Follies Theatre

508 9th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20004

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Additional Info

Architects: E.B. Freund

Previous Names: Roosevelt Theatre, Art Theatre, Gayety Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Follies Theatre

Opened as the Roosevelt Theatre in September 1933. It became a grind house and the name was changed to Follies Theatre from 1949 to 1968.

In 1969 it became the Art Theatre and in 1976 it became the Gayety Theatre with live girls on stage and X-rated films. It closed in 1987 and was torn down and replaced by a large modern office building.

I worked the booth in 1971-72 when it was an adult theatre, low budget operation. It had 35mm, 16mm and 8mm equipment and ran sound from a reel to reel tape deck with 8mm footage.

Contributed by Local619, Ken Roe

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 26, 2010 at 4:10 am

Here is a view of the Art in December 1971:
http://tinyurl.com/ye34myx

Matthew Prigge
Matthew Prigge on October 23, 2012 at 5:32 pm

If anyone has any stories about going to/ working at this threatre in its adult days, I would love to hear them. I am chronicling the histories of adult theatres in the US. Please contact me at Thanks!

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on August 29, 2017 at 11:18 pm

1955 photo added courtesy of Steve Michaels.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on October 29, 2017 at 10:57 pm

April 1937 photo added, credit John Vachon-Library Of Congress.

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