Eric I & II
4400 Derry Street,
Harrisburg,
PA
17111
4400 Derry Street,
Harrisburg,
PA
17111
1 person
favorited this theater
Originally opened in April 1963 as a single screen theatre with 1,350 seats, with “Lawrence of Arabia”. The Harrisburg Eric was built for 70mm reserved seat movies.
Twinned in 1978, the Eric I & II opened with “Superman” starring Christopher Reeve. The landlord then padlocked the theatre, claiming he was entitled to twice the rent since it had been twinned. Sameric went to court and the landlord lost that lawsuit.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
Norelco…I remember there was a third projector in the booth, to the left of the big ones. It was smaller and very old-looking and 35mm only. That projector was used for a couple of weeks when I worked there as an usher. They were showing the Julie Andrews flop “Star!” in 70mm but late in the run they wanted to run a trailer for the next attraction before the main feature, and that projector was used only for that. It was a Simplex I think. How old was that one?
There was a storage area at the top of the steps to the booth and to the left. It was stacked with box upon box filled with used carbon rods. What did they keep them for? When they split the Eric into twins did they build a new booth for either side or did they keep it in the same place? I went in there one time after it was twinned and think I saw what looked like another staircase in the lobby, which I assumed was for better access to the booth. It was 30+ years ago so I may be remembering something that wasn’t there.
Another thing I remember about the Eric was the emergency lighting system, which was in a small room to the right of the screen. There must have been a dozen or more storage batteries all wired up and ready for the lights to go out. Never saw anything like it. The room was freezing cold as I recall.
I worked at the Eric for about a year in 1968-69. There was a lot of turnover among ushers. Mr. Bernstein wasn’t the easiest person to work for, cranky as he was.
The Eric wasn’t much for beauty but 70mm looked great in there and the sound was really nice. However, I’ve always thought the Trans Lux was just a nicer theater all around.
John,, The boxes of carbon rods was eventually used up by Paul,, He bvought a tool set and joined them together, and burned them down to nothing. He saved that Company a ton of money by doing that.. He and I used to send ideas to projector companies on how to build better projectors, but was always turned down.. Thhe old projector was a Simplex Standard.. They took out the Norelcos towardsa the end and put in a Simplex XL on one side and one of the Cinnemacannicas from the Trans Lux on the big side.Sad thing is after Paul burned all the carbons for them they fired him, so he could'nt collect his pension…
I remember there was an Eric in downtown Allentown. It opened in the late 60s and I remember going there in the summer of 1969 to see “Midnight Cowboy” It must have been the same chain because the letters of the name in the photos above were the same as the one in Allentown. Many years later I was in Allentown again and it was the Eric 5, so they obviously added on more screens. I’m not sure when it closed but it was a stand alone building right near city hall and had it’s own parking lot. I don’t know if it still stands or was demolished.
The Trans Lux was a wonderful theatre, 4 projectors Cinemacannica V8s reel to reel automation changeovers, just a great job… I remewmber we ran Saturday Night Fever in the gold theatre and Heaven can wait in the blue theatre…We were so busy with fever that we cancelled the shows of heaven can wait and ran both sides with fever.. We had 40 minute reels so we just started them an hour apart,, worked out great and what a business they had them days, was nice to see both sides completely filled up….
The Trans Lux in York was probably the same as the one in Harrisburg, and was twinned in the Blue and Gold style as well. They were even nice, plush theaters as twins. The only problem was they were really long and not so wide, and you practically needed binoculars if you were near the back.
That story about Sameric firing Paul Hipple really ticks me off. He’s long gone I’m sure but what a lousy way to treat an employee who came up with a way to recycle carbon rods and save them money. To my young eyes he was really good at his craft, and he was always nice to us “JRs” as he used to call us. What possible justification did they have?
Paul was a great guy, He and I worked alot of theatres together, he always liked me because even though I was young I had a vast knowledge of projectors and lamps, sound was always my one weak point..Paul and I spent many many hours in booths together and we always got along great.. I went to his funeral was so sad, I don’t remember what year it was, but yes was quite awhile ago… Nobody knows for sure, but I think they just wanted to get rid of the union projectionist no matter how good we were, or how much we saved them money.
What I never could figure out,and i was a manager,but pro-union is why producers and directors would use union labor to make a movie then turn it over to a 17 year old to present to moviegoers.I wish someone that knows much more Than I do,please explain?
Simple,, They thought they were saving money by going non union.. Even though tons of footage was scratched or totally destroyed, they were saving money,..
I guess you can’t fight Wall Street,but I would like to think had i been a director such as a Kubrick,no 17 year would run my movie.It never has made sense to me.I saw this non-union crap coming my last year at GCC i was a pro-union manager because the guys in booth put on a good show,never had to give advice,maybe on a trailer,but other than that took their hours down for the payroll.I guess i was just too dang smart to manage a theatre when i saw they had plans for Managers in the booth and on the floor.Glad I got out in 1983.
I.A.T.S.E was a dang good projectionist Union and it was one less headache to have to worry about the booth,in all my theatres ;i was lucky to have highly trained men,not only in putting a good picture on,but most all of them could fix a busted popcorn popper.LOL.