Hollywood Theatre
39 N. Oak Street,
Mount Carmel,
PA
17851
39 N. Oak Street,
Mount Carmel,
PA
17851
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Located at 39 N. Oak Street, the Arcade Theatre was operating by 1920. It had been renamed Hollywood Theatre by the 1930’s, converted to a bowling alley in the mid-1950’s, then a pizzeria. The current occupant, the Hollywood Pizza and Bakery, has been in business for 50 years.
Contributed by
Dennis
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
In a 1921 telephone directory, 39 N. Oak Street was listed as the address of the Arcade Theatre, featuring moving pictures. That year, Mt. Carmel also had the Valentine Theatre, at 14 S. Oak, and the Theatorium, at 112 S. Oak, both also moving picture houses. There might have been other theaters that didn’t have telephones yet.
The theater appears on the 1920 map. Despite a rather old-fashioned appearance, the building was not constructed until sometime after 1913. I’ll add a recent picture at some point.
The September 3, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review had this brief item from Mount Carmel: Only two theatres in Mount Carmel, Pa., are now in operation, the Arcade and the Theatorium. The others, four in number, have suspended until business picks up."
Four more? The Valentine and Majestic would be two, maybe the State (although the maps don’t mention movies at that point), so there’s at least one missing. Nothing else on the 1920 map, so maybe something that opened just after and had already closed?
Wasn’t the Majestic gone by 1920? Only the Arcade, Theatorium and Valentine are listed in the 1921 telephone directory. The State doesn’t appear to be listed under any name in that directory, which doesn’t list any sort of hall, opera house, or auditorium on Hickory Street. Maybe they just didn’t have a telephone.
It could be that the other closed theaters were just short-lived houses, perhaps storefront conversions, as they are certainly not listed in the 1926 FDY, which has only the Arcade, Theatorium and Valentine, and the newer Victoria.
The Majestic was closed, but the map is from September 1920, so it might have been pretty recent. I agree that the State is an unlikely member of the four. In that case, they’re talking about the Valentine, and three other theaters that we don’t know anything about. I find that extremely unlikely. This was never a really large town. There are Polish, Italian, Slovenian, and other social halls in town and in the close suburbs, so perhaps some of those had informal showings of films in their native languages?