The opening description is wrong. The Opera House was built in 1869. It began screening movies in 1935. It was known variously as the Roxy and the Como.
As Richard Wolfe notes in his 2009 comment The Smyrna Opera House is separate and distinct from the 1948 movie theatre which was built on Commerce Street for the George M Schwartz chain from Dover Delaware. It was the 1948 Smyrna theatre that had the balcony and cry rooms. The link to the 1948 pictures (posted in 2007) by Ken Mcintyre are pictures of the Schwartz Symrna Theatre on Commerce Street and are not pictures Symrna Opera House. In fact you can see the balcony and glass enclosed cry rooms in one of Mcintyre’s pictures. That Mcintyre link should most likely be moved to the Smyrna Theatre on Commerce Street.
The Diamond State Drive In did not switch to porn until at least the mid to late 1970’s.
From about the mid 1960’s until at least the mid 1970’s the Diamond State was leased to R/C Theatres (Roth/Cohen) from the Baltimore/Washington area. Under R/C banner the Diamond State played nothing but low rent ‘Drive-In’ oriented fare such as “Caged Women” “Macon County Line” “Last House On the Left” and other similar Corman New World Pictures/AIP motorcyle and exploitation fare.
William Warren opened the first theatre in Milford Delaware called Warren’s Palace Theatre in Milford Delaware in 1918 on the west side of downtown Milford just north of the Mispillion River. A competitor opened Nixon’s Palace Theatre in Milford in 1922.
Not to be outdone William Warren opened the Plaza around 1923. The Plaza was the largest building in Milford. In the early 1940’s the Plaza became part of the Schine Circuit and was labelled by the Schine Circuit as “The New Plaza Theatre” although the townfolks always referred to it simply as The Plaza Theatre.
The Plaza burned on September 23, 1946. Capitalizing on the Plaza fire the Armory building was quickly converted into the Shore Theate. The Shore Theatre opened on October 28, 1946. The Schine circuit responded by commissioning the Ebersons to reconfigure what remained of the Plaza combined with a new build which was christened The Milford Theatre (which opened in June 1948).
It is my understanding that AMC has agreed to sell the Tilghman 8 in order to satisfy the stipulation with the US justice department with regard to its acquisition of Carmike.
The Hampden 8 theatres were the twin sister (meaning built at the same time in 1988 and with the same plans) as the AMC Tilghman 8 in Allentown PA. The Tilghman 8 was just recently remodled into a upscale bar/recline-o-plex. However in order to purchase Carmike the justice department has made AMC sell the Tilghman 8 in Allentown. So not only has AMC has gotten the Hampden 8 back but at the same time was forced to sell the now more upscale Tilghman 8.
The Majestic Theatre was opened in the early spring of 1911 following the great fire of 1910 which destroyed that whole area of Middletown. The Majestic was originally intended to be merely a stopgap until the more upscale Realty Theatre (later renamed the Elks) was built and opened by the same owners around the corner in October 1911.
In Middletown parlance the Elks and the Majestic became known as the “Upper” (the Elks which ran the more quality product) and the “Lower” (the Majestic which ran the B westerns, the Bowery Boys and other Monogram programers). The Majestic closed about 1955 as the owner did not make the conversion to CinemaScope.
Today the building houses an insurance office and Planned Parenthood.
Walter Finch and his partner Witmer also sometimes operated indoor theatres on a X rated basis as well. They operated the State Theatre in Lebanon in the late 1970’s through early 1980’s (incorrectly designated as FlinchWitmer on the write up of Cinema Treasures)
I believe the Pine Grove Drive In lasted until sometime in the early 1980’s. In its last dozen years or so it was operated by the Walter Finch and his partner as part of their small chain of X-rated Drive-ins (which included at various times the Temple Drive In in Williamstown, the Route 222 Drive In Fleetwood, the Strinestown Drive In north of York, and the Midway Drive In between Hummelstown and Middletown.)
Upon demolition the 35MM projectors from the State Theatre were donated to St. Bonaventure University where they were installed in the then new Reily Center and used for campus weekly free movie Sunday night showings for many years.
According to published reports it appears that the 1911 incarnation of the Andrews Theatre was destroyed in the July 1923 fire which swept through much of downtown Salamanca:
In the 1960’s and ‘70s the Allegany Drive In was operated by Nino Bordinaro who at that time also operated the Palace and Olean Theatres in downtown Olean, the Limestone Drive-In in Limestone and in 1972 built the Portville Drive In on the east side of Olean. According to rumors the Portville Drive In was supposedly to be the replacement for the Allegany Drive In. However the Allegany Drive In continued in operation until 1995.
