Victoria Theater
W. 3rd Street,
Mt. Carmel,
PA
17851
W. 3rd Street,
Mt. Carmel,
PA
17851
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The Victoria Theater was one of two theaters located in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania and was located at W. 3rd Street, between Pear Street and Maple Street. It was an early design of William H. Lee whose first theater design was the Victoria in Shamokin, PA.
Mr. Lee Started his career as an architect with the Shamokin Lumber Company. The theater was built around 1920 by Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises and was later operated by Victoria Amusement Enterprises which also operated theaters under this name in Shamokin and Mahanoy City. It was a large theater and like the other Victoria Theaters in the group it had a very large screen which has been added in a 1953 update.
The theater was closed in the late 60s or early 70s and was demolished to make way for a drive-thru bank. The end of the Victoria was the end of motion picure exhibition in Mt. Carmel since the smaller State Theater had been demolished years earlier.
Contributed by
Gary Hoy
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
This theater was still open in 1967. It was then part of the Magazzu chain. Peter Magazzu’s office was on Third & Pear Streets in Mt. Carmel.
A Moller theater organ opus 3515 size 3/13 was installed in the Victoria Theater in 1923 at a cost of $14,000. That organ was replaced with a Moller theater organ opus 4114 size 3/25 in 1925 at a cost of $18,500.
Here is an interior photo from the Irvin Glazer theater collection:
http://tinyurl.com/kp5nf5
According to an item in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor, the theater to be built in Mt. Carmel that W. H. Lee was designing for Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises was to be sited on a 100x150-foot lot at 3rd and Maple Streets. Lee designed a number of theaters for Chamberlain Amusement during this period, but no others in Mt. Carmel, so the item must give the location of the Victoria.
When Lawrence J. Chamberlain died in 1949, a brief obituary appeared in the March 12 issue of The Billboard, mentioning that he was president of Amusements, Inc., with theaters at Allentown and Williamsport, as well as general manager of Victoria Amusement Enterprises, with theaters at Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Mahanoy City, and Tamaqua.