Theaters of the past, especially, in Bridgeport are indeed gone –virtually disappeared.\u00a0 No longer is Main Street bright with the marquees that once held our attention.\u00a0 Downtown Bridgeport has changed dramatically.<\/p>\n
I can remember so vividly the Loew\u2019s Poli with the headliner letters announcing the latest flick from Hollywood.\u00a0 The Palace, as it was known, was only a couple of doors down from its sister theater, the Majestic.\u00a0 Back then we were indeed a theatrical community.<\/p>\n
Across the street, the Lyric and Strand theaters stood.\u00a0 Not far from them, the Globe for our entertainment, as well.\u00a0 If we walked a few blocks to Fairfield Avenue, we would find the Rivoli Theater.\u00a0 I remember well seeing western movies on the big screen.\u00a0 The Rivoli always played at least two movies, plus cartoons and a news update.\u00a0 For an inexpensive night of fun and entertainment, people attended the Rivoli.\u00a0 I still can smell the popcorn as you entered the lobby.\u00a0 You could have a great night out for well under a dollar.<\/p>\n
Not far from the Rivoli, the Warner Brothers at State Street and Lafayette Boulevard also always had great movies at a decent price.\u00a0 The building was where Housatonic Community College stands today.<\/p>\n
Located north on Main Street at one time was the Merritt Theater which unfortunately is gone now, too.\u00a0 A\u00a0smaller theater near Main and Charles Streets, called the Rialto, gave viewers a night out, reasonably priced.\u00a0 The exact location was directly across from the Colony Diner which is still at its original location even today.<\/p>\n
Several other theaters that are honorable mention are the former Highway, the Beverly, the Astor, the Hippodrome, and, of course, the Barnum on\u00a0Barnum Avenue.\u00a0 All of these wonderful centers of fine entertainment have disappeared through the years.<\/p>\n
Bridgeport still has theaters most of which are housed in a major complex.\u00a0 What we were used to has dramatically changed.\u00a0 Now we have more choices all under one roof –similar to a shopping center, in a sense.<\/p>\n
The days of simplicity now have become more complex.\u00a0 As time progresses perhaps cable television will become more competitive or film rentals will take away business from the big conglomerates. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n
Historically, people have to be entertained.\u00a0 Everyone has their favorite stars and types of films they enjoy.\u00a0 But looking back to the golden years of the movie industry, one thing is for sure:\u00a0 \u00a0the forms of entertainment we seek will continue for change.<\/p>\n
No one truly remembers the pioneers who paved the way to big screen entertainment that brought joy to the beholder. Thinking about that time period I can truthfully say I’m glad I had the good fortune to take those memories and hold them dear to my heart.<\/p>\n
By Richard Sattanni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Theaters of the past, especially, in Bridgeport are indeed gone –virtually disappeared.\u00a0 No longer is Main Street bright with the marquees that once held our attention.\u00a0 Downtown Bridgeport has changed dramatically. I can remember so vividly the Loew\u2019s Poli with the headliner letters announcing the latest flick from Hollywood.\u00a0 The Palace, as it was known, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,41,44,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-downtown","category-north-end","category-theaters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10006\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}