{"id":2534,"date":"2024-08-25T14:51:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T18:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2025-08-07T06:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T10:29:59","slug":"the-history-of-the-tower-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/eternal-2534-the-history-of-the-tower-theater","title":{"rendered":"The History of the Tower Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Tower Theater, located in a suburb of Philadelphia<\/a>, has served as a movie palace, a theater, and a music venue over the years. It was its live music concerts and exceptional acoustics that made the venue famous across the United States. In 2018, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the theater among the top ten live music venues in the country<\/strong>. Let’s explore its history and various phases of operation. More at philadelphia-trend<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founding and Years as a Movie Theater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Tower Theater was built in 1927 and opened a year later by John H. McClatchy as a movie theater. It was one of the first in a bustling area, situated on a major thoroughfare leading to Center City Philadelphia. Thanks to this prime location, the venue always had plenty of patrons. It showed a variety of popular films and vaudeville acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, the building became the property of the A.M. Ellis company and continued to operate as a movie theater. By the late 1960s, the venue had become unprofitable, showing second-run films with tickets costing just $1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after, a severe fire broke out in the building, causing significant damage. It seemed that the story of the Tower Theater would end there, but in reality, it was just beginning. The venue rose from the ashes like a phoenix, but this time, it would not return as a movie theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconstruction and Transformation into a Music Venue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1972, the theater underwent a massive reconstruction. Afterward, the company Midnight Sun Concerts<\/strong> decided to transform it into a music venue. The first show took place on June 14 of that year, featuring Dave Mason and Buzzy Linhart, and it was a resounding success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midnight Sun was founded and led by Rick Green, who also handled talent scouting. Peter Wertimer served as the director, and Billy Stevenson was the manager. Peter later took on advertising and public relations, and the team was joined by manager Pat Gibbons, journalist David Fricke, and Debbie Gold, who handled sound recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same year, in 1972, the Tower presented the first U.S. appearances of David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars<\/strong>, as well as Genesis with Peter Gabriel. Tickets for the then-unknown bands cost just $4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1974, Philadelphia’s own hometown hero Bruce Springsteen performed at the Tower Theater. He held a concert and introduced his new E Street Band, featuring new members Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan. That night, the musicians earned $5,000 and soon returned to the venue for another show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regulars at Midnight Sun events at the Tower included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • David Bowie;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Jackson Browne;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Lou Reed;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Steve Miller;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Kiss;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Blue \u00d6yster Cult;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Stevie Wonder;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Miles Davis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    David Bowie even recorded his album David Live<\/em><\/strong> during his run of shows at the Tower in 1974. The Average White Band’s album Person to Person<\/em> was also recorded at the Tower\u2014or more precisely, in a recording truck parked behind the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Despite its wild success and popularity, the owners decided to sell the theater to Electric Factory Concerts<\/strong> in late 1975. The final Midnight Sun performance at the Tower took place on December 5, 1975, featuring the British quartet 10cc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Venue’s Later Years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The new owners continued to use the venue as a music hotspot, and many exciting events took place there. For instance, in 1977, the Irish rock group Thin Lizzy recorded parts of their album Still Dangerous<\/em> here. In 1980, Paul Simon performed at the venue. The recording formed the basis for Paul Simon in Concert<\/em>, which was re-released in 2003 as Live at the Tower Theatre<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Prince himself performed in this building twice, in 1982 and 1997. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour played three solo concerts at the Tower Theater in 1984 in support of his album About Face<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The location also became a favorite venue for Tangerine Dream. They played four concerts here during their North American tours. In 1987, a Jethro Tull concert was recorded at the theater for the King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcast. The following year, a Pat Benatar performance was recorded for the Superstar Concert Series. In 1989, the bands Anthrax, Exodus, and Helloween performed here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thus, the venue never lost its popularity. On the contrary, it was and remained well-known, and famous musicians were eager to perform there, including the Tower Theater in their tour schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This high level of activity continued into the 2000s. Its role in the U.S. concert hierarchy was equivalent to that of the Beacon Theatre in New York City<\/strong>. The venue operated for a time under the name Live Nation\/Electric Factory Concerts but later reverted to the name familiar to residents of Philadelphia and the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In 2019, a reconstruction of the building began. The tower that was installed on top of the venue was dismantled and replaced. During and after the reconstruction, the venue’s activity slowed down somewhat. Later, it was negatively impacted by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Still, the Tower Theater remains a landmark in Philadelphia, and perhaps this music venue will be reborn once again, inviting audiences to the best and brightest musical events in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Tower Theater, located in a suburb of Philadelphia, has served as a movie palace, a theater, and a music venue over the years. It was its live music concerts and exceptional acoustics that made the venue famous across the United States. In 2018, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the theater among the top ten live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":2539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[1566,1565,1579,1571,1574,1575,1576,1570,1577,1567,1573,1572,1569,1568,1578],"motype":[160],"moformat":[],"moimportance":[32,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-2534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-teatrs","8":"tag-bruce-springsteen-e-street-band","9":"tag-david-bowie-david-live","10":"tag-david-gilmour-about-face-tour","11":"tag-electric-factory-concerts","12":"tag-genesis-peter-gabriel","13":"tag-king-biscuit-flower-hour","14":"tag-live-music-history","15":"tag-midnight-sun-concerts","16":"tag-paul-simon-live-album","17":"tag-philly-music-venues","18":"tag-rolling-stone-best-venues","19":"tag-thin-lizzy-still-dangerous","20":"tag-tower-theater","21":"tag-tower-theater-philadelphia","22":"tag-upper-darby-pa","23":"motype-eternal","24":"moimportance-golovna-novyna","25":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}