Village Theatre
66 Grant Street,
Salisbury,
PA
15558
66 Grant Street,
Salisbury,
PA
15558
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The Village Theatre is surprisingly large for a town which has never reached a population of 1,000. It was located in the Cramblett building, which was constructed in 1949 and opened on February 4, 1950. It was still open in 1957, and perhaps closed in 1958.
The building is a large concrete block modernist structure with two storefronts in the front, as well as apartments upstairs. The theatre entrance was on the northern corner. There must have originally been a balcony for the apartments, but this is missing. What may be a marquee is covered in cheap plastic siding. The building appears to be abandoned, but comparing older street-views, the woodwork has been recently repainted, and the basement entrance in the front has been filled in with dirt.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Not positive that Mr. Cramblett operated the theater, but the only mention I found of him was a 1950 sale of carnival equipment.
The March 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice ran a short article about the Village Theatre, saying it had opened recently. The house featured a stage, orchestra pit, Hammond organ with chimes, and two pianos, one on the stage and one in the pit. Management intended to present vaudeville as well as movies.
The article is on page 68 of this issue of the magazine.
Oh, so the upstairs was originally a hotel? It was right on US 219.
The February 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice reported that T. J. Cramblett had set February 11 as the opening day for his new Village Theatre at Salisbury.
The Village must have been open at least as late as 1957, as a post on a Salisbury nostalgia page at Facebook has locals sharing memories of the theater, and some remember seeing “The Ten Commandments” and the Elvis Presley film “Love Me Tender” at the Village. Both were released in late 1956, and even the Presley film is unlikely to have played here first run, while “Commandments” had a very long exclusive road show run in major cities before being released to small towns. I’m not sure when the first prints went into general release, but it had to have been well into 1957 at the earliest, and the Village might not have been in the first group of theaters to get it. It’s quite possible that it didn’t appear here until 1958.
“The Ten Commandments” was also known for its very slow international road show rollout, and didn’t premier in London until November 28, 1957, after which it played at the Plaza for 36 weeks.