As a kid in Morgantown, I didn’t frequent the Morgan much as it was where all the second run, cowboy and serials ran. I remember it as owned by the Comuntzis family’s Morgantown Amusements, which also owned the Metropolitan and the Oaks drive-in. Members of the family also owned their famous High Street restaurant, “Where Dad Took His Girl”.
The Morgan was an exceptionally long, narrow house, without a balcony.
It had a small screen, which made it really difficult to see detail if you were seated in the rear half of the auditorium.
There was some excitement in town when the Morgan ran “The Red Shoes” in the late 1940s. Some hoped that the owners were changing their booking policy to accommodate art films but after “The Red Shoes” closed, the theater returned to cowboys, serials and second run.
The Morgan had a sort of moderne decor inside and as I recall, lots of wood paneling.
Great popcorn, too.
Strangely, all three of Morgantown’s High Street theaters are still standing. The Morgan has become a nightclub with retail on the street; The Metropolitan has been restored and functions as a venue for live entertainment and The Warner, though closed, still exists.
As a kid growing-up in a three-theatre Morgantown, the Warner was the biggest thing in town. Legend had it that it sported the second largest indoor screen in the state (number one was the Capitol in Wheeling) and while your information lists its capacity as 1,300 seats, to these young eyes, it seemed much larger.
Eberson buffs would have had a difficult time believing that the Warner represented his work: opened during the Depression, the decoration of the auditorium was never completed. The walls were bare except for colored-glass Deco lighting fixtures along the sides; the ceiling had no decoration at all and had but a single large recessed lighting fixture. The lobby, however, was a different story. It was huge for a small city theatre, richly decorated and had a large lounge between the restrooms.
One interesting feature: just behind the top of the proscenium was a pleated curtain which hung further upstage and capped the top of the screen. I don’t know its purpose or if it was part of the design but I have not seen this “effect” elsewhere.
Several years ago I was back in Morgantown and I stopped by the Warner and walked through the lobby. The theatre is in terrible condition and I’m sure that, in line with the comments above, watching a film in its converted three auditoriums must be a horror. But it’s interesting that Morgantown’s three theatres are still standing. Further up High Street is the Metropolitan, under painfully slow renovation and between the two, the second run Morgan is still there, though it was long ago converted to other uses. Only the burned-out Strand is gone.
As a kid in Morgantown, I didn’t frequent the Morgan much as it was where all the second run, cowboy and serials ran. I remember it as owned by the Comuntzis family’s Morgantown Amusements, which also owned the Metropolitan and the Oaks drive-in. Members of the family also owned their famous High Street restaurant, “Where Dad Took His Girl”.
The Morgan was an exceptionally long, narrow house, without a balcony. It had a small screen, which made it really difficult to see detail if you were seated in the rear half of the auditorium.
There was some excitement in town when the Morgan ran “The Red Shoes” in the late 1940s. Some hoped that the owners were changing their booking policy to accommodate art films but after “The Red Shoes” closed, the theater returned to cowboys, serials and second run.
The Morgan had a sort of moderne decor inside and as I recall, lots of wood paneling.
Great popcorn, too.
Strangely, all three of Morgantown’s High Street theaters are still standing. The Morgan has become a nightclub with retail on the street; The Metropolitan has been restored and functions as a venue for live entertainment and The Warner, though closed, still exists.
As a kid growing-up in a three-theatre Morgantown, the Warner was the biggest thing in town. Legend had it that it sported the second largest indoor screen in the state (number one was the Capitol in Wheeling) and while your information lists its capacity as 1,300 seats, to these young eyes, it seemed much larger.
Eberson buffs would have had a difficult time believing that the Warner represented his work: opened during the Depression, the decoration of the auditorium was never completed. The walls were bare except for colored-glass Deco lighting fixtures along the sides; the ceiling had no decoration at all and had but a single large recessed lighting fixture. The lobby, however, was a different story. It was huge for a small city theatre, richly decorated and had a large lounge between the restrooms.
One interesting feature: just behind the top of the proscenium was a pleated curtain which hung further upstage and capped the top of the screen. I don’t know its purpose or if it was part of the design but I have not seen this “effect” elsewhere.
Several years ago I was back in Morgantown and I stopped by the Warner and walked through the lobby. The theatre is in terrible condition and I’m sure that, in line with the comments above, watching a film in its converted three auditoriums must be a horror. But it’s interesting that Morgantown’s three theatres are still standing. Further up High Street is the Metropolitan, under painfully slow renovation and between the two, the second run Morgan is still there, though it was long ago converted to other uses. Only the burned-out Strand is gone.