Pioneer Theatre
On the morning hours of December 3, 1947 at approximately 6:05 AM, the Pioneer Theatre and the Olympic Cafe was destroyed by a fire, costing an estimate $70,000 in damage.
This occurred shortly after its short run of Charles Bickford in “Mutiny In The Big House” and Edmund Lowe in “Dillinger”. The Pioneer Theatre’s 3-day run of the John Payne classic “Miracle On 34th Street” was originally scheduled a couple days later but was scrapped due to the fire. The film and the Pioneer Theatre’s schedule was immediately shifted over to the Arbor Theatre down the hall.
The manager of both Arbor and Pioneer Theatres, Dwight Seymour, thinks that the fire was caused by a cigarette accident but there were two gas heating units near the rear, next to a bricked wall. So it was unclear. Seymour said that one of his employees, Bob Rawlings, finished cleaning the theater before leaving for the night and thought that the fire may’ve burned beneath the floor.
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