Too bad there are no photos of the original interior posted here. Unfortunately, today the proscenium arch, with its elaborate comedy/tragedy masks top center, and the gold-leaf decor, has been covered by the thrust stage and curtains, added by the Civic Little Theater owners for their stage productions. Likewise the organ pit has been covered by the thrust stage, and the console moved over to the right side (stage left) of the house down front. This theater has no fly loft and no orchestra pit; it was designed strictly as a neighborhood picture house, albeit an elaborate one, but never intended for stage productions, so there are no stage facilities at all. The best interior feature visible today is the stunning ceiling: a gigantic glass cartouche, lit from behind, ringed by plaster film reels. The theater has a false balcony, i.e., there is a balustrade fronting a blank wall behind a shallow set-back where a real balcony would be, and this wall is penetrated by the projector and operator openings. I knew a former projectionist, now deceased, at the Nineteenth Street, and he informed me that the projection booth is accessed only by walking across the roof! At this point, the exterior of the theater, with its terra cotta elephant heads and associated exotic motifs, is the major point of visual interest. That, and the aforementioned ceiling. If the interior were fully restored to its original glory, it would be a sight to behold, but this is unlikely given the present use as a production house/movie venue.
Amen! This makes a lot more sense than an enlarged stage intruding itself into the house, which IMO would destroy the unique character of the Miller that we all admire. It would preserve the pit elevator, a rarity in any but the most elaborate production houses, while providing the opportunity to rebuild and re-equip the stage, backstage, and wing space, bringing them up to modern standards. IIRC, there is empty land behind the stage house; wonder what the ownership situation is?
500?! Geez, that’s a third of the house! What kinds of performances are envisioned for the enlarged stage? IMO such drastic alteration will destroy the very qualities that make this house such a valued venue. I’d like to see the specifics—-any references (newspaper, etc.)?
Miller opened Feb. 24, 1940 (not “1938” as stated in the blurb above—-moderators, please make correction and see Friends of the Miller website for info).
Went to see Cars2 last night with 4-yr. old grandson and his parents. Reviews are right: movie stinks. Preceded by totally inappropriate (for the very young audience that Cars2 draws) preview of “Transformers,” which looks like another stinker. If only they still made good movies!
Theater looks terrific! Mr. Wolfe, in tuxedo, greets patrons as they enter. Young staff is dressed in black trousers, white s/s shirts, black bowties. This is class! Tickets are $3 (all ages); big bucket of popcorn also $3. This is the best movie bargain in the Lehigh Valley (or anywhere, AFAIK), and a real treat for those who missed the golden Age of the American cinema, or for those who, like me, remember it from our youth (see my favorite childhood theater at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8237 ). Thanks again, Richard Wolfe!
Here’s the real scoop: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-boyd-theater-20110714,0,6091518.story .[copy and paste into your browser.] Note the incorrect name “Hurtz” in story should be “Kurtz.” BTW, that is not the original façade or marquee in the photo.
Aha, yes, I know where that is. Harrisburg GA not PA! There were trolley tracks still in upper Broad St. in that section of town, and all the way almost to Milledge Rd. at Lake Olmstead Park, where they turned into the curbing and disappeared. And yes, Georgia Power did run the bus system after the streetcars went out, and the garage was located as you said, near the head of Greene St. and the Archibald Butt Memorial Bridge. When I got a little older, but still a young lad, I would ride those busses on the Walton Way route from the Hill to the Broad St. business district to go to the Miller on Saturdays. And I used to pass by the bus garage when I rode with my grandparents in their ‘41 Ford Super Deluxe V8 coupe to take my Grandpa to work on Reynolds St. He was the bookkeeper for a cotton factor. I remember the cotton bales lining the curb on Reynolds in those years (late '40s-early '50s). (My g-parents lived at 2504 Helen St., which was unpaved then; their house stood where the Methodist Church parking lot is today, across the street from St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill school.) BTW, I can’t believe how Greene St. is messed up today with that dumb expressway!
