Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Basil Brothers Lasalle Theater 1939


(click on photo for larger image)

No matter how many times I see this photo (from the Niagara Gazette), I simply can't believe it. This theater stood on the corner of Buffalo Ave and 76th Street. Absolutely astounding.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

My sisters carried me as a baby when I first went there. I loved going there on a Saturday.

paul said...

the Basil Brothers also owned two other theaters in Niagara Falls. The Rainbow Theater at 1427 Pine Avenue ( now the site of Columbas Square and Gazebo. and the State Theatre ( originally called the Falls Theatre ) at Portage Road and East Falls Street. Both theaters also closed in the 60's.

Ed Boddecker said...

When did they tear down the LaSalle Theater? My Grandparents lived up Stevenson on 76th and I seem to remember as a kid walking down to Buffalo Avenue and seeing rubble. Maybe in the early 70's?

Unknown said...

To those of us who grew up in Packard Court in the 1940s-50s, going to the LaSalle Theater was quite the adventure. Rather than simply walk to the Hippodrome or Rainbow, or even the Strand or Cataract Theaters, we would have to take a bus to Main & Pine, transfer to another bus to Falls St., then transfer to another bus to LaSalle. After the show was over it was the reverse. Quite an all day trip!

Manner of Man Magazine said...

The theatre was designed by architect Stanley Paukstela, who happened to be my maternal great-uncle.

Anonymous said...

I graduated from LaSalle High in 1961. I remember going to the theater on Saturday afternoons when I was in elementary school. The price of admission for children was six cents one week and the next week it would be nine cents.