bughouse, noun

A run-down or second-rate cinema.
Note:
Also Australian and British English, but first used in South African English (see Beale quotation 1984).
1967 E. Partridge Dict. of Slang & Unconventional Eng. 1030bug house,..A second-rate cinema: South Africa: since ca. 1920. Cyrus A. Smith, in letter of July 17, 1946.
1970 S.E. Natham Informant, Cape Town, Western CapeBughouse. Old cinema.
1970 Informant, Pietersburg (now Polokwane)Bughouse. Bioscope.
1984 R. Sadowsky in Sunday Times 29 Jan. 19In those days..admission to the local ‘bug house’ (bioscope) was a ‘zack’ (sixpence).
1984 P. Beale Dict. of Slang & Unconventional Eng. 147Bug house, A second-rate cinema: S. Africa: since c. 1920.
1985 A. Goldstuck in Frontline Feb. 20When he was about 8, the Joburg ‘bughouses’ used to play a ‘magical sound’ before the curtain went up for the movie.
1994 Style May 14Clarence is something of a kung fu movie junkie and takes in chop-socky triple features at the local bughouse when he’s not working at a Detroit comic book shop.
A run-down or second-rate cinema.
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