The Garden Theater (or Garden Theatre) is a 1,000-seat

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

that was built in 1915 at 12 West North Avenue in the Central Northside neighborhood of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Formerly a

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

, it closed in 2007 and has not been in use much since that time, except for a scene in the movie adaptation of ''

One for the Money "One for the Money" is an English-language children's rhyme. Children have used it as early as the 1820s to count before starting a race or other activity. The full rhyme reads as: One for the money, Two for the show; Three to make ready, And f ...

'' starring

Katherine Heigl Katherine Marie Heigl ( ; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and former fashion model. She played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2010, a role tha ...

filmed in July 2010.North Side theater is X-rated — for Hollywood
, by Bill Vidonic, ''

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it rem ...

''. 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2010-08-11. The city of Pittsburgh hopes to revitalize the theater, and it was placed on the

List of City of Pittsburgh historic designations A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...

by the

Pittsburgh City Council The Pittsburgh City Council serves as the legislative body in the City of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city ...

on March 25, 2008.

History

Built in 1914, and designed by architect Thomas H. Scott and financed by David E. Park, a steel-industry scion and banker, the Garden Theater exhibits a Beaux Arts style. According to a 14-page Historical American Buildings Survey data sheet from 1978, " motion picture theaters became more substantial and dignified than the earlier Nickelodeons. The Garden Theater is a typical little-changed neighborhood movie house of this century's second decade." Bennett Amdursky managed the theater from the time it opened, purchased it from Park's son in 1924, and ran it until his death in 1970. The theater "became the pride of his life," the historical survey states. "He worked at the theatre daily until his death in the spring of 1970, over a half-century later." After he died, things changed. In 1973, the pornographic film '' Deep Throat'' played there, and did quite well, and soon after the Garden became known as an

adult movie theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patro ...

. It was a

porn Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

theater for 34 years thereafter, until it closed in 2007. The auditorium was demolished sometime between 2012 and 2014. However, the lobby building is being renovated.

Film depictions

* The 1979 sports/cult classic ''

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh ''The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh'' is a 1979 American sports/fantasy comedy film directed by Gilbert Moses and coproduced by David Dashev and Gary Stromberg. It was produced by Lorimar and distributed by United Artists. The film was shot on loc ...

'' used the Garden Theater and its surrounding neighborhood as the home of the film's astrologist heroine Mona ( Stockard Channing) to depict a gritty

inner-city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists someti ...

gypsy fortune teller's residence. * The 1995 TV adaptation of

August Wilson August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...

's ''

The Piano Lesson ''The Piano Lesson'' is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the fourth play in Wilson's ''The Pittsburgh Cycle''. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir nga se ...

'' used the Garden Theater in a scene where Boy Willie and Lymon attend a movie in Pittsburgh. * The 2010 film ''

'' starring

uses the same exact buildings complete with the Garden Theater marquee to once again depict a gritty inner-city former burlesque district. This time, the theater and area around it are used to recreate a seedy

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA) is the City of Pittsburgh’s economic development agency, committed to creating jobs, expanding the City’s tax base, and improving the vitality of businesses and neighborhoods. The URA achi ...

purchased the building for $1.1 million. The theater along with several other buildings including the former Masonic Hall located in the same block along North Avenue, were later sold to a Philadelphia-based development company.

References

{{Pittsburgh Cinemas and movie theaters in Pennsylvania Former cinemas in the United States Movie palaces Pornography Theatres completed in 1915 Theatres in Pittsburgh