No, I am not downgrading it. I am thrilled it was saved. I spent many days there, as Frank Savage’s guest, and I have vivid memories of how it looked. The lobby looks nearly the same, but the ceiling, the furniture and so on, is a bygone glory. I’d just like people to remember the Warner was one of America’s most amazing theaters. There are very few left in their original state.
By the way, you seem to have a wonderful body of resources, and I’m glad you’re keeping all that alive. Well done.
The new interior, although beautiful in its own right, is no match for the opulence it had when I was a teen. I often wonder what happened to that huge crystal chandelier that once hung in the auditorium ceiling.
It is true the Encore served Sunday mornings as a meeting place for the fledgling Metropolitan Community Church led by Rev. Troy Perry as a welcoming church for gays of all faiths. The chief projectionist Willie Smith was MCC’s musical director and persuaded Louie Federici to let the church use it before the Sunday matinees.
I worked as projectionist in the late sixties when it was run by Louie Federici, in fact, it was there I was trained to be an operator. The bill was mainly the better foreign films. Louie had the lens, masking and apertures so all those foreign films could be shown correctly. Once he had at great effort obtained Fellini’s personal copy of “La Strada” since it had been shot in English, then dubbed into Italian, and then the dubbed version was subtitled back to English. That was a concession to Anthony Quinn, and it helped that Guiellte Messini’s spoke English. The audience complained thinking they were seeing a dubbed print, (they were snooty about that), so Louie in disgust returned the original version and played the subtitled Italian dubbed version for the rest of the run.
I worked as projectionist at the World in the late 60’s. Besides the triple bills, sometimes Universal would rent the theater for preview screenings, and would send their sound guys out to set up the double system sound machines.
Once we ran Willard and Ben on the same bill, and I persuaded the manager to let me cut the tail and credits out so it played as one continuous movie. Another time we were running Black Beauty, and the last day an audience member pointed out the reels were out of order. I checked the leaders and indeed they had been mismarked and we had run it that way all week.
I didn’t see very many films at the Palace, perhaps “Run Silent, Run Deep”. My best memory of it was graffiti near the stage door apparently written by a vaudevillian. It claimed hell was a one way ticket to perform for Youngstown audiences. Must have had a bad day.
As a teen I got to know the Warner pretty well. When the area had it’s civic day, lot’s of kids chose politicians, lawyers and so on, but I chose theater operator and go sent to spend the day with manager Frank Savage. He was very gracious and showed me everything from the dressing rooms backstage to the projection booth. At the time they had RCA projectors, Baush & Lomb CinemaScope lens and a four track stereo sound system. The projectionist pulled the scope lens and allowed me to give it thorough looking over.
Today the theater is a shadow of the beauty it once had. The auditorium had the largest crystal chandelier I have ever seen. Against the baroque gold leafed marble decor, it was stunning. As I recall the lobby had six crystal chandeliers, and with those huge mirrors each side, you were looking into an infinity of crystal and light. It was beautiful. The restroom had huge mahogany chairs and couches, and even the urinals had mosaics of forest scenes.
My Mother told me of the Warner’s nickleodeon nearby, perhaps near where the State is now located.
I really think this page should be renamed the Warner Theater. It’s current incarnation is fine, but it prevents search engines from properly finding it.
I am amazed the Foster is still open. In 1961 my uncle, who was a journalist for the Warren Tribune, thought it was time I saw a “serious” move" (I was a jr i HS), so he took me to see Ingmar Bergman’s “Through a Glass Darkly”. He was right. That was the first movie that had me thinking about what it meant for weeks afterwards.
As I recall The Belmont was the first theater in the area to show CinemaScope films. We missed seeing The Robe but went to see “Knights of the Round Table”. I remember even as a little boy being amazed at the size and width of the picture and it seemed to have depth.
I have a few pictures I can post soon. I also was given a reel of film by John Hegfield, and he told me I’d know what to do with it someday. I used to see them run it sometimes between films. The reel was a 1936 advertising film for local businesses, and included several long takes of the kids at the Hubbard Schools. The reel also had the “previews” used before the trailers. Awhile back my sister and I transferred the old nitrate to an internegative and a video for safety sake. The only thing that had kept it from deteriorating was it was covered in projector oil. We tried to find a local historical society to take it, but no one seemed interested.
I went to Palace with my brothers and sister in the ‘50s and early sixties. I had gotten to know Mr. and Mrs. Hegfield, who originally worked for Wellman then bought it and operated it until they had to sell it for family related problems. John would take tickets and work the concession stand while his wife sold tickets. It cost 25 cents for kids and 50 for adults, always a double bill. Their son Don was the projectionist and was very generous in showing me the equipment and allowing to hang around. There was small unused balcony by the projection booth with an old couch and I sometimes would watch from there. The projectors were Motiographs with barrel shutters which gave a very fluid look to the pictures. The sound was RCA Photophone. The projector mounts still had the record players used for the early Vitaphone sound pictures. I spent a lot of happy hours there. It pains me to see a little park where the Palace used to be.
