Biograph Theatre
2819 M Street NW,
Washington,
DC
20007
2819 M Street NW,
Washington,
DC
20007
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Washington Post article about the mural.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Biograph lobby mural now on display at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring Maryland. Photo added credit Allyn Johnson courtesy the Old Time D.C. Facebook page.
I loved the Biograph in the 90s…..they regularly screened cult and foreign genre films that nobody else was showing, like A CHINESE GHOST STORY, Peter Jackson’s MEET THE FEEBLES, midnight shows of John Waters’s PINK FLAMINGOS, and so on.
In 1983 I saw double features there of: King Kong (1933) and The Most Dangerous Game Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
I worked there as a relief projectionist from 1969 – 1972. The owners knew so little about theater operations that when they built it they put the projection booth in the corner at a 45 degree angle to the screen. It had to be hurriedly extended. The booth had a pair of broken down Simplex with no magazines. One day I came in to work and found them running nitrate film !!! The speakers behind the screen were Radio Shack metal horns. The place was often packed. It was difficult to do a changeover without getting high from the smoke wafting in through the port windows….
I saw a few films here. The one that stands out is called The Moneytree-a “fictional” film about a mountain pot grower. I really like the movie. The filmmakers/actors were waiting in the lobby when the film let out. Irony: I was too high to talk to them…
Oh man- so painful to read this! The Biograph was literally my film education in the 1980s before I went to college!
I so remember this theater from the late 1960s. My father used to take me there. This is where I was introduced to the Marx Brothers and WC Fields. Great days. I specifically recall there was a beautiful hand cranked move camera on a tripod by the candy stand. I was intrigued with it as a child. What a great theater….
September 30th, 1967 grand opening ad in photo section
I took a few photographs of the Biograph in the 80’s. Those photos can now be found at the Theater Historical Society in Elmhurst, IL.
I seem to remember an antique hand-crank flip viewer in the lobby, for a nickel you could watch an old Felix The Cat cartoon.
The Biograph opened on 9/30/67 with the films A DAY IN THE COUNTRY (1946) and MASCULINE-FEMINE (1966).
Here is a night shot from January 2008 of the former Biograph.
Any fans of the old Biograph may be interested in seeing a bit more of it on my website. The current link is:
http://www.quitbuddies.org/Jef’s/theatre.htm
Please drop me a line if you see and enjoy the page. I’m always interested in hearing from friends and fans of the place.
Thanks—
Jef. Hyde
now a CVS!
Well, Landmark Theaters just opened (Jan 2004) the “E Street Cinema” on E St. between 10th and 11th in DC. I’ve been there once (it’s very, very nice) but I don’t know if one of the auditoriums is in fact dedicated to the Biograph.
I’ve been to the Biograph many, many times. One of the oddities of it was that when you bought your ticket, you were given an old metal token (NY subway-style) and you used it to get through a turnstile into the theater! When it closed they sold all their old vintage one-sheets and my husband bought the one for “Bullitt”, which we had framed. Towards the end they were showing porn (video projected, but projected nonetheless) during the day, I guess for extra income. It seems even porn lovers can be purists and theater lovers! There’s nothing like seeing a movie in a theater. There’s no repertory theaters anymore in this area, so we really miss the Biograph. Nearby the Key in Georgetown was also an art/repertory place, but it died too.