Things have gone from bad to worse for the Capitol. The City of Middletown has declared it unsafe and is having it demolished. It has deteriorated due to a long-leaking roof. Too bad no one could just keep it dry. Middletown is an artsy town with nice restaurants on its main street and Wesleyan University and could probably support an arts house, botique theater. Well, looks like that won’t happen.
The Palace was north of the center of town on Main Street, not south of town where the Hole in the Wall is now located. It was a big theater, seating over 1200. Toward the end of its life, it succumbed to showing only “adult” movies. It suffered mysterious fire damage in 1979 and was subsequently torn down.
I grew up in Ridgewood and have fond memories of the Warner and its grand marquee with yellow and white chaser lights. The YMCA would take a group of kids there on Saturday mornings to see cartoons. Lots of fun for 50 cents. Also saw many movies there on its big screen. There was only one screen then. The theater had a balcony too. I remember seeing “The High and Mighty” and “Spencer’s Mountain”, two movies I still recall in detail. Good memories. Glad to see that it’s still open.
I have a spectacular 33 RPM record of George Wright playing the Wurlitzer pipe organ at the Rialto (Dot DLP 25712). He recorded it after a Mr. John Curry rebuilt the organ as a labor of love from 1956 – 1962. Too bad the organ was damaged by fire and water in the later 1960’s. Does anyone know where the remains of the organ went. It was a real loss.
Things have gone from bad to worse for the Capitol. The City of Middletown has declared it unsafe and is having it demolished. It has deteriorated due to a long-leaking roof. Too bad no one could just keep it dry. Middletown is an artsy town with nice restaurants on its main street and Wesleyan University and could probably support an arts house, botique theater. Well, looks like that won’t happen.
The Palace was north of the center of town on Main Street, not south of town where the Hole in the Wall is now located. It was a big theater, seating over 1200. Toward the end of its life, it succumbed to showing only “adult” movies. It suffered mysterious fire damage in 1979 and was subsequently torn down.
I grew up in Ridgewood and have fond memories of the Warner and its grand marquee with yellow and white chaser lights. The YMCA would take a group of kids there on Saturday mornings to see cartoons. Lots of fun for 50 cents. Also saw many movies there on its big screen. There was only one screen then. The theater had a balcony too. I remember seeing “The High and Mighty” and “Spencer’s Mountain”, two movies I still recall in detail. Good memories. Glad to see that it’s still open.
I have a spectacular 33 RPM record of George Wright playing the Wurlitzer pipe organ at the Rialto (Dot DLP 25712). He recorded it after a Mr. John Curry rebuilt the organ as a labor of love from 1956 – 1962. Too bad the organ was damaged by fire and water in the later 1960’s. Does anyone know where the remains of the organ went. It was a real loss.