo added credit Bob Robb.
1960 Thanksgiving Day Parade photos added, credit Steve Michaels.
I remember going here since my friend used to work here.
This was just demolished.
I read that NYT article through my library. What a bunch of little brats back then.
If I recall correctly this article was a very funny piece about riotous Saturday matinees at the Seco…but it’ll cost you $3.95 to find out if I was right.
Saw Many movies here as a kid… great stuff! Batman (1989) and if I remember Sylvester Stallone had the premiere here for Rocky 4 in like 1985 or 1985. I worked at the East for a short time in 1985…
It was so great to live in Silver Spring in the 70’s and 80’s…
On 9/1/52, the Seco began showing films only on Fridays-Saturdays-Sundays-Mondays until 9/21/52, when it closed. Its last attraction was a double-bill of MACAO and WACO. At that time the theater was part of the Stanley Warner theater chain.
The theater re-opened on 7/9/53 as part of the Roth’s theater chain and was re-named Roth’s Silver Spring. Their first attraction was the Italian film THE LITTLE WORLD OF DON CAMILLO. The film opened simultaneously at the Plaza and the Little, both of which were Roth theaters in downtown Washington, D.C. Each theater showed the film in a different language. Roth’s Silver Spring showed a dubbed English print. The Plaza showed the film in French with English subtitles, and the Little showed the film in Italian with English subtitles.
The 1970 version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, starring Timothy Dalton and Anne Calder-Marshall, opened at Roth’s on 2/24/71 and played there for 8 weeks.
Now a church, what a waste! I worship movies…. LOL
The Seco/Silver Spring West is still standing although it has been extensively remodeled both internally and externally (here is a photo of it from February 2008). The theatre is currently home to the Bethel World Outreach Ministries and you can see interior photos by going to their website then clicking on Events, then Events Photo Gallery.
I had my first date with Diane here in 1953. Laurence Olivier in The Beggar’s Opera. And, come to think of it, my last in 1954. Shirley Booth in About Mrs. Leslie.
For most of its life this theatre was operated by Warner Bros. and was called the SECO. It was run down, and for a long time it had two fans and no air conditioning; but eventually AC was installed. It was an extremely popular third-run double feature house, which also had serials such as the 15 episode Superman (1948) —– far superior to the 1978 or 2006 overbudgeted hollow remakes. When Paul Roth purchased and remodeled the theatre circa 1953, he booked first runs of foreign movies at double the former admission price. A radical change from action house to highbrow. Free coffee in the lobby! Later, Roth very cleverly booked and promoted re-runs of American movies. The most successful was Paul Newman in THE HUSTLER. A 4 star movie, it had passed quickly thru the system before word-of-mouth made it a rerun smash hit. I saw about 100 movies at the SECO and dozens more at Roth’s. Last time I looked it was a church, not demolished at all.