The Castle Cinema was intended to provide guests in the 180 room ballroom/resort with movies in the days before in-room entertainment.
The Castle Restaurant and Motel were demolished in the fall of 2005 to make way for a mixed used development that never occurred. The site is just west of the shopping center where the Walmart and Carmike cinemas are currently located. Castle Drive is the only remaining vestage of this once sprawling complex.
I guess those recent upgrades don’t come cheap. It is now $17.75 (not including any online purchase surcharges)for a general admission ticket in the evenings for a non 3D show.
The Andrews Theatre sat on the southeast bank of the Allegheny River. A photo postcard with the Andrews Theatre in the lower right corner has been uploaded. I believe the Andrews closed in the mid 1950’s after the Schine’s opened the more modern Eberson designed Seneca Theatre a couple of blocks up the street. The Seneca was on the same side of the street.
The Andrews Theatre continued to sit vacant until it was demolished in the mid 1960’s as part of the widening of the Allegheny River basin in conjunction with the construction of the Kinzua Dam in Warren County Pennsylvania.
The Kinzua Dam project was supposed to alleviate the repeated flooding of the Allegheny River in Salamanca and other river communities. However just a few years later on June 25 1972 flooding from the Alleghney River caused by Hurricane Agnes took out the Seneca Theatre up the street.
The last operator of the Route 222 Drive In was Anstadt and Wolfe Theatres (Paul Angstadt and Richard C. Wolfe). Originally build by the Finch family on ground owned by that family.
The opening description is wrong. The Opera House was built in 1869. It began screening movies in 1935. It was known variously as the Roxy and the Como.
As Richard Wolfe notes in his 2009 comment The Smyrna Opera House is separate and distinct from the 1948 movie theatre which was built on Commerce Street for the George M Schwartz chain from Dover Delaware. It was the 1948 Smyrna theatre that had the balcony and cry rooms. The link to the 1948 pictures (posted in 2007) by Ken Mcintyre are pictures of the Schwartz Symrna Theatre on Commerce Street and are not pictures Symrna Opera House. In fact you can see the balcony and glass enclosed cry rooms in one of Mcintyre’s pictures. That Mcintyre link should most likely be moved to the Smyrna Theatre on Commerce Street.
The Smyrna Theatre was built and operated by GM Schwartz Theatres of Dover Delaware.
I believe the Smyrna Theatre operated until the mid 1970’s.
The Diamond State Drive In did not switch to porn until at least the mid to late 1970’s.
From about the mid 1960’s until at least the mid 1970’s the Diamond State was leased to R/C Theatres (Roth/Cohen) from the Baltimore/Washington area. Under R/C banner the Diamond State played nothing but low rent ‘Drive-In’ oriented fare such as “Caged Women” “Macon County Line” “Last House On the Left” and other similar Corman New World Pictures/AIP motorcyle and exploitation fare.
The last film screened at the Milford Theatre was
“Straw Dogs” with Dustin Hoffman in 1972.
William Warren opened the first theatre in Milford Delaware called Warren’s Palace Theatre in Milford Delaware in 1918 on the west side of downtown Milford just north of the Mispillion River. A competitor opened Nixon’s Palace Theatre in Milford in 1922.
Not to be outdone William Warren opened the Plaza around 1923. The Plaza was the largest building in Milford. In the early 1940’s the Plaza became part of the Schine Circuit and was labelled by the Schine Circuit as “The New Plaza Theatre” although the townfolks always referred to it simply as The Plaza Theatre.
The Plaza burned on September 23, 1946. Capitalizing on the Plaza fire the Armory building was quickly converted into the Shore Theate. The Shore Theatre opened on October 28, 1946. The Schine circuit responded by commissioning the Ebersons to reconfigure what remained of the Plaza combined with a new build which was christened The Milford Theatre (which opened in June 1948).
Lots of pictures and history can be found here:
http://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/02/hershey_theatre_cool_spaces.html
Owned by Richard and Helen Jones who also had the Holly Theatre in Mount Holly Springs.
Dick loved his drive-in. When Dick Jones died he was buried with a drive-in speaker with him in the casket.
It is my understanding that AMC has agreed to sell the Tilghman 8 in order to satisfy the stipulation with the US justice department with regard to its acquisition of Carmike.
