Lost Movie Theaters of Hartford, CT

In this video I talk about 10 lost movie theaters that once existed in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. I also mention several more theaters that existed beyond downtown.
#movietheaters #moviepalaces #connecticut #hartford #hartfordct #theaters
My Books (These are links to Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):
A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut: amzn.to/4bNbiAR
Vanished Downtown Hartford: amzn.to/3IhK7Ao
Some of the images in this video are from the collections of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History:
Entrance to the New Palace Theatre, D'Esopo Building, 645-647 Main Street, Hartford
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:10950
Accession number 1987.152.12
The Old State House, Hartford
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:16967
Accession number 1958.71.1
The Hartford Bank and Courant Building, State Street, Hartford
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Accession number 1997.1.179
Hartford Courant Building, State Street, Hartford
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:18636
Accession number 2000.201.22
Allyn Hall fire, 180 Asylum Street, Hartford, 26 February 1914
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:12523
Accession number 1969.3.1.40
Majestic Theatre, 174 Asylum Street, Hartford
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Accession number 1996.157.5
Retail District, Main Street, Hartford
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Accession number 2000.171.199
Strand Theater and Surrounding Stores, Hartford
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Accession number 2006.93.214
Fourth Congregational Church, Main Street, Hartford
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Accession number 2000.201.32
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
02:18 Crown
03:28 Poli's Theater
04:26 Loew-Poli Palace
04:55 Loew's-Poli
05:54 Princess
06:58 Regal
07:36 Majestic/E. M. Loew's
08:45 Allyn
09:24 Strand
10:10 Grand/New Parsons
12:39 Star/Daly
13:44 Lenox
14:00 Colonial
14:27 Rivoli
14:45 Lyric
15:10 Webster & Rialto

[@jron20r51]

I remember when the civic center was built, and the Allyn being destroyed. Always remember the Strand, across from G Fox. Thanks for the blast from the past.

[@junkandthangs]

Herbs Sports Shop, I went there as a kid

[@goodun2974]

At 8:45 , Bill Savitt's "POMG" stood for "peace of mind guarantee"!

[@richjakowski1056]

Eight of those 10 theaters in central Hartford were my stomping grounds in the late 40s and early 50s. A good place to keep cool during the summer when most had air conditioning. When I was 8 a bunch of the kids from my neighborhood in the North End went to a Saturday morning show at the Center featuring 50 cartoons. I think the admission was 15 cents. The lobby of the Loew's Poli was palatial in my memory with those two marble stair cases leading to the balconies (thanks for the photo Dan).

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thanks for sharing that!

[@nancywilkie3020]

Interesting history. I have a journal written by my Great Grandfather, who ventured with my Great Uncle in acquiring theaters in the 1920s. He talks about buying a 1600 seat theater located in Hartford. He says (in his broken English) that the real owner was Goldberg in Hartford, but it was rented to Smith who had theatres in Boston. He says he bought that house for $50K. When he took over, the manager was a Mr. Young. It sounds like it could be the Poli Palace given the seating capacity, but he merely referred to it as the Goldberg Theater. Later on he mentions business was falling off on account a big new theatre opened up with first run pictures and some vaudeville on Saturdays and named it State Theatres. I'm not sure any of this jives with your history, but I was hoping you might have some insight. Thanks!

[@historywithdansterner263]

I'm not sure. I'd have to do more research to figure that out.

[@goodun2974]

I saw "Ice Station Zebra" in Cineramascope at the Colonial in the early 1970's (Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Patrick McGohan as I recall). It was pretty intense for 14 or 15 year old me. A decade or so later it was mostly showing cheesy martial arts movies.

[@mht5875]

Fascinating, I am very interested in movie theater history

[@henryhall8743]

My group the 5bell aires. Sang at state theater proud of that.

[@markmalasics3413]

I have some songs by The Five Belaires that occasionally get requested and played on my radio show. "Come On Home" "Come On To My Love House" "House Of Love" "I'm So Happy" "My Friends" and "Wedding Bells."

[@junkandthangs]

Dan is on a roll…

[@johnfoster535]

Haha !! When I first discovered this channel, I watched the Dutch Point video, and then asked Dan to do a video on the old theaters in Hartford, not knowing he had already done it !!! Now, after seeing this...I distinctly remember see the premiere of " A Hard Day's Night" on Main St...at the Loew's Poli....before it was torn down later that year. I remember seeing the trailer for that movie at the end of a Haley Mills movie, we all went to see !.....the projectionist played it LOUD, and it blew us away !!

[@bigdaddysantos]

Saw 2001 at Cinerama, along with many other movies. Saturday afternoons at the Rivoli was for kids, but later in my teens I snuck into the Rivoli to watch my first XXX, including “I am curious yellow”

[@laurapriest8257]

Hi Dan! Thank you so much for this video. I saw the picture of the Loews-Poli it took me back to 1964 where I saw "A Hard Days Night" with the Beatles. That was long ago and my memory isn't like it use to be, but I'm pretty sure that I'm right. But, I have a question for you and all the Hartford commenters. When I was in High School I was a member of The Hartford Inter-High Choir and every Christmas we would go to a local tv station and have our concert filmed. It would then be shown on tv during the holiday. I have tried for a long time to find copies of these films with no luck. Since you are a Hartford History Buff I thought maybe you could find out what happened to the tapes or maybe somewhere out there copies still exist. Any commenters out there who might know, please feel free to contact me here. Thanks for reading my post and may all of you be safe and be well.

