Loew's College Theatre
262 College Street,
New Haven,
CT
06510
262 College Street,
New Haven,
CT
06510
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hello we are making a documentary on Poli and Poli’s theater, and we are looking for anyone who worked there or used to go to Poli’s theaters often. Please email me () we want to hear from you. Luca
1961 newspaper photo added courtesy of Marc Friedland.
Additional photos of downtown New Haven can be found by searching the below site. Copy & paste to view.
http://www.magrissoforte.com/
The nomination form for the Chapel Street Historic District says that the entrance to the College Theatre was not moved to College Street until 1933:
The nomination form also notes that the building that became the new entrance to the theater was an existing structure built in 1915:The College Theatre was still standing when the nomination form was written in 1984.Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theaters says that the Carll’s Opera House/Hyperion/College Theatre was at 1030-1032 Chapel Street. So does This plan of Carll’s. A 1921 New York Times article about the fire at the Rialto Theatre on College Street also says that the Hyperion Theatre was located “…around the corner from the Rialto, in Chapel Street….”
Sometime after 1921, the entrance was reoriented to College Street. This article (which Lost Memory linked to in an earlier comment) about the partial collapse of the Hyrperion Theatre in 1998 indicates that the theater had already been condemned and that preparations for demolition had been begun at the time of the collapse. The auditorium is gone, but the 1920s College Street entrance built for Loew’s is still there.
let’s not forget the Roger Sherman theater on College st.
The Moving Picture World of October 4, 1912, reported that the Hyperion Theatre had begun its final season as a legitimate house. It was to be operated by the Shuberts until May 1, 1914, when the lease would expire, and then be taken over by S. Z. Poli, to be operated as a movie and vaudeville house (the new Shubert Theatre opened in 1914.) The Hyperion’s career as a stage house was not entirely over, though, as I’ve found references to a repertory season being presented there by Poli in 1920.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 Boxoffice item with photo that Gerald DeLuca linked to earlier. The item says that the seating capacity of Loew’s recently-remodeled Poli-College Theatre had been reduced from 1,400 to 1,250.
Thanks for the boxoffice photo Gerald.
Boxoffice magazine, August 7, 1961, has a photo of the interior.
View link
In New Haven 1960s you only needed three theaters [four, if you include the POST DRIVE-IN] to get the best out of ‘60s movies: the CROWN, LAWRENCE and LOEW’S COLLEGE, so named because it was on [surprise !] College Street which itself was named for Yale, which was a half-block away. We lived on Lake Place, back of the Payne-Whitney Gym, so I could walk to the COLLEGE and did, often. LOEW’S COLLEGE was THE REAL DEAL for getting the goodness from '60s movies, here’s just a few that I can remember seeing in this biggest/best downtown theater [the Paramount, around the corner was bigger, but its bookings could NOT compare]:GOLDFINGER, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, A STRANGER IN TOWN, STRANGER RETURNS, DEVIL DOLL, BURN !, CROSS & THE SWITCHBLADE, WHERE’S POPPA ?—-the term “eclectic” does not do justice to the canyon-wide variety of the COLLEGE’S offerings. Now, I’m not a sentimental man: I never go back, it’s not healthy. But I had some family business which took me back to New Haven for the first time in decades. Not only had they closed the COLLEGE, they’d turned the lobby into an Organic Health Food store [hawk-ptoo]—-with lots of activist/advocate posters, flyers, etc. And hipsters ! In my theater lobby ! [ Question: Why do these health-food characters always look like they’re in the final stages of some fatal wasting disease ? ] I hadn’t carried a gun in years, but I thought, “Me and my M-16, oh yeah, this is worth jail.”
I like the name.
There’s a picture of the Hyperion in Images of America: New Haven on page 12.
I checked out this theater in the City Directories and it goes back to 1880. It seems this theater as well as 2 others were the first theaters which then showed vaudeville and silents years later.
I am trying to figure out where this photo of a “Hyperion Theater” is. Is this the Loews College, former Hyperion in New Haven? The only other Hyperion I can find on the site is in Corona, NY, and I doubt that is the Hyperion in this photo:
Here’s the photo:
View link
Right. Maher, forgot to add that. That’s actually a Middle Eastern name, but whatever. The building next door reminds me of Hansel and Gretel architecture of the witches' house, doesn’t it?
The building above, now an Irish gift shop, was the lobby of the Loew’s College. The auditorium was demolished after it was announced that it would be turned into condominiums. If you look at the picture, the building to the immediate right (currently boarded up) looks MUCH more ‘theatrical’ than the Loew’s building. I’m guessing the lobby building of the theatre existed before the auditorium, as the letters “MAHER” appear on the top, just above the windows.
I was there yesterday but the street number advertised on this site doesn’t match what it is today. The one next to it was what I presumed it to be but it was boarded up for some future work. If you go behind this row of buildings I couldn’t tell if it was a theater or not. I’m guessing the auditorium was torn down if it was of that variety.
The Loew’s College Theatre seated 1411 people.
Please note that the photo you show as the College Street Cinema in New Haven is incorrect. It is the front of what was the Loews College Theatre (Hyperion) The College Street Cinema was located in the Roger Sherman Office Building that was to the left of the Loews College in the picture. Access to this theatre was through the commercial building lobby.
The Palace Theatre ( Roger Sherman) was also in this building with its own entrance. I worked as an usher at the Loews College when I was a teen.