The Hampden 8 theatres were the twin sister (meaning built at the same time in 1988 and with the same plans) as the AMC Tilghman 8 in Allentown PA. The Tilghman 8 was just recently remodled into a upscale bar/recline-o-plex. However in order to purchase Carmike the justice department has made AMC sell the Tilghman 8 in Allentown. So not only has AMC has gotten the Hampden 8 back but at the same time was forced to sell the now more upscale Tilghman 8.
The Majestic Theatre was opened in the early spring of 1911 following the great fire of 1910 which destroyed that whole area of Middletown. The Majestic was originally intended to be merely a stopgap until the more upscale Realty Theatre (later renamed the Elks) was built and opened by the same owners around the corner in October 1911.
In Middletown parlance the Elks and the Majestic became known as the “Upper” (the Elks which ran the more quality product) and the “Lower” (the Majestic which ran the B westerns, the Bowery Boys and other Monogram programers). The Majestic closed about 1955 as the owner did not make the conversion to CinemaScope.
Today the building houses an insurance office and Planned Parenthood.
Marked this one as closed again. I think it closed sometime in 2015.
More details with photos on a Facebook ‘Flashback Friday’ column found at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.688704264540483.1073741832.150383795039202&type=3
The Tremont Theatre lasted unitl the late 1980’s.
Walter Finch and his partner Witmer also sometimes operated indoor theatres on a X rated basis as well. They operated the State Theatre in Lebanon in the late 1970’s through early 1980’s (incorrectly designated as FlinchWitmer on the write up of Cinema Treasures)
I believe the Pine Grove Drive In lasted until sometime in the early 1980’s. In its last dozen years or so it was operated by the Walter Finch and his partner as part of their small chain of X-rated Drive-ins (which included at various times the Temple Drive In in Williamstown, the Route 222 Drive In Fleetwood, the Strinestown Drive In north of York, and the Midway Drive In between Hummelstown and Middletown.)
In the 1960’s and later the Limestone Drive In was operated by Nino Bordinaro of Olean.
The Limestone Drive In closed in 1987.
The Shore Drive In was built and operated by the Friestak family which also built and operated the West Shore Theatre in New Cumberland.
The Shore Drive In closed about 1987.
Upon demolition the 35MM projectors from the State Theatre were donated to St. Bonaventure University where they were installed in the then new Reily Center and used for campus weekly free movie Sunday night showings for many years.
According to published reports it appears that the 1911 incarnation of the Andrews Theatre was destroyed in the July 1923 fire which swept through much of downtown Salamanca:
http://www.gendisasters.com/new-york/13758/salamanca-ny-business-district-fire-july-1923
It would thus appear that the 1930 Rigamount design was a replacement for the Andrews Theatre that was destroyed in 1923.
In the 1960’s and ‘70s the Allegany Drive In was operated by Nino Bordinaro who at that time also operated the Palace and Olean Theatres in downtown Olean, the Limestone Drive-In in Limestone and in 1972 built the Portville Drive In on the east side of Olean. According to rumors the Portville Drive In was supposedly to be the replacement for the Allegany Drive In. However the Allegany Drive In continued in operation until 1995.
The Castle Cinema was intended to provide guests in the 180 room ballroom/resort with movies in the days before in-room entertainment.
The Castle Restaurant and Motel were demolished in the fall of 2005 to make way for a mixed used development that never occurred. The site is just west of the shopping center where the Walmart and Carmike cinemas are currently located. Castle Drive is the only remaining vestage of this once sprawling complex.
I guess those recent upgrades don’t come cheap. It is now $17.75 (not including any online purchase surcharges)for a general admission ticket in the evenings for a non 3D show.
The Andrews Theatre sat on the southeast bank of the Allegheny River. A photo postcard with the Andrews Theatre in the lower right corner has been uploaded. I believe the Andrews closed in the mid 1950’s after the Schine’s opened the more modern Eberson designed Seneca Theatre a couple of blocks up the street. The Seneca was on the same side of the street.
The Andrews Theatre continued to sit vacant until it was demolished in the mid 1960’s as part of the widening of the Allegheny River basin in conjunction with the construction of the Kinzua Dam in Warren County Pennsylvania.
The Kinzua Dam project was supposed to alleviate the repeated flooding of the Allegheny River in Salamanca and other river communities. However just a few years later on June 25 1972 flooding from the Alleghney River caused by Hurricane Agnes took out the Seneca Theatre up the street.
Re-opened a couple of years ago under the Flagship Theatres banner. The complex was reconfigured from 12 screens down to an 8 screen recline-o-plex.
The last operator of the Route 222 Drive In was Anstadt and Wolfe Theatres (Paul Angstadt and Richard C. Wolfe). Originally build by the Finch family on ground owned by that family.