No, I am not downgrading it. I am thrilled it was saved. I spent many days there, as Frank Savage’s guest, and I have vivid memories of how it looked. The lobby looks nearly the same, but the ceiling, the furniture and so on, is a bygone glory. I’d just like people to remember the Warner was one of America’s most amazing theaters. There are very few left in their original state.
By the way, you seem to have a wonderful body of resources, and I’m glad you’re keeping all that alive. Well done.
Miss that huge crystal chandelier that once hung in the middle. Somehow the new ceiling is too modern for what the theater once was.
Pretty, almost as it was, but the original crystal chandeliers are sorely missed.
The new interior, although beautiful in its own right, is no match for the opulence it had when I was a teen. I often wonder what happened to that huge crystal chandelier that once hung in the auditorium ceiling.
It is true the Encore served Sunday mornings as a meeting place for the fledgling Metropolitan Community Church led by Rev. Troy Perry as a welcoming church for gays of all faiths. The chief projectionist Willie Smith was MCC’s musical director and persuaded Louie Federici to let the church use it before the Sunday matinees.
I worked as projectionist in the late sixties when it was run by Louie Federici, in fact, it was there I was trained to be an operator. The bill was mainly the better foreign films. Louie had the lens, masking and apertures so all those foreign films could be shown correctly. Once he had at great effort obtained Fellini’s personal copy of “La Strada” since it had been shot in English, then dubbed into Italian, and then the dubbed version was subtitled back to English. That was a concession to Anthony Quinn, and it helped that Guiellte Messini’s spoke English. The audience complained thinking they were seeing a dubbed print, (they were snooty about that), so Louie in disgust returned the original version and played the subtitled Italian dubbed version for the rest of the run.
I worked as projectionist at the World in the late 60’s. Besides the triple bills, sometimes Universal would rent the theater for preview screenings, and would send their sound guys out to set up the double system sound machines.
Once we ran Willard and Ben on the same bill, and I persuaded the manager to let me cut the tail and credits out so it played as one continuous movie. Another time we were running Black Beauty, and the last day an audience member pointed out the reels were out of order. I checked the leaders and indeed they had been mismarked and we had run it that way all week.
I didn’t see very many films at the Palace, perhaps “Run Silent, Run Deep”. My best memory of it was graffiti near the stage door apparently written by a vaudevillian. It claimed hell was a one way ticket to perform for Youngstown audiences. Must have had a bad day.
As a teen I got to know the Warner pretty well. When the area had it’s civic day, lot’s of kids chose politicians, lawyers and so on, but I chose theater operator and go sent to spend the day with manager Frank Savage. He was very gracious and showed me everything from the dressing rooms backstage to the projection booth. At the time they had RCA projectors, Baush & Lomb CinemaScope lens and a four track stereo sound system. The projectionist pulled the scope lens and allowed me to give it thorough looking over.
Today the theater is a shadow of the beauty it once had. The auditorium had the largest crystal chandelier I have ever seen. Against the baroque gold leafed marble decor, it was stunning. As I recall the lobby had six crystal chandeliers, and with those huge mirrors each side, you were looking into an infinity of crystal and light. It was beautiful. The restroom had huge mahogany chairs and couches, and even the urinals had mosaics of forest scenes.
My Mother told me of the Warner’s nickleodeon nearby, perhaps near where the State is now located.
I really think this page should be renamed the Warner Theater. It’s current incarnation is fine, but it prevents search engines from properly finding it.
I am amazed the Foster is still open. In 1961 my uncle, who was a journalist for the Warren Tribune, thought it was time I saw a “serious” move" (I was a jr i HS), so he took me to see Ingmar Bergman’s “Through a Glass Darkly”. He was right. That was the first movie that had me thinking about what it meant for weeks afterwards.
As I recall The Belmont was the first theater in the area to show CinemaScope films. We missed seeing The Robe but went to see “Knights of the Round Table”. I remember even as a little boy being amazed at the size and width of the picture and it seemed to have depth.
In my above comments, I couldn’t remember Mrs. Hegfield’s first name. It was Alice.
I have a few pictures I can post soon. I also was given a reel of film by John Hegfield, and he told me I’d know what to do with it someday. I used to see them run it sometimes between films. The reel was a 1936 advertising film for local businesses, and included several long takes of the kids at the Hubbard Schools. The reel also had the “previews” used before the trailers. Awhile back my sister and I transferred the old nitrate to an internegative and a video for safety sake. The only thing that had kept it from deteriorating was it was covered in projector oil. We tried to find a local historical society to take it, but no one seemed interested.
I went to Palace with my brothers and sister in the ‘50s and early sixties. I had gotten to know Mr. and Mrs. Hegfield, who originally worked for Wellman then bought it and operated it until they had to sell it for family related problems. John would take tickets and work the concession stand while his wife sold tickets. It cost 25 cents for kids and 50 for adults, always a double bill. Their son Don was the projectionist and was very generous in showing me the equipment and allowing to hang around. There was small unused balcony by the projection booth with an old couch and I sometimes would watch from there. The projectors were Motiographs with barrel shutters which gave a very fluid look to the pictures. The sound was RCA Photophone. The projector mounts still had the record players used for the early Vitaphone sound pictures. I spent a lot of happy hours there. It pains me to see a little park where the Palace used to be.