Majestic Theater

November 25th, 1925 grand opening ad in photo section

The Majestic’s efforts to raise funds for the transition to digital projection are on target and, as of this writing, are close to not only reaching the goal but will likely exceed it. The plans are to replace the 35mm projectors in the two smaller auditoriums and also the current digital projector in the main auditorium which is used for the summer classic film series and an occasional film throughout the year.

Here is a night shot:
http://tinyurl.com/y9wx9co

Thanks for the photos and infor Mike and Lost Memory.

I love that rounded marquee. It’s cool!

The architect for the restoration of the Majestic Theater was Killis Almond, of Killis Almond & Associates, a San Antonio, Texas, based firm specializing in the restoration of historic buildings. Click on their “Projects” link to find a link to a page about this theater, as well as links to pages about some of their other theater projects.

Lived in Fairfield in 1986 and the Majestic was a decent(only) place to see a movie, I went to see “Platoon”. The main auditorium was twinned down the middle and they had another screen up stairs in the former balcony. The place was a little shabby, I think Clearview was at the helm then, but you could see thru the neglect that it was once a nice single screen house. Looks great now

I assume this was the one in town. I live on Long Island in New York (like most people don’t know where Long Island is). My second cousin wanted to see the movie Gettysburg in Gettysburg. So, in a brief moment of insanity, we drove her down to this theater to see that movie. We entered as the movie started and, once the movie was over, we drove back. We have made many trips to Gettysburg and toured the battlefield many times, but this was, by far, the shortest since most lasted a few days. We will see you guys down there this weekend, and we plan to spend the night.

Another John Eberson theater, the Yeadon, in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, was torn down last year after a fire had gutted it. And William Harold Lee’s Victoria Theatre in Shamokin, Pennsylvania — his home town — was torn down several years back for a Rite Aid drugstore. On the really good news front though, in addition to the Majestic, the Hiway Theatre in Jenkintown, PA is about to reopen, this having been masterfully reworked by W.H. Lee and William E. Groben. You can read a great article about it at this link: View link And William Harold Lee’s West Shore Theatre just outside of Harrisburg from what I understand is doing really really well right now. And then of course there’s his State Theatre — a palace — up in Easton, PA which appears to be holding up very well. Some great photos of it by Noah Kern, plus Jim Rankin’s excellent commentary added to some, can be seen at: http://www.pbase.com/affablebeef/theatres There also continues to be great hope for the Boyd, Philadelphia’s last standing movie palace, originally designed by Paul J. Henon and reworked by W.H. Lee in the 1950s.

Yes, I fully agree, what culminated in December 2006 at Gettysburg was very inspiring! Meantime, it might be interesting to note, what brought my attention to Gettysburg in the first place was my interest in the Majestic Theatre. So many of William H. Lee’s theaters throughout the state of Pennsylvania have been demolished or currently are being abusively used for other purposes, while Gettysburg went all out to restore the one it had. I loved what Gettysburg was able to do with its own W.H. Lee theater — the Majestic — while elsewhere in the state where his theaters still stand people kept telling me, “Such can’t be done.” But try telling that to the good folks of Gettysburg! Now if we could just get the rest of the state up to that same level!

With the No Casino Gettysburg campaign having proven triumphant it should be noted that that website Patsy cites above is no longer active other than the posting of a lot of spam. It was a very long, tough uphill battle for the good folks of Gettysburg, but now that it’s been won the historic town is now in a period of healing which in itself will take some time to fully resolve. And to that effort I believe the Majestic Theatre itself can become very central. For to be sure it is a beautiful theater and one of William Harold Lee’s best designs. And at a time like this Gettysburg is very lucky to have it!

www.nocasinogettyburg.com is the site that announced on Dec. 21 that the casino proposal was defeated! I visited Gettysburg in October for the Civil War Remembrance weekend (Reenactment is in July)and dedication to the Gettysburg train station which is next to the restored Majestic Theatre. I was able to enter the theatre and saw the main single screen auditorium which the Eisenhowers frequented on many occasion during their time in Gettysburg. And off the lobby is the 50’s style Mamie Cafe which is a nice touch.