Pictures

Here are some older pictures of the theater from local historian Phil Sheridan's 3-volume series Those Wonderful Old Downtown Theaters (Photographs courtesy of Ione Benedetto).
Click on any picture to see the full image.

The Beechwold Theater as it appeared in the mid-60's.

The Beechwold by night, and after renovation to become the Camelot North.

Unless otherwise noted, the pictures below were taken in March and April 1995, shortly before the theater closed. Click on any picture to see the full image.

The Exterior

Front of the theater, looking southeast and northeast, respectively.

The marquee, advertising Atom Egoyan's Exotica

The Lobby

View of the lobby from in front of the auditorium doors

View of the lobby from the box office

View of the lobby from the main entrance

The Auditorium

Two views of the auditorium from the manager's office window

The auditorium, viewed from the back of the right aisle.

The Projection Booth

Full-length shot of one of the Simplex reel-to-reel projectors, running 6000' reels.

View of the booth from the doorway

Rewind table, splicer, reels, and supplies

Threading up the first half of Exotica. (April 1995)

One of the projectors (Simplex PR1014 head, IPC SH-1000 soundhead, Kneisley Xenex-II 2000W lamphouse, Kelmar RS-7000 reel arms). Threaded up is the second half of Tin Pan Alley- the last reel of film shown at the Drexel North.

View of a projector with the Simplex Super heads we were using prior to 1994. These heads date from the 1930's and came from a theater in Nelsonville, Ohio. We installed rebuilt Simplex PR1014 heads during the run of The Piano in March 1994.

Overhead view of our projectors when we were running the Supers.

Closeup of Simplex Super head. Notice the circular opening for a hand crank (look diagonally up and left from the film loop in the soundhead). (Yes, that's duct tape joining the 1980's lamphouse and 1930's picture head. It not only served as a light shield, but also provided a wonderful aroma during operation!)

Our Hortson 16mm projector

Go back to The Demise of the Drexel North