State Theatre

Well, I was asking about the booth and anything else that wasn’t readily available to the general public, including the mezzanine and balcony levels, as Dave has described, and the backstage, basement and any other parts of the building that we never got to see. Whenever I went there the balcony was closed. I never saw the State beyond the ground floor and always wondered what the place looked like at the top of that marble staircase.

It’s interesting that such a spacious theater would have such a cramped, hot booth. What kind of projectors were used? Were they of recent vintage at the time or did they date back a few decades? I always remember the ‘Scope image at the State as very sharp and bright, much superior to some other theaters.

Dave, one thing that was never used when I went to the State was stereo sound, which some have said the State had. Motion pictures using stereo sound were not at all common back then, so it’s not surprising it wasn’t used very often. Can you recall some films in which it was?

I don’t know what you mean by upstairs???? Had a huge mezanine area outside the balcony doors where they put some tables so you could sit there and wait or eat. I always wondered later on as I went back to PGH. in 74, and was back at the Warner wich had Dolby sound, What the State would have been like with a great Dolby system?? Had a very small booth, we used to call it hell house, got so hot. a very large balcony that seemed to go up forever then when you got to the top you had to go up more steps to the booth.

Turning an old theater into a performing arts center, including showing movies, takes friends at city hall who in turn have friends in the corporate world. York had that with Mayor John Krout and Louis Appell of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff (whose grandfather built the Strand.) That’s how the Strand-Capitol came to be. In 1973 Harrisburg was suffering through one its worst administrations in city hall. The next mayor, Steve Reed, like him or not, would have jumped through hoops to save the State. He tried to save the Colonial but it was too late. (Apparently he didn’t feel much affection for the Senate, however, if that axe story is accurate!) Downtown York was a ghost town and the Strand-Capitol helped turn it around. The State could have done the same thing for Harrisburg. I just think some things are worth saving and the State was one of them.

23 weeks for “MASH?” I stand corrected, Norelco. You should know. And I’m not surprised that with continuous shows, even that film played to an empty house occasionally. When I worked at the Eric as an usher, I remember that happening sometimes on Sunday afternoons, so it wasn’t just the downtown theaters.

Norrelco, you have an insider’s view of the State the rest of us can only dream of. What was it like upstairs?

PS: John S, reading your entry in detail I see you answered my Fabian query.

Ross – I should have mentioned this before – excellent write-up on the State! The address of the State Theater Building was 208-212 Locust Street. The building housed the theater, several adjacent businesses and a large number of offices. So large was this building that Harrisburg’s original Channel 27, WCMB-TV, had offices and studios there. (WCMB-TV was a Dumont affiliate and went dark in 1957, but the studios remained intact and unused until the building was demolished, I’m told.) The State was Harrisburg’s prestige theater. It played a lot of the usual stuff that Hollywood was releasing, but when important films came to town, they played the State, at least until the Eric and Trans Lux were built. Among the films I remember seeing at the State: “Thunderball,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” (not in Cinerama), “Planet of the Apes,” “Mutiny on the Bounty” (the Brando version), and “7th Voyage of Sinbad.” My first movie at the State was “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” I also saw “MASH” at the State, which had the longest downtown run in my memory, 17 weeks. I was told by someone that the State had the largest Cinemascope screen on the East Coast. I don’t know if that was true but it was really big.

John, your well-known accuracy is a little off on this one. The State was never a Loew’s or Fox property. It was constructed on the site of the Orpheum Theatre by the Wilmer and Vincent circuit in 1926, at a cost of one million dollars. Grand opening was April 12th, 1926. The State was co-owned with the Colonial, Victoria (demolished in 1945) and the Majestic (later called the Rio.) Ownership passed to Fabian Theatres in the 1950s and 60s. Fabian retained ownership of the building and leased both the State and Colonial to United Artists Theatres in the early 1970s. When the building was sold, UA’s lease was terminated. The last picture to grace the State’s huge screen was, sadly, X-rated. The theatre closed November 25th, 1973, and was demolished in August of 1974. The last film I saw there was “Deliverance.” Although a citizens group formed to save the State, the city wasn’t sympathetic toward historic preservation at the time. The idea was scuttled by a “consultant” who declared that the project was economically infeasible. The cost to renovate the State would be one and a half million dollars, he said, and the powers agreed that an old theater just wasn’t worth such a price tag. Idiots. What a complete exercise in stupidity and short-sightedness. What that theater would have brought to downtown would have paid for itself time and time again. A beautiful theater, even in it’s latter days, and a wonderful place to see a movie. I was there dozens of times and never thought it would end. I really miss the State.