That Sunday School must have been an “electrifying” experience! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Where was this church located? There were a couple of other retired trolley cars I remember, one used as a diner and the other at a private club outside of town. I think that the only car to survive today is in the Augusta Museum; it’s been heavily (and inauthentically) restored, of a type known to us trolley nuts as a single-truck Birney car.
When I was growing up in Augusta in the 1940s, it was my dad who told me that the burned out empty shell at the corner of 9th and Broad had been a theater, long before my time (b. 1941). For as long as I can remember, into the ‘50s at least and maybe into the '60s as well, those empty walls stood there, on the same side of Broad as Bowen Bros. hardware in the next block.
I remember other aspects of an earlier time in Augusta, for example, the streetcar tracks that ran in the middle of Broad St. and along 13th to Walton Way and up the Hill, past the Arsenal and onto Monte Sano Ave. (no rails there, but the scars in the brick, at that time, paving showed where they had run). The streetcars last ran in Augusta in 1937, so I never saw them, but I lived in New Orleans in the mid-‘50s and rode them there many times. I think that all evidence of the streetcar system has now been erased or covered over in Augusta.
Restoration would be great, as this old theater has much remaining original detail, a lot of it covered by side curtains, and an orchestra pit which has been covered. It also has dressing rooms and a fairly large stage house. It would be a terrific asset to the Bethlehem community, which needs a real production house and not more casinos and SteelStax nonsense. End of rant.
I’d dearly love to take that tour! But as I’m 700 miles away, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Maybe there’ll be a “next time”?!
BTW, I hope Augusta appreciates what it has there in the Miller and the Imperial. Most cities this size lost their theaters years ago, as readers of this site know only too well.
The Boyd Theater is not part of a theater chain. It is locally owned, by a single family. I wouldn’t describe the offer of passes as a “bribe.” Far from it. I completely sympathize with the owners, who are trying to keep this venerable theater going in tough times. More power to them. As a matter of fact, the four passes we were given was not an attempt to get us to leave, but were tendered after we saw the movie, as we were leaving, and were intended as a courtesy because we had sat through the movie in an unheated theater on a miserable cold rainy night. I just want to set the record straight on this, as the discussion seems to have drifted a bit off topic in this regard. I’m sorry that my faulty memory has led to some inconsistency on my part in relating the experience I had at the Boyd, and I apologize to the readers of this forum for any confusion I may have caused.
I was writing of my experience at ESM in the 1959-64 period. I don’t know what goes on there now. And let’s face it: there wasn’t much to “get out” to in Rochester in those years for a college student, unless it was the nearest bar (NY drinking age was 18 back then, for better or worse—-mostly worse). And trust me when I say that being a native is vastly different than being a transient from the big city (I came to the UR by way of NYC). The general public was not wandering around the streets saying “George Eastman committed suicide.” Most of us students knew George Eastman only as a portrait hanging on the wall of the second floor corridor; we were there to learn how to operate a musical instrument, not study the benefactor’s life story, so while we had our musical ears open it was not to listen to whatever historical bits happened to filter down to us . I’m not defending it, but that’s the way things were as I saw them. I’ve learned a few other things in the years since ;–)
I hope the punks damage was not permanent! Idiots; they should have been forced to clean up their mess. OTOH, if they had any brains they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. Drat!
Symphony Hall (a/k/a Lyric) in Allentown had its original electrical panel (from c. 1901) still in place until renovations about 15-20 years ago. All the switches were mounted on a big piece of slate, and there was a cage around three sides of it. Wish they had saved it, but AFAIK it got scrapped. Items like that are part of our history and should be preserved!
Thank you, Alonzo Jeter, for that link to flickr.com. I was able to pull a decent print off of the large (1024x670) image, and I look at it often. Don’t know that I ever saw the Miller with the house lights (such as they were) on, so I couldn’t fully appreciate all the details when I was a kid. Do you happen to know the occasion and the date of the photo? Thanks again!
