The Crown theater in Lowell was built in 1916 in the lot adjacent to the Odd Fellows building that housed the Colonial Theater at 84 Middlesex St. The first entry for the Crown theater in the city directory 1917 at 70 Middlesex St. The Crown was a haunt of Jack Kerouac and his pals. In his autobiographical novel "DOCTOR SAX" he wrote, "Sunday afternoon at the Crown Theater with rats in the balcony and the time we threw boxes of ice cream at the miser in the movie foreclosing the widow's mortgage and a 90 year old cop came upstairs to try to find us."
Always a second-run house, the last entry for a Crown Theater in the City directory is 1949 and lists it at 72 Middlessex St. with the manager as Joseph Lennon. The following year, 1950 is the first and last entry for the Allen Theater (same address) and the manager is Arthur J. Stein. Boxoffice Magazine for April 28, 1958 had a feature article about Ben Sack and the Sack theater chain of Boston. Sack said that he got his start in movie theaters in Lowell. In 1950, with partners Irving Sisson and Joe Cohen, he began operating the Allen Theatre. A year later, the three moved to Fitchburg and after getting established there closed the Allen in Lowell, which Sack called a "dog".
For years afterward the building, now addressed at 74 Middlesex St. was occupied by an electrical distribution company called EDI (Electrical Distributors Inc.) but in September of 2010 was converted for use as a New Martial Arts Center to teach Karate, Mixed Martial Arts, Self Defense and Kun Khmer (Cambodian) Kick Boxing.
http://www.cambodianboxing.com/trainers
For more information on what they teach there visit: www.1SecondFight.com or www.SeacoastWarrior.com


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