[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh-Some Place Special

[Tom Phillips]

When I was a kid living in Charleroi, Population about 11,000,
there were 3 movie theaters:
1.  The Coyle (still there - don't know if it's operating) in the
300 block of McKean Av.
2.  The Palace in the 500 block of McKean Av. next to Hotel Charleroi
3.  The Menlo in the 500 block of Fallowfield Av
In 1939 a 4th theater opened -- the State Theater in the 600 block
of McKean Av.

The first two showed first-run movies -- Menlo was cowboys-and-indians,
cops-snd-robbers, and exotic stuff (e.g., Carmen Miranda, Lupe Velez)
-- State seemed to specialize in Walt Disney (Snow White, Pinocchio,
Fantasia, etc.)  Blue laws -- all were closed on Sundays.

My Dad would give me a quarter ($0.25) on Saturdays -- with this, I
rode a 3800 from Lockview Stop to 5th St., Charleroi - went to a movie,
got a big ice cream cone at Isaly's, and rode another 3800 back to
Lockview!  The movie was a dime; the cone and streetcar were a nickel.
Sometime in the late '30's, the movie went up a penny - amusement tax!

Tom


-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 7:01 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh-Some Place Special



I've been reading a book on the Depression which Ed L introduced to me.  I
remember
a point that 60% of all Americans attended movies each week in the
Depression (in
spite of 24% unemployment).  s.

In 1930-1950 Lancaster had five (temporarily six) city theaters with seating
capacities ranging from 900 to 2,500.  The suburban towns of Mount Joy,
Elizabethtown, Manheim, Lititz, Ephrata, New Holland and Marietta each had a
theater
(probably 300-400 seats on average) and Columbia borough had two theaters.
The city
theaters had continuous back-to-back shows from noon until midnight, with
Saturday
morning serials for the kids.  The suburban theaters generally had two
evening
shows.   Today there are no movie houses in the city (the Fulton remains for
the
symphony, opera, and plays) and there are four out in the county, mostly
screening
rooms for a  100 or so people.  Only one is open any afternoons.  One
drive-in
barely survives.  The 60% versus 10% numbers don't make a lot of sense.