Thanks, Mike. The Friends website doesn’t seem to change much; unless I’m missing something there, I don’t find much current news. I’m happy to hear that the Modjeska survives; I thought only the Broad St. façade still existed. Yes, Augusta is very fortunate to have these treasures!
My memory of the Imperial stage was that it is no wider than the Miller’s, maybe not even as wide, but I suppose the stage house is deeper. The Miller stage would be more suitable for symphony concerts, as has been contemplated, if the lift were operable. When raised to stage level, one would gain significant front-to-back floor area (equal to that of the pit opening, obviously).The problem will be lighting this stage setup for reading music, which I imagine would involve breaking through the ceiling and dropping pipe stanchions and the whole ugly mess of theatrical necessity along with it. And the second big problem is the acoustic of the hall. Movie houses, which rely on amplified sound, are very often not suited to purely acoustical music, as a symphony orchestra is by nature. I’m sure these and other considerations have already been thought of. And by the way, what IS the present status of Peter Knox’s gift offer of the Miller to the Augusta Symphony?
Correction: my wife reminds me that we DID stay for the movie, which was Wallace and Gromit’s “Chicken Run.” So we did not get a refund, as I mistakenly stated, but we did receive the four passes. We were offered the option of a refund if we chose to leave, which we didn’t, but now that I think back on it I’m sure the staff (such as it was—-I’m guessing 2-3 incl. projectionist) would have enjoyed being able to go home on that miserable night instead of having to hang around the theater for just two patrons.
One night a few years ago my wife and I went to the Boyd for an early evening showing (forget the movie now). The weather was miserable, cold and rainy, and we were the only patrons who showed up! They hadn’t even turned the heat on, which tells you what their budget constraints were. While we were seated, but before the scheduled start time, a staff person approached us and asked whether we would accept four free passes for future use if they didn’t show the movie that night. We accepted, got a cash refund for the cost of our two tickets, and left feeling very badly for the whole sorry state of affairs. It was truly a depressing experience. We held on to those four passes for two years until they expired; not one movie came to the Boyd that we cared to see in that whole time.
At one time, the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra expressed an interest in using the Boyd stage for concerts. The problem was that the air conditioning system occupied a good bit of the stage space, leaving inadequate room for any kind of production! Also, the orchestra pit has been covered/filled in, so live shows (Broadway musicals, operettas, etc.) could not be staged even if the AC were relocated. The Boyd does have dressing rooms and a fly loft, but I’m sure everything would need to be restored and re-equipped before anything besides movies could happen there. My personal opinion is that this elderly, faded beauty is just barely hanging on, and when the present owners are gone, the house will go too—-but I hope I am wrong. Milliion$$ for sports arenas and stadiums, but the arts get the shaft. Drat!
This is really a wonderful theater, and all credit must go to Mr. Wolfe for his loving care of this gem of a house. Despite the loss of most of the region’s movie palaces, we’re fortunate here in s.e. PA to have a handful of survivors showing movies and/or stage shows and concerts. In addition to the Roxy (Northampton), there are the Boyd (Bethlehem, movies; many original details covered/altered but essentially intact), State (restored, Easton, mainly touring live stage acts), and Nineteenth St. (Allentown, film series, organ concerts, and stage shows by the local dramatic group, which owns the house). Also the Emmaus (neighborhood movie house). Symphony Hall, owned by the Allentown Symphony Association and home of the orchestra, as the former Lyric featured movies and touring burlesque; projection equipment removed in recent renovation/restoration.
As Ossie Wieggel’s photos prove, Loew’s Rochester was NOT a center-aisle design. I stand corrected! See http://tinyurl.com/6kcruqj
I must have been thinking of another theater!
tlsloews, copy of what?
I get an “oops…we can’t find that page…” when I entered this URL in Safari.
Where?
