Bijou Theatre
N. 8th Street and Race Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19106
N. 8th Street and Race Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19106
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Jules Mastbaum, president of the Stanley Company of America, bought the Bijou from B.F. Keith’s estate on January 25, 1922, according to a story in the next day’s Inquirer. The purchase was made in Mastbaum’s own name, not by Stanley. Mastbaum was quoted as saying that he believed that the 8th Street Tenderloin district would improve significantly when the Delaware River bridge was completed in 1926. From everything I’ve seen, it didn’t work out that way.
The Bijou was demolished on May 25, 1967, according to a story in the Inquirer of the following day. The same story said that the theater closed in 1947. However, an April 13, 1947 Inquirer story about a sale of the building stated that the theater would continue in operation as a movie house.
My memory of the Bijou dates from 1965. It was a prominent presence, in all its elegantly creepy elaboration, on the approach to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge via Race Street. Don’s remember whether it was open or not. The area indeed was skid row; the Bijou in its last days had become a skid row burlesque/film venue.
Jeepers creepers Rick, in 1967, just imagine, the Bijou Theatre might have been hiding in one of those big old creepy buildings.
Gosh Rick, in the heart of the long-vanished theater district, there must have been a bunch of long abandoned theaters in there.
I doubt that any theater in this area actually stayed in operation as late as 1967. When I was a kid (mid ‘60s to early '70s), the buses we rode on field trips to museums or the zoo had to come through here to take us home. It was on the edge of skid row, and it was just a mass of big old creepy buildings that looked like they had been abandoned for a very long time.