This is about the original Ambridge Theatre, the one that was Ambridge's biggest, grandest theater.
This theater:
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| Ambridge Theatre 714 Merchant St. March 1965 Laughlin Memorial Library archives |
The Ambridge Theatre opened on December 24, 1928, owned and operated by Marcus (Ben) Nadler, who also owned the Prince Theatre and had previously owned Ambridge's Grand Theatre and Regent Theatre.
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| The Ambridge Theatre Deluxe Grand Opening Flier December 1928 Louis Vukovcan collection courtesy of Jackie Vukovcan |
The announcement included this statement:
TO OUR PATRONS
The policy of this theatre will be be show only the most carefully selected pictures--pictures that could offend no one--yet will entertain the most particular people.
De Luxe stage presentation--the best obtainable--will be shown together with news reels, comedies, and other screen attractions of equal high entertainment value.
Patronize the Ambridge Theatre--it is a modern, up-to-date theatre--beautiful, sanitary and comfortable--with entertainment no surpasses anywhere.
--The Management
The opening movie was Naughty Baby, followed later in the week by Three Week Ends.
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The Ambridge Theatre Deluxe
Grand Opening Flier
December 1928
Louis Vukovcan collection
courtesy of Jackie Vukovcan
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At the time it was built, the Ambridge Theatre was reported to be the largest theater in Beaver County, seating 1600. The theater's entrance at 714 Merchant St. didn't give a hint of just how big the theater was, as the storefronts between 7th St. and 714 hid the L-shaped building's size.
While the Ambridge wasn't as big or ornate as some of the Pittsburgh theaters in that era, the local newspapers were excited, anticipating the opening.
The Ambridge News-Herald wrote about last minute preparations for the opening:
While there is still considerable touching up to do, yet the main features are ready. Half a dozen janitors sweeping and dusting. The organ men are tuning up the great instrument and it will be in its best tone for the opening.
The big electric dome has been drawn to place and the lesser illuminating units are being hung. Carpenters are driving the last nails, the painters are brushing on the last swish of golden paint. The large mirrors in the lobby are being set and polished, so that when the doors swing open at 6:30 little if anything will be found unfinished.
At present writing, noon, Rosiman's Alabamians have arrived and are ready for the stage when the curtain goes up. Film for Alice White's latest picture, "Naughty Baby," is on hand and ready for the projecting machine. And most important of all the ticket office is set and the ticket chopper installed in the lobby.
Ambridge's Daily Citizen gushed over the $500,000 theater--almost $7,000,000 in today's money-- calling its opening "The biggest event in local theatrical history!":
The New Ambridge Theater, the beautiful, luxurious new house of the Ambridge Amusement Company, opens with all its radience (sic) at 6:30 this evening. From the spectacular electrical display on the exterior to its red plush seats, this house offers the superlative in theater construction and appointments. We won't say too much about it today, but as the result of a preview yesterday we can safely predict that everybody tonight is going to be awed--even thrilled--with the luxuriousness and ornateness of this beautiful structure. Really, the interior of the theater is "a thing of beauty and a joy forever," designed under the colorful Spanish and Italian influence. Its wide, richly carpeted aisles, magnificent draperies, and colorful lighting effects, make it one of the finest theaters in Western Pennsylvania.
[Update August 22, 2017: Here's what the Ambridge Theatre's entrance looked like the year after it opened. Until I saw this photo, I never knew the marquee shown in the other photos in this blog post wasn't the original. I don't know when the marquee was changed. Note the icicles hanging from the bottom of the marquee, advertising that the theater had air conditioning.
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| Ambridge Theatre Daily Citizen August 10, 1929 |
End of update]
As far as I can tell, for most of its lifetime, the theater typically changed its movies twice a week. One--or two, because it frequently ran double features, two movies for the price of one--played Monday through Thursday, and another one or two movies played over the weekend. And there was always a cartoon before the first movie. On Saturday's, there would often be a special matinee for kids.
The Ambridge Theatre showed the first "all-talking movie," in Ambridge, The Wolf of Wall Street, on March 21, 1929. The theater also showed the first 3D movie in Ambridge, and installed the first panoramic screen in "the valley."