Too bad there are no photos of the original interior posted here. Unfortunately, today the proscenium arch, with its elaborate comedy/tragedy masks top center, and the gold-leaf decor, has been covered by the thrust stage and curtains, added by the Civic Little Theater owners for their stage productions. Likewise the organ pit has been covered by the thrust stage, and the console moved over to the right side (stage left) of the house down front. This theater has no fly loft and no orchestra pit; it was designed strictly as a neighborhood picture house, albeit an elaborate one, but never intended for stage productions, so there are no stage facilities at all. The best interior feature visible today is the stunning ceiling: a gigantic glass cartouche, lit from behind, ringed by plaster film reels. The theater has a false balcony, i.e., there is a balustrade fronting a blank wall behind a shallow set-back where a real balcony would be, and this wall is penetrated by the projector and operator openings. I knew a former projectionist, now deceased, at the Nineteenth Street, and he informed me that the projection booth is accessed only by walking across the roof! At this point, the exterior of the theater, with its terra cotta elephant heads and associated exotic motifs, is the major point of visual interest. That, and the aforementioned ceiling. If the interior were fully restored to its original glory, it would be a sight to behold, but this is unlikely given the present use as a production house/movie venue.
Amen! This makes a lot more sense than an enlarged stage intruding itself into the house, which IMO would destroy the unique character of the Miller that we all admire. It would preserve the pit elevator, a rarity in any but the most elaborate production houses, while providing the opportunity to rebuild and re-equip the stage, backstage, and wing space, bringing them up to modern standards. IIRC, there is empty land behind the stage house; wonder what the ownership situation is?
500?! Geez, that’s a third of the house! What kinds of performances are envisioned for the enlarged stage? IMO such drastic alteration will destroy the very qualities that make this house such a valued venue. I’d like to see the specifics—-any references (newspaper, etc.)?
Miller opened Feb. 24, 1940 (not “1938” as stated in the blurb above—-moderators, please make correction and see Friends of the Miller website for info).
Went to see Cars2 last night with 4-yr. old grandson and his parents. Reviews are right: movie stinks. Preceded by totally inappropriate (for the very young audience that Cars2 draws) preview of “Transformers,” which looks like another stinker. If only they still made good movies!
Theater looks terrific! Mr. Wolfe, in tuxedo, greets patrons as they enter. Young staff is dressed in black trousers, white s/s shirts, black bowties. This is class! Tickets are $3 (all ages); big bucket of popcorn also $3. This is the best movie bargain in the Lehigh Valley (or anywhere, AFAIK), and a real treat for those who missed the golden Age of the American cinema, or for those who, like me, remember it from our youth (see my favorite childhood theater at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8237 ). Thanks again, Richard Wolfe!
Here’s the real scoop: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-boyd-theater-20110714,0,6091518.story .[copy and paste into your browser.] Note the incorrect name “Hurtz” in story should be “Kurtz.” BTW, that is not the original façade or marquee in the photo.
Aha, yes, I know where that is. Harrisburg GA not PA! There were trolley tracks still in upper Broad St. in that section of town, and all the way almost to Milledge Rd. at Lake Olmstead Park, where they turned into the curbing and disappeared. And yes, Georgia Power did run the bus system after the streetcars went out, and the garage was located as you said, near the head of Greene St. and the Archibald Butt Memorial Bridge. When I got a little older, but still a young lad, I would ride those busses on the Walton Way route from the Hill to the Broad St. business district to go to the Miller on Saturdays. And I used to pass by the bus garage when I rode with my grandparents in their ‘41 Ford Super Deluxe V8 coupe to take my Grandpa to work on Reynolds St. He was the bookkeeper for a cotton factor. I remember the cotton bales lining the curb on Reynolds in those years (late '40s-early '50s). (My g-parents lived at 2504 Helen St., which was unpaved then; their house stood where the Methodist Church parking lot is today, across the street from St. Mary’s-on-the-Hill school.) BTW, I can’t believe how Greene St. is messed up today with that dumb expressway!
