Gerard Theatre

DavidZornig on April 19, 2020 at 1:33 pm

Facebook post with additional history and 23, photos and newspaper clippings.

The Gerard Theater 1940-1963 West View Historical Society The Gerard Theater first opened it’s doors on January 19, 1940. Soon after its opening, James H. Nash became the manager/owner, a position he held until his death on May 26, 1963. Previous to owning the Gerard, James was a salesman for United Artists. An innovator, he added a nursery for preschool children and then the “cry room” in 1945. He wanted mothers with young children to be able to attend the movies and not have to worry about a babysitter.

Six months after his death the theater was sold to Robert McConnell and it became a dance hall/roller skating rink for the local teens. This enterprise did not last long as in January, 1965 the building was sold to Flooring Specialists, Inc On September 8, 1960 the West View Borough offices were moved into the building and remained at the location until December 11, 1976. · Updated about 4 years ago

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k2 on February 8, 2014 at 1:33 pm

I can’t tell you how many times as a kid I spent a wonderful Saturday or Sunday afternoon here. Now, it was a small theater and the strangest thing was its inability to play a wide screen movie in its original aspect ratio. There was a stage and a screen that had no masking capability, so every movie image completely filled the screen. But the sides of a widescreen film fell off to the sides onto a dull set of curtains that stretched from the front of the stage to the back beside the screen.