Roxy Theatre

Just look at that photo. The manager should be ashamed, how about featuring the titles of the movies playing? What a shameful, lazy way to present a marquee. So typical of todays thinking, in the good ole days a marquee would NEVER look like that.

It is amazing how many theatres are named ROXY in imitation of the once famous name of the New York City panjandrum of the movie palace: Samual Lionel Rothapfel = “Roxy”. His namesake was the famous ROXY THEATRE in NYC, which outlasted him by only 25 years when it was demolished in 1960. The whole story is in that landmark book “The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace” by the late Ben M. Hall in 1961. Various editions of it are sometimes available from www.Amazon.com, but only the first edition contains the color plates.

Here is a better view of the side of the marquee:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/73970141jJDiAV

There used to be 2 other theaters in Lock Haven. The Garden, and The Martin.
The Martin burned back in the 60’s.
Both the Garden and The Roxy were closed for a bit between the 70’s and 80’s.

The Garden was newer than the Roxy, but the only consessons were Popcorn, and candy from Vending machines. They had an intermission during matinees, where they drew numbers from ticket stubs, and you could win cash. The Garden closed in the 80s. In the 90’s it was purchaced by the county, gutted to the shell, and now houses its offices. The Courthouse is across the street, on the other side of a parking lot. Its now 3 stories, and they saved the tin ceiling, that is viewable on the third floor. From the picture posted of the Roxy, it would be on the opposite corner, to the right of the photo. The building no longer resembles a theater.

The Roxy was the cooler of the 2 when I was growing up. You could get soda, and consessions from an actual consession stand with an attendent. In the 80s, seeing a movie there was bad, due to a bad sound system, and a dirty screen. It was purchaced by the present owners, and remodeled. Access to the Balcony is now restricted, and the restrooms were moved from the second floor to the first. That pretty much spoiled the grandure of the lobby. The murals that were restored are fantastic. For years you couldnt make out what was depicted. The sound system was replaced by the one from the Garden.

One cool fact, is that when the theater was built, there were bits of reflective mirror-like glass inlayed in the sidewalk, that were lit up by the Marquee. All and all, the new owners have dont a great job with the building, and it is now a pleasure to see a movie there again.

Once again in defense of the marquee, the current showings are on the sides because the front faces another building across the street and people on the street aren’t going to have much time while walking by to turn their head and see it. The facade is on a one-way street so people coming up the street see the side of the marquee on the left of the photo and the building is on a corner so people stopped at the intersection to the right of where the photo was taken see the marquee on the right side (a straight on view from that angle) This also allows pedestrians walking on the sidewalk on the side the theatre is on to see the showings, as they wouldn’t be able to otherwise because the marquee is over their heads. I don’t know much about the Garden, but the county recently renovated their offices again so it probably doesn’t look much like a theatre (it is a nice building though). I don’t know anything about the Martin, so please let us know where it might have been located. And in response to the Roxy seats, when the theatre got new ones in the late 80s-early 90s, most went to the Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall. They were horrible for larger Americans as the cupholders made it tight. They also looked like cinema seats and didn’t match, so in 2006 they were removed and replaced by theatre seating from a renovation New York. A friend of mine has 3 and we took the rest to the landfill in McElhatten as many people felt we should keep them for sentimental reasons- too collect dust? Finally, there was an old opera house on Main St. (it was called the “opera house”, doubt there was actaullay opera) that burned in 2005? and is now a parking lot. Any info on that?