That Sunday School must have been an “electrifying” experience! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Where was this church located? There were a couple of other retired trolley cars I remember, one used as a diner and the other at a private club outside of town. I think that the only car to survive today is in the Augusta Museum; it’s been heavily (and inauthentically) restored, of a type known to us trolley nuts as a single-truck Birney car.
When I was growing up in Augusta in the 1940s, it was my dad who told me that the burned out empty shell at the corner of 9th and Broad had been a theater, long before my time (b. 1941). For as long as I can remember, into the ‘50s at least and maybe into the '60s as well, those empty walls stood there, on the same side of Broad as Bowen Bros. hardware in the next block.
I remember other aspects of an earlier time in Augusta, for example, the streetcar tracks that ran in the middle of Broad St. and along 13th to Walton Way and up the Hill, past the Arsenal and onto Monte Sano Ave. (no rails there, but the scars in the brick, at that time, paving showed where they had run). The streetcars last ran in Augusta in 1937, so I never saw them, but I lived in New Orleans in the mid-‘50s and rode them there many times. I think that all evidence of the streetcar system has now been erased or covered over in Augusta.
Restoration would be great, as this old theater has much remaining original detail, a lot of it covered by side curtains, and an orchestra pit which has been covered. It also has dressing rooms and a fairly large stage house. It would be a terrific asset to the Bethlehem community, which needs a real production house and not more casinos and SteelStax nonsense. End of rant.
I’d dearly love to take that tour! But as I’m 700 miles away, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Maybe there’ll be a “next time”?!
BTW, I hope Augusta appreciates what it has there in the Miller and the Imperial. Most cities this size lost their theaters years ago, as readers of this site know only too well.
The Boyd Theater is not part of a theater chain. It is locally owned, by a single family. I wouldn’t describe the offer of passes as a “bribe.” Far from it. I completely sympathize with the owners, who are trying to keep this venerable theater going in tough times. More power to them. As a matter of fact, the four passes we were given was not an attempt to get us to leave, but were tendered after we saw the movie, as we were leaving, and were intended as a courtesy because we had sat through the movie in an unheated theater on a miserable cold rainy night. I just want to set the record straight on this, as the discussion seems to have drifted a bit off topic in this regard. I’m sorry that my faulty memory has led to some inconsistency on my part in relating the experience I had at the Boyd, and I apologize to the readers of this forum for any confusion I may have caused.
Very cool! The Roxy is the best place to see movies in the Lehigh Valley, by far! Thank you, Rick Wolfe, for keeping the tradition alive!
I was writing of my experience at ESM in the 1959-64 period. I don’t know what goes on there now. And let’s face it: there wasn’t much to “get out” to in Rochester in those years for a college student, unless it was the nearest bar (NY drinking age was 18 back then, for better or worse—-mostly worse). And trust me when I say that being a native is vastly different than being a transient from the big city (I came to the UR by way of NYC). The general public was not wandering around the streets saying “George Eastman committed suicide.” Most of us students knew George Eastman only as a portrait hanging on the wall of the second floor corridor; we were there to learn how to operate a musical instrument, not study the benefactor’s life story, so while we had our musical ears open it was not to listen to whatever historical bits happened to filter down to us . I’m not defending it, but that’s the way things were as I saw them. I’ve learned a few other things in the years since ;–)
I hope the punks damage was not permanent! Idiots; they should have been forced to clean up their mess. OTOH, if they had any brains they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. Drat!
Symphony Hall (a/k/a Lyric) in Allentown had its original electrical panel (from c. 1901) still in place until renovations about 15-20 years ago. All the switches were mounted on a big piece of slate, and there was a cage around three sides of it. Wish they had saved it, but AFAIK it got scrapped. Items like that are part of our history and should be preserved!
Thank you, Alonzo Jeter, for that link to flickr.com. I was able to pull a decent print off of the large (1024x670) image, and I look at it often. Don’t know that I ever saw the Miller with the house lights (such as they were) on, so I couldn’t fully appreciate all the details when I was a kid. Do you happen to know the occasion and the date of the photo? Thanks again!
