Triangle Theatre

The Triangle opened April 3, 1920. It was the only one of the seven East Liberty theaters operating in the 1940s that was not on Penn Avenue. It was one short block off Penn, at 6276 Frankstown Avenue, The rear of the Triangle was not far from the rear of the Liberty on Penn Avenue. The Triangle began with 800-900 seats. A trade paper news story at the time of the theater’s opening said it cost $75,000 and contained 1000 seats, but neither figure appears anywhere else; the numbers probably were inflated – certainly rounded off. The Triangle played double features, two of three changes of program a week, and was dead-last in playing films in East Liberty. Perhaps mainly by virtue of its location within East Liberty, it became a theater more heavily frequented by black audiences than by whites, though its programming never reflected that balance. As the East Liberty theaters began to close one by one, the independently owned and operated Triangle struggled to hang on but finally closed in 1959 and soon was razed in what became the failed effort to revitalize East Liberty through the construction of Penn Circle. Side note: If its final stages of operation, the Triangle tried programming Italian language movies – not the name-brand Italian “art movies” of Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio deSica but the sort of obscure Italian movies that wouldn’t have been known at all outside the Italian-speaking community. It’s hard to be sure precisely when the theater closed because it dropped out of the newspaper theater directories prematurely. – Ed Blank

Here is a photo from October 26, 1921 of the Triangle on Frankstown Avenue,in line of Broad Street Down to Station Street.
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From Boxoffice magazine, January 1938:

PITTSBURGH-Art and Mort England this week acquired the Triangle Theater, 6276 Frankstown Ave., East Liberty, under a long term lease. William H. Davis, manager of the theater for many years, remains on the job in association with the England brothers.

The Triangle Theater property was transferred recently as the result of a sheriff sale, and leasing negotiations followed. Art England states they will acquire other theaters at a later date. The Triangle will undergo extensive renovations within the next several months.

A brief biography of builder Robert Ambrose McCall published by the American Historical Society in 1922 said that he both designed and built the Triangle Theatre on Frankstown Avenue in Pittsburgh.

The opening of the Triangle inaugurated the venue’s large Hillgren-Lane 3-Manual organ with a 21' 9" wide and 15' high screen - largest in the city. The opening film was “The Blooming Angel” on April 3, 1920. Under new operators in 1929, the venue became an African American movie theater with some live entertainment on its stage. It was billed as East Liberty’s only theatre for African American patrons. It played African American films created by Oscar Micheaux and distributed by Sack Amusements. The Triangle was equipped for sound to remain viable. It tried foreign films as its last policy. It closed June 12, 1958 with a double-feature of “Maddalena” and “Barefoot Savage.” In August of 1958 it was converted for other retail purposes.