[@flyboy1c]

Just learned the Capital Theater which is still there but condemned was on the circuit for Vaudeville. I wonder if any of there were vaudeville theaters.

[@laurapriest8257]

Hi flyboy! I just read your post and you are probably right. I remember going to a live rock and roll show at one of the theaters on Maine Street near G.Fox department store. At the end of the show they gave away demo 45's of the local bands that played there, so, you are probably right. It would be a cool thing to research. In the meantime, you be safe and be well!😊

[@mht5875]

Did you try the CT State Library?

[@goodun2974]

Looking at movie titles at 4:52 , I never heard of "Rock Baby, Rock It" or Guerilla Girl". I'll have to look those films up!

[@historywithdansterner263]

I haven't heard of them either!

[@scottnyc6572]

Wow seemed Hartford tore everything down leaving nothing from the past.

[@laurapriest8257]

Hi Scott! Yeah, we have a bad habit of doing that. Like the original Hartford High. Torn down to make room for the high way. Sad, isn't it?

[@junkandthangs]

Those old buildings were fire traps...

[@boathousejoed1126]

I remember CINERAMA, and I'm certain my first movie experience was at the Webster!

[@laurapriest8257]

Hi Joe, I remember Cinerama too! I saw "Around the World In Eighty Days" there. Thanks for the memory. You be safe and be well!

[@tristan90us]

Lowe's Poli was a real movie palace. In the old days the Star was nicknamed rats. Star spelled backwards.

[@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023]

I remember seeing _The Poseidon Adventure_ with my family back while my late dad was in Vietnam in the year 1972. I cannot remember the theater, but I do remember it was advertised as "The Largest Movie Screen in New England." It was huge with excellent sound, and as a nine-year-old, I remember it felt like we were literally on that doomed ship. When we walked out into the sunlight, it felt like we had just escaped the hatch.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Looking through the Courant archives, The Poseidon Adventure opened in December 1972 in the Elm Theater in West Hartford and Cinema I in East Hartford. I didn't cover the West Hartford theaters (the Central and the Elm) in my video but they were also classic venues. The buildings survive (and their marquees!) but they've have been converted to other uses.

[@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023]

@@historywithdansterner263Thank you for the fast reply. Cinema I rings a bell more than the Elm Theater, although I am not positive of that fact. I am going to do some more research. Please let me know if you discover any more details. I do remember those great Christmas windows downtown during the holidays. In addition, I would like to look up the Elm Theater and Cinema I on Google Maps from here in Virginia. Can you tell me the names and addresses of the two converted buildings? Reply

[@historywithdansterner263]

@@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023 Cinema I seems to have been somewhere on Main Street in east Hartford. I don't know if that building survives. The Elm is at 924 South Quaker Lane in west Hartford.

[@urbanlegendsandtrivia2023]

@@historywithdansterner263 Thank you again.

[@goodun2974]

​@@historywithdansterner263, the Elm is now a corporate drugstore, a CVS or Walgreens or whatever. Having grown up in the suburbs south of Hartford I don't specifically remember seeing any movies there, but as a little kid my wife, who is a few years older than me, certainly did. When I saw that a construction crew was gutting the building a couple of decades ago I scavenged the Altec Voice of the Theater speakers from off of the stage and sold them; the cabinets were 7 feet tall and sadly I had to leave those behind (too big for one guy to move, and too big to ship) but the woofers and high frequency horns were manageable for me (barely). There's a fan base for that type of early sound equipment among wealthy audiophiles (especially in Japan) and they're worth good money to the right people; unfortunately, all of the amplifiers and even the projectors had already been dumpsterized, which would have been the fate of those speakers as well had I not rescued them.

[@virgomoon6400]

I grew up a few blocks from the Lyric theater and went to movies there! I enjoy your videos very much! Thank you!

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thanks!

[@philbruno1399]

great history !! thanks for compiling

[@user-ir7xd8uj8o]

My grandfather came from France around 1911 to do sculpture work in NYC & he also did the carvings on several of those theaters, unfortunately I don’t know exactly which ones. I am curious if you came across his name: Lucien Vandevoir.

[@historywithdansterner263]

I looked up his name in the Courant archive and found his obituary from 1935 which mentions he "did the decorative work in the Allyn Theater, the Hungarian-Greek Church, New Britain, and the Emanuel Synagogue."

[@user-ir7xd8uj8o]

Thank you very much! BTW, I do know he did the busts over the doorways on the Mark Twain apartments on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, which are still there.

[@goodun2974]

At 14:00 the highly sexist ad copy for "the Talker" reads, "the story of a wife who forgot that silence is golden".

[@junkandthangs]

Which one was the Scratch House?

[@dgfazzina]

I heard about that from my uncle. Something about fleas or bugs? I may be mistaken.

[@junkandthangs]

@@dgfazzina same stories I heard, mice/rats

[@henryhall8743]

When I was 7 or 8 1944 or 1945 it was called the DAley theater they had talent shows I came in second place. They called it the scratch house lol.

[@gregdolecki8530]

Are you sure "Poli" is pronounced "pole-eye" and not "pole-ee"?

[@historywithdansterner263]

Yes. I pronounced it ee in another video but I was corrected on that! Also check out: vimeo.com/ondemand/misterwonderland

[@gregdolecki8530]

@@historywithdansterner263 Strange, since he was Italian, it seems the pronunciation should be "pole-ee". I wonder if it was mispronounced on purpose back in the day due to certain ethnic stigmas that existed back then.