In 1930, Nadler sold the Ambridge and Prince to the Warner Bros. Theater chain for $700,000, which would be equivalent to over $9,825,000 today.
I don't know what the occasion was in the 1954 photo below showing a lot of excited boys in baseball uniforms lined up in front of the theater to see Johnny Guitar and Jungle Maneaters. The man wearing sunglasses, standing near the curb with folded arms looks to me like Walt Kasper, Ambridge funeral home owner who was active in community organizations. Those of you who remember Kasper, what do you think? Does anyone recognize anyone else in the photo? If so, please leave a comment. (As usual, the photo can be enlarged to see the details better by clicking on it.)
[Update July 21, 2017: Long time Ambridge resident Butch O'Keefe agrees that that's Walt Kasper in the photo. He adds that the man further to the right wearing a baseball cap, standing with the crowd of boys, may be a man with the last name of Bucka who was very active with Little League.]
[Update July 23, 2017: Jill Scheer says that the man behind Walt Kasper's right shoulder in the background of the crowd is her grandfather, Nicholas Scheer. She says he was not connected with Little League, so must have just been in the crowd at the right time to be captured in the photo.]
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| Line in front of the Ambridge Theatre 714 Merchant St. 1954 credit: Glazer Collection, Athenaeum of Philadelphia used with permission |
I don't know how long that commitment the Ambridge management made to only show movies that "could offend no one" lasted, but in February 1957, the Beaver County Deanery of the Holy Name Society protested the theater's showing the controversial movie Baby Doll, described by IMDb as "A steamy tale of two southern rivals and a sensuous nineteen-year-old virgin." A 19 year-old who sleeps in a crib and sucks her thumb.
People whose memories of the Ambridge are better than mine recall the stunning Art Deco stairs leading to the second floor, and the beautiful Art Deco bathrooms there, as well as an entry into the balcony.
Here's just a smattering of Ambridge Theatre ads over the years.
One of the more cultural offerings:
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| A Midsummer Night's Dream Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Times February 29, 1936 |
Before there were hours of Saturday morning cartoons on TV, kids went to the movies to see them:
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| 17 Cartoons Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Citizen September 3, 1948 |
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| Glass Menagerie Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Citizen November 11, 1950 |
Gotta wear those stylish 3D glasses! Eek! A lion in your lap!
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| Bwana Devil Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver Valley Times April 17, 1953 |
On the giant, curved panoramic screen:
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| From Here to Eternity Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver Valley Times October 3, 1953 |
Lassie and five cartoons in the morning, more-adult movies later in the day.
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| New Orleans Uncensored, Women's Prison, and Lassie Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Citizen June 10, 1955 |
Get a free back to school pencil box! I loved pencil boxes!
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| Back to School Show Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver County Times August 24, 1964 |
A double feature for rock music lovers:
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| Girl Happy and Ferry Cross the Mersey ad Ambridge Theatre Beaver County Times May 28, 1965 |
The Ambridge had a stage in front of the screen, and the theater served as a venue for a variety of events besides movies including stage shows, meetings, card parties, cooking demonstrations, boxing matches, and beauty pageants.
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| Platinum Blonde Revue Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Times May 3, 1939 |
A touring company of the more talented contestants from radio's popular Major Bowes' Amateur Hour made a stop at the Ambridge Theatre.
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| Major Bowes' Amateurs on Tour Ambridge Theatre ad Daily Times March 12, 1936 |
A few members of the World Series winning Pirates and announcer Bob Prince, made a special appearance in 1960. [Update July 23, 2017: Butch O'Keefe says he was at the Pirates' appearance, and that Face and Smith sang. That's an unexpected detail of the event.]
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| Pirates at Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver County Times November 15, 1960 |
The Ambridge closed in the summer of 1965 and was razed later than year to make room for a new bank building. I think the photo below with the blank marquee and empty looking buildings next to the theater was probably taken between the time the theater closed and its razing.
