Opera House

rsalters (Ron Salters) on October 12, 2015 at 10:27 am

The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Opera House in Millbridge; it’s Card # 408. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken Feb. 5, 1941. Condition is Poor. The report says it opened in 1918, was not showing MGM films, and had 400 seats. A competing theater was the Colonial.

Joe Vogel on October 12, 2015 at 2:05 pm

Although the Cinema Data Project repeats the MGM report’s claim that the Opera House was located on Main Street, an article published in the spring, 2013 newsletter of the Milbridge Historical Society, “Memories of a Hometown” by Lloyd Holland (PDF here) has this line:

“During my high school years I walked across the bridge, up Bridge Street and into School Street, where the Milbridge High School, the Alumni Hall and the Opera House stood. The Opera House was also referred to as ‘The Rink’ because roller skating was done there for some years.”

This web page makes reference to “…the old roller rink, which was then located where the municipal safety complex is today….” I can’t find an address for the municipal safety complex, but Milbridge’s municipal buildings are indeed consolidated on School Street east of Bridge Street. The Opera House might have been where the fire station is now located in the first building on the north side of School Street. There’s no trace of the high school which Holland mentioned, either, so it has probably been consolidated with a high school in some nearby larger town and its old plant demolished.