Academy Theatre, 535-537 8th St. S. E., Washington D.C.

We never went to the Academy when I was a child growing up in the 1950s.  The concept of the Eighth Street corridor being an unsafe war zone lost on my youthful mind.  According to my father, the Academy showed Mexican films briefly in the late 1950s or just before closing in 1961. He worked at the nearby Navy Yard and enjoyed stopping to talk Spanish with the cashier. That was the story he told us and I can’t vouch for its validity.

An early movie show carved out of a pre-existing building, the Academy opened as the Meaders in 1910. This tiny theatre, with 400 seats, did have dressing rooms for an occasional live show. Its policy of showing fourth-run movies apparently set from the beginning. The space, renovated by the Stanley-Crandall Company, opened as the New Theatre in 1927.  The name changed briefly to the Family when Sidney Lust took over management three years later. Finally in 1933, it  became the Academy.
Like many of the small early movie houses, in the  poorer neighborhoods of Washington D.C., the Academy survived on a diet of  triple feature re-runs. That is with the possible exception of the Mexican films mentioned above.
And like many of these theatres, converted to a church when its days as a movie house had run its course. The Academy becoming a place of worship, under the Rev. Fred W. Hall, in 1962.

Capitol Hill Theatre

Across from the Penn (see earlier post)  was an even older theatre, the Capitol Hill. Working there in the 1960s, I did some research and came up with an opening date of September 1909. Richard Headley in his excellent “Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C.”  gives 1910.

Originally called the Avenue Grand it featured vaudeville and motion pictures.  As I recall the wing space was practically non-existent and the dressing rooms in the basement were probably nothing special in 1910. When I first went to the theatre as a kid in the 1950s, it seemed run down, a bit seedy and reeking of age. This is where I saw many of the Universal “B” monster movies including “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.”

At some point in the mid 1950s or early 60s, the theatre  became the Capitol Hill. After renovating the space, owner Donald King opened on August 17th, 1967 with “The King of Hearts.”  I was an usher that evening but over the next few months served as doorman, cashier, assistant manager and finally manager. Everything being a bit chaotic.

Shortly after I moved on to a theatre in Arlington, Virginia, a “for sale” sign went up on the old Avenue Grand-Capitol  Hill . A fire broke out, in November 1970, destroying the interior. The last remnants of the burned out theatre razed soon afterwards.