Schenley Theatre
3960 Forbes Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15213
3960 Forbes Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15213
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Stanley-Warner Theatres, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Architects: Henry Hornbostel
Firms: H.E. Kennedy & Co.
Styles: Neo-Classical
Previous Names: New Schenley Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Schenley Theatre was located on Forbes Avenue near Schenley Avenue. It was opened as a playhouse in 1914. On August 29, 1924 it went over to screening movies as the New Schenley Theatre, with Florence Vidor in “Welcome Stranger” & Louise Fazenda in “Dizzy Daisy” on the screen, plus stage acts. It was a very popular theatre due to proximity to both University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University.
The Schenley Theatre was equipped with a Moller 3 manual 11 ranks theatre pipe organ theatre pipe organ which was, unfortunately, never played during the period in which I attended movies at this theatre. The Schenley Theater was closed on June 30, 1958 with Paul Newman in “The Long Hot Summer” & Glenn Ford in “The Sheepman”, having been purchased by the University of Pittsberg. The building has been demolished.
Contributed by
robert simpson
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Recent comments (view all 21 comments)
The Strand Theatre is on Cinema Treasures. It’s No. 6947. I have not gotten around to putting an entry on there yet. Can’t give you the Strand’s closing date offhand. It was mostly a second-run neighborhood house but tried a bit of art in its later years. I believe that it had the second-highest capacity (to the Schenley) of all the Oakland theaters.
I will definitely check it out, Ed; thanks again.
Some of the best, and happiest, memories of my misbegotten youth was taking a Greyhound bus to downtown Pittsburgh (this was before I could drive), and spending a day in all those great Pittsburgh theaters seeing one movie after another.
I remember a New Year’s Day 1974 trip when I saw “The Exorcist” at the Warner, “Sleeper” at the Fiesta then took a cab (big spender!) to the Squirrel Hill to see “Day for Night.”
Or New Year’s Day 1975 (“The Godfather, Part II” at the Gateway, “The Night Porter” at Shadyside" and “The Little Prince” at King’s Court).
Or day-after-Thanksgiving 1974 (“The Klansman” at the Stanley, “The Gambler” at the Fiesta, “Law and Disorder” at the Fulton and “Earthquake” at the Warner).
By the time the ‘70s ended, the mystique of Pittsburgh movie theaters was seriously on the wane.
I think it all dates back to the opening of Showcase East in June '76.
A comment by Denis McNamara on the Sheridan Square Theatre page says that architect Edward J. Schulte listed this theater on his resume as his work. He was employed by H.E. Kennedy & Co. at the time. The following item appears in the August 5, 1913, issue of the journal American Stone Trade: “Architects H. E. Kennedy & Company, of this city, are preparing plans for $200.000 theater to be known as the Schenley, and to be built for Harry Davis and John P. Harris, well known amusement men of Pittsburgh. It will be erected near the opening of Schenley Park.”
Additional information about the Schenley Theatre from the January 5, 1914, issue of American Stone Trade: “Ground was broken this week for the new Schenley Theater to be built by Harry Davis and John P. Harris in Forbes street, opposite the Hotel Schenley, from plans by the H. E. Kennedy Company of this city and approved by Architect Henry Hornbostle. The theater in many respects will be one of the most artistic in this city.”
This, coupled with the information from Denis McNamara about Edward Schulte (see my previous comment) leads me to question the attribution of the design of the Liberty Theatre to Henry Hornbostle. I’ll comment further on the Liberty page.
The Arcadia Press book Oakland, by Walter C. Kidney, attributes the design of the facade of the Schenley Theatre to Henry Hornbostel. As Hornbostel did design (or collaborate on) other buildings in the Schenley Park neighborhood, it’s possible that he did collaborate on the theater project as well.
The April 8, 1915, issue of Engineering News has an article with structural drawings of the Schenley Theatre and a description of its construction. The article also says that the Davis Theatre in Pittsburgh, then under construction, had been designed by the same architects and engineers.
This opened on August 29th, 1924. Grand opening ad in photo section.
The 1924 ad must have been for the reopening of the Schenley as a movie house under new management. An item in the June 28, 1958, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that the theater “…was acquired in 1924 by the forerunners of the present Stanley-Warner Corporation.”
The Strand Theater in Oakland closed during the week of June 28, 1978. The last movies there were “The Great Smokey Roadblock” and “Dixie Dynamite”.
Final day of operation at the Schenley was June 30, 1958 with “Long, Hot Summer” and “The Sheepman”
Boxoffice, July 14, 1958: “The University of Pittsburgh confirmed it has purchased the Schenley Theatre in Oakland from the Stanley Warner Corp., and it closed this week, permanently ending the Forbes street theatre’s entertainment after 44 years. The Schenley was built in 1914 for presentation of musical comedies, dramas and operettas, and in 1922 it became a film house. The property was acquired in 1924 by the forerunners of the present SW Corp. No sale price was mentioned.”