Family Theatre
600 Main Street,
Forest City,
PA
18421
600 Main Street,
Forest City,
PA
18421
2 people
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Opened in the backroom of the Freedman Hotel saloon, Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel’s first movie theater was originally opened in November 1908 for roller skating. He closed the venue a month later and reopened it as the Family Theatre for “roller skating and vaudeville” on Christmas Eve, 1908.
Roxy left the Family Theatre in 1910 and went to work for Benjamin F. Keith before moving on to the Alhambra Theatre in Milwaukee, the Lyric Theatre in Minneapolis, the Regent Theatre in New York City and many of the most important movie palaces in the Broadway area between 1914 and 1934.
The Family Theatre was renovated in 1915 and was still open in 1926. In 1925, a new Freedman Theatre, operated by Roxy’s in-laws, the Freedmans, had opened down the block.
In 1933, when Roxy’s wife Rosa was visiting her family back in Forest City, a fire broke out at the Freedman Hotel and destroyed what remained of the original Family Theatre.
Today, a Zazzera’s Super Market sits in its place.
Contributed by
Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
As a FC native, I had never known there was a theatre in town. Zazzera’s is ok, but rundown. Shame it used to be a theatre. I’ll check some books of mine for photos, if any are available.
Check out the new book about Roxy, “AMERICAN SHOWMAN SAMUEL “ROXY” ROTHAFEL AND THE BIRTH OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, 1908–1935
Melnick, Ross (2012-05-01). American Showman: Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1935 . Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition. Pub. Columbia University. Available on Kindle.
Photo should be deleted. It’s not a picture of the theater, just a run-down old supermarket that replaced it.
The hotel was constructed sometime before 1896, and was originally called the Fleming House. The space where the theater was located was a later expansion, and appeared by 1903. The 1908 map notes the rear section as a hall, and says ‘To Have Stage and Scenery’. By 1927, the hotel seems to have closed. The front is used as stores, the rear is divided into two residential spaces. A ‘vacant theatre’ is noted on the second floor of the rear.