State Theatre

103 S. 1st Street,
Fulton, NY 13069

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Comerford Theaters Inc., Kallet Theaters Inc., Paramount Pictures Inc.

Architects: Leon H. Lempert, Sr.

Previous Names: Quirk Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Quirk Theatre Fulton NY

The Quirk Theatre was opened February 17, 1913. It was renamed State Theatre on October 30, 1935. It was remodeled in 1941 and was still open in 1957.

Contributed by Bryan Krefft

Recent comments (view all 9 comments)

David Wodeyla
David Wodeyla on September 2, 2005 at 10:16 am

Drove through here last week, theatre is gone.

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on September 2, 2005 at 12:27 pm

Listed in Film Daily Yearbook’s;1941 and 1943 with a seating capacity of 1,100, the State Theatre was operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. through their subsidiary Fulton Enterprises Inc.

The 1950 edition of F.D.Y. gives a seating capacity of 1,071.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 16, 2006 at 7:01 am

Darn those kids:

11/10/69

For the second consecutive weekend the State theater in downtown Fulton was the target of vandals, according to city police.

A complaint was lodged around 10:30 p.m. Saturday that a group of boys had thrown cans at the marquee and had opened the theater doors and used coarse language. Around 1:30 a.m. Sunday the theater management reported that apples had been thrown at the marquee and a dozen light bulbs were broken as a result.

Also damaged was one of the letters in the marquee. Police said the waitresses at the pizza shop next door to the ctheater cleaned the broken glass and smashed apples from the sidewalk. According to police, the theater marquee had been damaged a week ago.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 5, 2007 at 3:16 pm

Here is a pile of rubble that used to be the State:
http://tinyurl.com/y3rxun

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on August 4, 2009 at 8:03 pm

Quirk Theatre is definitely an aka for the State. This page of Fulton postcards at Rootsweb includes one showing the Quirk Theatre. It’s recognizable as the State’s building, and the card looks to be from the 1920s or earlier.

This history of the Fulton Elk’s lodge mentions the Quirk Theatre: “The Elks Old Time Minstrel Shows always packed the Quirk Theater several nights each year.”

The July 22, 1968, issue of Boxoffice said that the State Theatre building had been taken over by the City of Fulton for non-payment of taxes. It was by then the only movie theater in Fulton, and city officials said they wanted to keep it open by any means short of actually operating it.

Various issues of Boxoffice from 1943 into the 1950s say that the State was a unit of the Oneida-based Kallet circuit. A June 8, 1964, item refers to the State saying it “..had been operated by Kallet.”

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on February 19, 2010 at 6:59 pm

Quirky State Theatre???

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 8, 2011 at 3:33 am

I’ve found the Quirk Theatre mentioned in issues of the Fulton Times as early as April, 1913. I haven’t yet found an article about the opening of the theater, but there must be one. An article in a 1989 issue of the Oswego Valley News said that the Quirk Theatre had been built “…just before World War I….” The house was built by a prominent Fulton citizen, Edward Quirk, who also served at least one term as the town’s mayor.

The September, 1912, issue of trade union journal The Lather listed a theater project at Fulton in its construction news column. The architect for the project was Leon H. Lempert. As the local newspapers give no indication of any other new theaters opening in Fulton around this time, the project was almost certainly the Quirk.

The name State Theatre first appears in the local newspapers in 1935. The October 31 issue of the Fulton Patriot said that the renovated theater had been opened the previous night.

In 1941, the theater was more extensively remodeled. Congratulatory ads placed in the June 20th Oswego Palladium-Times, another local paper, included one from the Belgian Art Studios in New York which said that all the murals and other decorations in the remodeled theater were by Oscar Glas.

Jenorv
Jenorv on February 22, 2015 at 10:09 am

As a kid was the theatre I went to many times. It had a wonderful art deco interior. I have written about seeing Scary Movies there on my blog

https://jenorv66.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/scary-movies/

It was a shame when it was torn down.

Texas2step
Texas2step on March 31, 2018 at 5:09 pm

This one opened as the Quirk Theatre on February 17, 1913. Reopened as the State Theatre on October 30, 1935.

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