Vergennes Theatre

50sSNIPES on March 5, 2022 at 7:50 am

This theater was originally relocated a few blocks down, as this first opened as the City Theatre on May 30, 1932 with Jimmy Durante in “Passionate Plumber” along with the Vitaphone comedy “Pie, Pie Blackbird”, a short entitled “Fisherman’s Paradise”, and a newsreel. When the theater opened its doors, it was nearly in completion due to a shipping delay on carpets.

Information about the “second” City Theatre (later the Vergennes Theatre) goes as follows: The “first” City Theatre (opened as early as 1917) was relocated in April of 1932 for unknown reasons, and was the second out of 2 City Theatres in the city of Vergennes' history. The “second” City Theatre had a capacity of 400 with dark red semi-deluxe leather upholstered seats and was built and managed by George Roberts. It also has a ventilating system capable of clearing air in a total of 8 minutes, steam heat with thermostatic control, carpeted aisles with lights, and draw curtains and draperies. Over the front doors and extending to the edge of the sidewalk hangs a marquee with a row of electric lights bordering its outer edge and another parallel row on its under side. The entrance itself as of 1932 has two sets of double teal swinging doors with large glass window between it. But there is a foyer which was finished in firewood is the ticket office with three windows attached so that tickets may be sold to two lines of patrons all at once. Passing by contains the following: There were two doors, one contains the main 84x36 ft auditorium with an inclined floor. The walls and ceiling were deeply panel insulating board finished in cream down to about 3-4ft from the floor where the color commonly changed to slate, which shades into a cement, which the floor is made. The decorating of the interior was done by Foster Daigneault and John LeBoeuf took its supervision on the work (with plumbing and heating installed by J.W. & D.E. Ryan, and the main contraction was done by the Carey Brothers of Fletcher, Vermont). Like earlier, the aisles will be carpeted but although the carpets haven’t arrived yet in time due to shipping delay but lights for the aisles will be placed on the frames of five seats for each aisle arranged in stagger formation. The projection room is fireproof and contains Western Electric sound (like the former “first” City Theatre). And lastly, the stage has a depth of 10ft and there were 2 dressing rooms.

The City changed its name to the Vergennes Theatre more than a year later in October 1933.

The Vergennes Theatre closed for the final time on February 19, 1955 With “Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle” with no extra subjects.