Gem Theatre

I meant…. I saw “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope” at the Laurel 30 Cinema in Latrobe in 1977. I was confusing it with Cinema 35 in Paramus, New Jersey (which itself has long since closed but patently not being renovated since there is already retail occupying that building).

Come to our facebook page at ‘Friends of the Gem Theater’ we have photos there, we plan on restoring the theater.

According to: Latrobe Bulletin Latrobe, Pennsylvania Fri, Mar 2, 1917
Page 6

The Gem Theatre seated 450 on the floor and an additional 100 on the balcony for a total of 550 seats.

I finally got a subscription to Newspapers.com and discovered something contrary to what I first stated in the overview: According to the Latrobe Bulletin, the Gem closed (i.e. stopped showing movies regularly) circa March 1970. From what I could gather, the final film shown was the 1970 rerelease of Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.”

After that, the Gem sat idle until approximately one year later, when a local theater group staged some productions there until 1972. Then the Gem became totally inactive.

One other “advent” the Gem experienced was widescreen movies from the late 50’s through the late 60’s; the theater had the ability to screen both Cinemascope and Vista Vision films. It is unknown whether or not there was the ability to play the stereo soundtracks for said films(most likely it was just mono).

(Still once again: Any pictures of the Gem’s interior? Thanks again, though, elmorovivo,for finding the picture of what the Gem looks like now. That supports my findings very well.)

Correction!

The Gem’s seating capacity is actually 300 seats, not 400 as originally thought. When I first submitted that info,that was only an estimate; I just checked the 1930 Film Daily Yearbook online,which shows the Gem as having 300 seats. So, the above should be changed to read “300 seats.”

One more time: Does anybody have any photos of the Gem’s interior? I’m still curious to see what it looked like! Thanks again!

Well, thanks very much, elmorovivo, for the photos of the exterior of the Gem (that I remember seeing in 1976, when I was 14, while visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Derry; the Gem was already closed then, but the marquee still remained and I think it was painted blue and yellow when it closed four years earlier).

But do you, or anybody else, have any photos of the interior of the Gem? I heard the auditorium also had a balcony. Anybody who has said photos of inside the Gem, that would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again!

A lot of good memories at that movie theater! The last movie I saw there was Yellow Submarine. Also big movies that created long lines to get in was the Beatles' A Hard Day’s Night and Help! Fred Piper, the owner, would give out free movie passes at the Halloween parade for all the kids participating in the parade! I’m glad William B. Warfield chose to write about the Gem Theater!