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| Ambridge Theatre 714 Merchant St. 1965 Laughlin Memorial Library archives |
It doesn't look like much of the once beautiful building was saved during the demolition.
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| Ambridge Theatre being razed Beaver County Times November 8, 1965 |
Times caption for the photo above:
THEATER BUILDING BEING RAZED -- This is how the lobby of the Ambridge Theater (sic) looks as it is being torn down by a wrecking crew to make way for another office of Pittsburgh National Bank.
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| Crane razing Ambridge Theatre Beaver County Times November 19, 1965 |
BEING RAZED -- Demolition work on the former Ambridge Theater (sic) building, Merchant Street, is expected to be completed by the end of this month. Plsburgh Naional (sic) Bank will open an outlet on the site.
Today, the former Pittsburgh National Bank building is occupied by Huntington Bank. The Ambridge Theatre's entrance was where the parking lot between the bank and Alexander's Restaurant is.
My memories of the Ambridge Theatre
Too bad none of the photos are in color, showing the marquee lit at night; it was beautiful. I remember the lights being orange, gold, and cream, perhaps because of the "Spanish and Italian influence."
I remember standing in long lines stretching from the theater's entrance to 7th St., then curving up 7th St., waiting to buy tickets for movies.
I would buy tickets at the ticket booth near the sidewalk, then walk through the outer lobby over a red carpet up a slightly sloping floor. Framed posters advertising coming attractions hung on either side of the lobby. At the far end of that outer lobby, there were doors leading to an inner lobby.
The refreshment counter was on the right side of that inner lobby. My mom usually gave me some change to buy candy at the counter. Since the projectionist had to change reels of film between the cartoon and the first movie, and again before the second movie of a double feature, there were intermissions giving me time to go to the refreshment counter if I hadn't bought any candy when I first went into the theater.
My favorite movie candies were the boxes of caramel creams, nonpareils, and Jordan Almonds. I also have a distinct memory of eating Good & Plenty at the theater, which would have been a weird thing for me to buy, because I didn't like Good & Plenty candy much.
I have other, pretty vague memories of that inner lobby: a pay phone hung on the left side, stairs to the balcony, and a pop machine that dispensed your drink selection into a small paper cup.
From the inner lobby, movie-goers would make a right into the large seating area that sloped gently down towards the screen. A curtain covered the screen, parting when the show was about to start.
I can recall only a few of the movies I saw at the Ambridge, most of them in my teen years: The Cardinal (the birth scene in that movie is still seared into my mind); Flight from Ashiya (a movie I was not excited about, but which I sat through twice, because I had a celebrity crush on one of its stars, George Chakiris, who I'd seen in West Side Story. I neglected to call my mom to tell her I was going to watch the movie again, and I later found her in the lobby, extremely worried); It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; It's a Hard Day's Night; and the first James Bond movie I saw, Goldfinger (my uncle later told my mom that he was shocked she'd allowed me to see it as there was "nudity" in it).
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| A Hard Day's Night Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver County Times December 21, 1964 |
The Ambridge would give parochial school students vouchers for discounts to religious-themed movies which the theater would run on Holy Days of Obligation. We didn't have school on the holy days, and I guess the Ambridge was trying to keep us Catholic kids wholesomely entertained and out of trouble.
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| The Song of Sister Maria Ambridge Theatre ad Beaver County Times May 21, 1960 |
You'll often hear Bridgers who grew up in the early 1950s or earlier reminisce how Ambridge once had four theaters operating on Merchant St. And that's true. At least for a short time.
Here are those four theatres and the years they were open. As you can see, Ambridge had all four theaters open for only about six or seven years. But having four theaters to choose from was great while it lasted.
Prince Theatre: early 1920s - 1951 (?)
Ambridge Theatre: 1928 - 1965
Penn Theatre: 1933 (?) - early 1950s
State Theatre: 1944 - 1959
And apparently, four different theaters may have operated at the same time in an earlier era. In the Beaver County Times, August 13, 1965, Tom Moore, a long-time projectionist for several theaters says that in the early 1920s, Ambridge had four theaters: Palm Gardens, Idle Hours, Family, and Grand.
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