The Capitol Theatre was located in Prince's Street, just off

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Henry ...

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, and began life on 10 August 1920 as the La Scala Theatre and Opera House. Designed by architect T. F. McNamara it had two balconies in the 1,900-seat auditorium with 32 private boxes. Despite its name, the La Scala was a cinema.

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

took over the lease on the building and renamed it the Capitol in 1927. Under new management, the Capitol ran a live show every week to accompany the current film. Well-known Irish acts to appear in these shows included Peggy Dell,

Martin Crosbie Martin Crosbie (7 April 1911 – 10 February 1982) was an Irish tenor and older brother to Paddy Crosbie of ''The School Around the Corner''. Martin, who was affectionately known as "The Miller's daughter", a song he made his own, started in sh ...

, brother of

Paddy Crosbie Paddy Crosbie (1 October 1913 – 2 September 1982) was the Irish creator of the radio and television programmes '' The School Around The Corner'' and ''Back To School''.Sunday Independent, 5 September 1982 Youth Crosbie was born in Dublin, Ir ...

, creator of the School Around the Corner, and

Sean Mooney Sean Edmund Mooney (born May 21, 1959) is an American news anchor and former World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) play-by-play announcer. He now works as an anchor for KVOA, the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Arizona and the National Wrestling All ...

. The last stage show was on 29 October 1953. The Capitol continued as a cinema until 1972. It was demolished along with the adjacent Metropole Cinema and a branch of the department store chain

British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, is an online store and formerly a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to exp ...

was built on the site. This in turn closed and was replaced by a branch of the Irish

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chain.

References

*Ryan, Philip B.: ''The Lost Theatres of Dublin'' (Westbury, Wiltshire: The Badger Press, 1998), . Theatres in Dublin (city) {{Ireland-theat-struct-stub