www.flickr.com
Listen Now to WYEP’s Pittsburgh Performance Project audio profile of The Stanley Theater


The Stanley Theater


Stanley Bob Marley
Bob Marley backstage at the Stanley. Image courtesy Ed Traversari.

"Having Bob Marley play his last performance there was pretty monumental." – Ed Traversari, concert promoter for DiCesare Englar, on the reggae legend’s final concert at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theater in 1980

The Renaissance of Pittsburgh—an ongoing movement with two key phases in the 1960’s and 1980’s—has shown the city’s ability to literally transform itself beyond its industrial reputation. No longer the smoky town where the streetlamps had to be kept on at noon because of the soot in the air, Pittsburgh’s Downtown has become a cultural hub amidst a sea of new construction and the refurbishment of grand buildings from its past.

Stanley Theater Map

Originally built in 1927 in the heart of Downtown at the corner of Liberty and Seventh for around $3 million, The Stanley Theater was christened “Pittsburgh’s Palace of Amusement” and served as a welcome escape for Pittsburghers during the hardships of the Great Depression.

Hosting a wide range of live acts in a space that looked great and sounded even better, The Stanley Theater was named the #1 Auditorium in the U.S. by Billboard Magazine during its live music heyday in the 1970’s. The theater’s legend grew even stronger when reggae icon Bob Marley performed his last-ever show there on September 23rd, 1980 before his death the following year.

The Stanley was restored to its original baroque splendor by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and reopened in 1987 as the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, a jewel in the rejuvenated Downtown Cultural District.