Cinema Art Theater

289 River Street,
Troy, NY 12180

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Fabian Theaters, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.

Architects: Abraham K. Mosley

Previous Names: American Theater, Cinerama Art Theater

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News About This Theater

AMERICAN THEATER

The American Theater opened as a movie house in downtown Troy in the early-1920’s. It had a virtual twin, the State (Rose) Theatre on 4th Street which was torn down in the 1960’s for a parking lot.

By 1941, the American Theater was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp., followed by the Fabian Theaters chain in the late-1940’s. On November 4, 1963 it was renamed Cinerama Art Theater, but the following day in was renamed Cinema Art Theater (probably got into trouble using the Cinerama name?) The opening movies for both names were the documentary feature “Women of the World” & Michelle Morgan in “Bluebeard”. It converted over to adult films in the late-1960’s when it was taken over by a local operator, John Capano, and showed them until the 1980’s. It then operated as a video rental store. The theater lobby and auditorium are still very original. The original marquee was still on the building, modified with electric lightboxes, when it was removed by the city, citing a safety hazard. The building still stands in 2024, function unknown.

Contributed by Joe Masher

Recent comments (view all 20 comments)

avkid
avkid on August 20, 2007 at 6:27 pm

I was in Troy today on business. After I completed my scheduled tasks for the day I walked around downtown Troy for about two hours taking pictures of old buildings being given new life.
I wandered around taking pictures until I got hungry, just barely a block from the cafe I was considering, were the telltale steel remnants of a marquee and the curved entry of a movie house.
The building has almost totally been stripped of architectural importance, save the leaf pendant on the very tip of the building.
Here are the pictures:
View link

Plantweed
Plantweed on August 27, 2007 at 4:12 am

Vintage ads for the Cinema Art can be found here:
http://plantweed.blogspot.com/search?q=cinema+art

avkid
avkid on October 16, 2007 at 12:04 pm

Any updates on the future of the Cinema Art?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 8, 2008 at 7:46 am

The theater is advertising “talking sound pictures” in this photo, which probably dates it around 1928:
http://tinyurl.com/27zapd

Roger Katz
Roger Katz on May 2, 2008 at 4:11 am

Still closed. See my photos of the building http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/7874.html

shoeshoe14
shoeshoe14 on August 25, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Saw this theatre while on a bike trip 2 weeks ago. Still closed of course and really hard to get around the back to see the building since it’s right over the railroad tracks.

joemasher
joemasher on January 21, 2013 at 2:46 am

Shoeshoe, are you sure you had the right building? Threre are no railroad tracks anywhere near this building.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on March 5, 2015 at 11:35 am

Joe Masher’s description of the State Theatre says that it was designed by the same architect as the American Theatre, and the description of this house says that it was a twin of the State. If that’s so, then the architect of this theater was Abraham K. Mosley, who was noted as the architect of the Rose (State) Theatre in The American Contractor of April 29, 1922.

paulkazee
paulkazee on December 20, 2023 at 6:56 am

With a little luck and a lot of love, it will reopen in 2025.

https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2023/08/02/american-theatre-troy-proctors-movies.html

rivest266
rivest266 on May 13, 2024 at 2:28 pm

Renamed Cinerama Art Theatre on November 4th, 1963, and Cinema art theatre the next day. Ads posted.

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