Thanks, Mike. The Friends website doesn’t seem to change much; unless I’m missing something there, I don’t find much current news. I’m happy to hear that the Modjeska survives; I thought only the Broad St. façade still existed. Yes, Augusta is very fortunate to have these treasures!
My memory of the Imperial stage was that it is no wider than the Miller’s, maybe not even as wide, but I suppose the stage house is deeper. The Miller stage would be more suitable for symphony concerts, as has been contemplated, if the lift were operable. When raised to stage level, one would gain significant front-to-back floor area (equal to that of the pit opening, obviously).The problem will be lighting this stage setup for reading music, which I imagine would involve breaking through the ceiling and dropping pipe stanchions and the whole ugly mess of theatrical necessity along with it. And the second big problem is the acoustic of the hall. Movie houses, which rely on amplified sound, are very often not suited to purely acoustical music, as a symphony orchestra is by nature. I’m sure these and other considerations have already been thought of. And by the way, what IS the present status of Peter Knox’s gift offer of the Miller to the Augusta Symphony?
Correction: my wife reminds me that we DID stay for the movie, which was Wallace and Gromit’s “Chicken Run.” So we did not get a refund, as I mistakenly stated, but we did receive the four passes. We were offered the option of a refund if we chose to leave, which we didn’t, but now that I think back on it I’m sure the staff (such as it was—-I’m guessing 2-3 incl. projectionist) would have enjoyed being able to go home on that miserable night instead of having to hang around the theater for just two patrons.
One night a few years ago my wife and I went to the Boyd for an early evening showing (forget the movie now). The weather was miserable, cold and rainy, and we were the only patrons who showed up! They hadn’t even turned the heat on, which tells you what their budget constraints were. While we were seated, but before the scheduled start time, a staff person approached us and asked whether we would accept four free passes for future use if they didn’t show the movie that night. We accepted, got a cash refund for the cost of our two tickets, and left feeling very badly for the whole sorry state of affairs. It was truly a depressing experience. We held on to those four passes for two years until they expired; not one movie came to the Boyd that we cared to see in that whole time.
At one time, the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra expressed an interest in using the Boyd stage for concerts. The problem was that the air conditioning system occupied a good bit of the stage space, leaving inadequate room for any kind of production! Also, the orchestra pit has been covered/filled in, so live shows (Broadway musicals, operettas, etc.) could not be staged even if the AC were relocated. The Boyd does have dressing rooms and a fly loft, but I’m sure everything would need to be restored and re-equipped before anything besides movies could happen there. My personal opinion is that this elderly, faded beauty is just barely hanging on, and when the present owners are gone, the house will go too—-but I hope I am wrong. Milliion$$ for sports arenas and stadiums, but the arts get the shaft. Drat!
This is really a wonderful theater, and all credit must go to Mr. Wolfe for his loving care of this gem of a house. Despite the loss of most of the region’s movie palaces, we’re fortunate here in s.e. PA to have a handful of survivors showing movies and/or stage shows and concerts. In addition to the Roxy (Northampton), there are the Boyd (Bethlehem, movies; many original details covered/altered but essentially intact), State (restored, Easton, mainly touring live stage acts), and Nineteenth St. (Allentown, film series, organ concerts, and stage shows by the local dramatic group, which owns the house). Also the Emmaus (neighborhood movie house). Symphony Hall, owned by the Allentown Symphony Association and home of the orchestra, as the former Lyric featured movies and touring burlesque; projection equipment removed in recent renovation/restoration.
As Ossie Wieggel’s photos prove, Loew’s Rochester was NOT a center-aisle design. I stand corrected! See http://tinyurl.com/6kcruqj
I must have been thinking of another theater!
tlsloews, copy of what?
You’re welcome. I have lots of memories, I just can’t always remember what they are…. ;o)