The Greek Ties to Pittsburgh’s Movie Theaters of Yesteryear
My dad has always said that his favorite moviegoing memory is the open-air cinemas of Greece. Some of my earliest moviegoing memories are of the drive-in theater of my mom’s hometown of Carmichaels, PA, located sixty miles south of Pittsburgh. Neither of them can fathom how these life experiences led to this career and this article, but what none of us considered was Pittsburgh’s rich history of Greek cinemas.
The former Rex Theater, located in the 1600 block of East Carson Street, now Enclave, began its life as the Strand in 1918. The theater was opened by Louis and Christ Micahalacoulos, who shortened their last name to Michael after they arrived in the United States. They came to Pittsburgh from Megalopolis, Greece, in 1910, and five years later started to purchase buildings in the 1600 block of East Carson. They weren’t the only Greeks to open a theater in Pittsburgh during that era.
Across town, in the 300 block of Fifth Avenue downtown, Peter Antonoplos and John Baziotes opened the Olympic Theater. Antonoplos hailed from Sparta, while Baziotes immigrated from Vlachokerasia. The two were also founders of the Greek Community of Allegheny County in 1908. According to the American Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania (AHFWP), the peak of Greek immigration in Allegheny County was between 1910 and 1912, matching the arrivals of the Micahalacoulos brothers, Antonoplos, Baziotes, and more. AHFWP cites the Xenides' survey to say that, in 1919, there were 1,500 Greeks living in Pittsburgh.
Antonoplos and Baziotes’ Olympic Theater was a gathering point for Greeks in the 1900s. When the theater opened, it screened movies, played host to live events, and offered billiards, pool, and bowling lanes. This theater was where the who’s-who of the Greek community gathered until the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral opened its doors in Oakland in 1921.
The histories of the Strand and the Olympic Theater become intertwined in the 1920s. Antonoplos of the Olympic Theater lost his stake after splitting from his business partner, Baziotes, and no longer being a part of the majority ownership of the business. This came after a falling-out with the John Eichleay Jr. Company, from whom he borrowed money to pay for theater renovations. In 1923, the Eichleay Company leased the Olympic to the McCrory Stores Corporation and turned it into a five and dime store.
Antonoplos then set his sights on the Strand Theater. In 1920, the Micahalacoulos brothers rented the theater to George Frankovich. It was the Micahalacoulos brothers and Frankovich who Antonoplos sued after his bid to buy the lease to the Strand fell through in 1924. Antonoplos came out victorious, with a six-year lease and access to the theater’s assets. Perhaps high off this win, Antonoplos wanted to expand his empire with the Rivoli Theatre in North Braddock.
The Strand Theater became the Rex, and later Enclave. No longer is it a movie theater, but a nightclub. The last film to screen at the theater was Gone with the Wind in 1959. Greeks have a long history of screening movies in Pittsburgh. While the Strand and the Olympic are no more, as Scarlett O’Hara famously says, “Tomorrow is another day.”
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, TikTok, Letterboxd, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies and I Think You’ll Hate This, a podcast hosted by two friends who rarely agree.
Support your local film critic!
~
Support your local film critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.