South Street’s Theatre of the Living Arts (TLA) has been a mainstay on Philadelphia’s visual and performance art landscape since its founding in 1964.  Though the venue officially became Fillmore Philadelphia at the TLA in 2007, its longstanding moniker is still preferred by just about everybody.  The sentimentality is not misplaced given the building’s important role in its neighborhood’s cultural history.

TLA today

Larger than the surrounding tailors, clothiers and cobblers in its midst, the building constructed in 1908 was called the Crystal Palace. According to Rivest’s Ultimate List of Movie Theatres, this was among more than 100 Nickelodeons that proliferated throughout the city in the aughts and teens.  In 1927, at the start of Hollywood’s Golden Age, RKO-Warner Bros. occupied the building and renamed it the New Palace Theatre.  According to Shawn Evans of PhillyHistory.org, this would make it one of 275 new full-length motion…