Historic Theaters in Philadelphia

by Kate Pelusi staff writer

Philadelphia is home to a bevy of historic theaters. While at a concert or a play downtown, you might not be aware of the building's long history.

The Walnut Street Theater happens to be the oldest theater in Philadelphia. The theater, opened in 1809 and drew audiences from Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1865, Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, bought the Walnut Street Theater two months after President Lincoln was assassinated.

The Shubert Organization then acquired the theater and featured famous plays such as "A Streetcar named Desire" in 1947 with Marlon Brando, and "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1959 with Sidney Poitier.

In the 1970s the theater experienced some setbacks and even had to close its doors. Howev- er,in 1983, Bernard Havard was named executive director and got the theater back on its feet with a full season of plays in 1983-84.

One-hundred and forty-five plays and 23 world-premiers and 10 American premiers have graced the Walnut Street Theater stage since 1983. The theater has a membership population of 50,000 and annual attendance exceeds 300,000.

Upper Darby is home to the Tower Theater. This theater was built in five days soon before the start of the Great Depression. The George Kessler Company, a leader in theater construction, built the Tower.

Movies were the fust main attraction at the venue yet soon it became known for first-run films and live events.

The Tower now hosts a variety of acts and still remains a world class and historic venue.

Another historic site in the area is the TLA on South Street.

In the early '60s, the TLA featured exclusive performances from an experimental theater group started by Andre Gregory. Performers in this group included Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch.

Unfortunately, in the late 1960s, the theater lost money and was converted into a movie house showing old and foreign films.

In the early 1980s, the film house had to close, but former employees kept the TLA alive by showing films at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby under the moniker "The TLA at the Tower."

In October 1981, the group that ran the TLA at the Tower was able to return to the TLA Theater on South Street. This time hip, independent and foreign films were shown, making the TLA one of the nations best art-film houses.

The TLA opened its first video store next to the theater in