Colonial Theatre

1posterfan4sure on September 18, 2007 at 7:55 pm

But for an unfortunate accident brought on by years of neglect, the Colonial Theater might have survived as a performing arts center. After the public relations black eye the city got from the demolition of the grand old State Theater in 1974, and a new administration more sympathetic to preservation, the city was anticipating the renovation of the Colonial to its former splendor. But it was not to be.

I recall the Colonial during my downtown movie going days in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s as heavy on action, horror, sci fi, teen pictures, anything from AIP and Toho. William Castle’s gimmicky thrillers always played the Colonial, including “House on Haunted Hill,” during which a skeleton on wires appeared from one of the side boxes and drifted over the audiences’ heads on its way up to the balcony. The prestigious pictures usually played the co-owned State, although I saw “El Cid” and “A Man for All Seasons” at the Colonial, so there were rare exceptions. The first movie I remember seeing at the Colonial was “The Time Machine” in 1960. The last was the X-rated cartoon “Fritz the Cat” in 1973.

The Colonial seated 1,095, although the balcony and side boxes were never open any time I attended. A former vaudeville theater, the Colonial had an equipped stage and an orchestra pit. The interior style was Italian Renaissance, reminiscent of an opera house. It opened as a theater in 1912.

The Colonial, the State and the Rio (closed in 1953) were part of the Wilmer & Vincent chain, and in the 50s and 60s were owned by Fabian Theaters. United Artists leased the Colonial and State from Fabian in the early 70s. The Colonial outlasted the State by a couple of years, turning to blaxploitation, martial arts and urban-themed action pictures, often on double-bills. I don’t recall the Colonial playing XXX features, but it may have happened occasionally, and there was certainly some soft-core in the mix. The Colonial limped to a quiet close in December 1976, with the marquee set-up of its last feature, a martial arts picture, remaining on the marquee for years thereafter. The building was subsequently bought and sold by a series of investors, in 1978, 1979 and 1982, and in the ensuing years the empty theater deteriorated badly. A general-alarm fire set by an arsonist caused further damage in 1978.

“Colonial Theater Collapses” read the headline in the Sunday Patriot-News on September 11th, 1983. The day before, shortly after 12 noon, the roof of the Colonial collapsed, pushing out the east side wall and showering 3rd Street with bricks, debris and a cloud of dust. The owners reported that the roof had been sagging noticeably for several months but said that there had been no indication that the theater was in danger of collapse, although a city inspector had reported that the walls were bulging the Friday before. That Saturday it finally gave out, bringing down a large part of the roof and the east side wall. There were no injuries. No cars were passing by at the time, although four vehicles parked along 3rd St. were demolished.

It could have been much worse. In true Hollywood fashion, a woman pushing a baby carriage had cleared the wall by less than five minutes before the collapse. On any weekday, the 3rd Street bus stop would have been crowded with people. A man who had parked his car beside the theater was standing at the corner of Market and 3rd when the wall gave out, crushing his vehicle. Adjacent to the theater’s west wall, a private club that on a weekday would have been filled with a lunchtime crowd was severely damaged. And strangest of all, a crew was set to begin working on the Colonial’s weakened roof the following Monday, shoring it up from the inside. The city had purchased a tarp for $6,500 which was to be placed over the roof after it had been braced and stabilized, in anticipation of restoring the Colonial as a performing arts center. It seemed as if the grand old lady had given up her life at just the right moment.

The auditorium portion of the Colonial was quickly demolished. The Market Street façade and front portion of the building, which dated back to 1836 as the Wilson, Derr and Locheil Hotels, was spared, minus the marquee, and an office building was built behind it where the Colonial Theater had for so many years, through two world wars, two major floods, the advent of TV and a dying downtown, entertained the people of Pennsylvania’s capital city.

Credit where credit is due: Details of the Colonial Theater collapse were derived from articles written by Mary Bradley, Mary Klaus and Randy Myers of the Harrisburg PA Patriot-News and published in 1983, and one anonymous article published in 1982. Everything else is from my own research and memory.