Skip to content
  • About
  • Events
  • Old Crime
  • N'At
  • People
  • Places
  • Sports
  • Yinz
  • About
  • Events
  • Old Crime
  • N'At
  • People
  • Places
  • Sports
  • Yinz
September 25, 2012 / Places and landmarks

Triumphant opening of Stanley Theater

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter

Feb. 27, 1928:  When the Stanley Theater opened in February of 1928, admission to the silent film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was 65 cents. That price is long gone. So is the film. No copies are known to exist, and it’s officially considered “lost.” The Stanley is still around, however. In a sense.

“Pittsburgh’s Palace of Amusement” cost $3 million to build and was once the largest theater in Western Pennsylvania. As the Stanley, it had a long and colorful history that stretched from the silent film era to the age of rock ‘n’ roll (the last performer there was rocker Ted Nugent in 1984). After a $43 million restoration, the theater reopened 25 years ago today (Sept. 25, 1987) as the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. Now it’s home of the Pittsburgh Opera, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

(Photo credit: Unknown)

You might also want to see...

Topics related to this:1920s Downtown Pittsburgh Penn Avenue stage and film Things that are gone

Steve Mellon

Steve, a writer and photographer at the Post-Gazette, has lived and worked in Pittsburgh so long that some of his images appear on "The Digs."

Old Pittsburgh photos and stories | The Digs

Browse by topic

  • Events (150)
  • Greatest Sports Photos (5)
  • Old crime (37)
  • People (107)
  • Pittsburgh n'at (138)
  • Places and landmarks (120)
  • Sports (102)
  • World (3)
  • Yinz (18)

Follow The Digs

RSS feed RSS - Posts

Find old photos

Most read this week

  • Isaly's in Oakland and the secret to Skyscraper Ice Cream Cone
  • Pittsburgh’s Chinatown and how it disappeared
  • Park Schenley Restaurant — Pittsburgh’s 21 Club
  • Cy Hungerford: Pittsburgh's cartooning chronicler
  • The George Westinghouse Bridge, Pittsburgh’s engineering marvel

Archives

Tags

"wow" photographs 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s baseball bridges Civic Arena Downtown Pittsburgh football Forbes Field historic moments holidays industry music and musicians North Side Oakland oddities Photographer Darrell Sapp Photographer Harry Coughanour Photographer Morris Berman Pittsburghers you know Pittsburghers you might not know Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh skyline Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh traditions Pittsburgh women politicians pollution and smog rivers stage and film street scenes The Pittsburgh Press Things that are gone Three Rivers Stadium tragedies transportation University of Pittsburgh urban development weather and seasons

Tracks WordPress Theme by Compete Themes.

 

Loading Comments...