Colonial Theatre

This opened on October 1st, 1923. Grand opening ad posted.

I was in the State building one time for my wife’s class reunion. This is after it became “On Stage”. It’s last hurrah as a movie theatre was X rated films. I can’t find anything on the fire that destroyed the back of the Academy, but my wife says it was in the fatal fire that destroyed the buildings from 7th street up to the Academy. Probably about 1986. After the HACC fire, the rest of the half block was demolished for the new HACC campus.

John, painted flats are large canvas sheets with scenery painted on them, and hung on the stage for live performances. The flats from the Academy may very well have dated back to vaudeville. I’m pretty sure one of them was full of advertisements. I don’t remember much of anything of the State theater before its conversion to nightclub (called “On Stage” with a clever sign alteration).
For the record, when all the controversy was brewing around the condition of the Colonial, my husband and I were granted access. This was after it was “stripped” of all its valuables. At least some of the flats were still there, hanging behind the curtain. The person who escorted us (one of the salvagers) told us by the time he got in there, the valuable fixtures in question were already removed. All he got out of the theater were some cast iron seat ends which he restored. I can tell you what we saw would have made you cry. I can’t believe there was ANYTHING of value left by the time the “investor” bought it; whatever remained was severely damaged by exposure. It’s a shame because that was a beautiful and (for its time) a well-appointed theater.

JimmiB….I didn’t know there were Messicks in Lebanon. I reside in Camp Hill. The fire that I am referring to is the HACC fire. I remember the “investor” who bought the Colonial at the tax sale. He claimed all he had was Social Security to live on. What is a painted flat?

The roof could have been repaired, but the damage caused by that hole was extensive. Much of the ornate plaster on the ceilings and the walls had migrated onto the carpet. And fixtures like the seats, projectors, concession stand were all ruined. A sad irony: old painted flats were removed from the Academy before the auditorium was demolished and taken to the Colonial for preservation. Unless somehow they were saved, they might have been lost with that building.

JimmiB, I don’t know you. I have never met John Heisey. Where do you reside?

I don’t know all the details and I am telling this based on a few details I recall from 25 years ago. There was an organization, probably called “Friends of the Academy,” which was formed to save the Academy of Music further down the street. A friend of mine had some involvement in it. The Academy was in wretched condition. He told me that when they toured the Academy there were some areas which they couldn’t see because the floor was so weak it would have given way. When the Colonial became available there was discussion of shifting the preservation efforts to the Colonial because it was in better overall condition. He told me there was a founding member of the committee who had enough clout to completely squash the idea. It was the Academy or nothing, he told me, and the remaining members couldn’t get enough traction to move on the Colonial idea themselves.

From the early 1920s a postcard view of the Colonial Theatre in Lebanon PA.

This theatre was surely open until at least 79-80. I was born in 1975 and the first film I ever saw in a theatre was here when I was 4-5 years old. It was Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy and remember it like it was yesterday.

This theatre was still open when I moved to Lebanon in March, 1979. It had to be open for a year or two after that because I went to several movies there and a big band concert. I don’t have the dates offhand, but after it closed a group was formed to try to save it. Before they could raise enough money, it was purchased by a salvage company, who stripped all the old fixtures then abandoned it. By the time the city took title it was beyond repair and was demolished. If I can come up with any other details, I’ll post them. I’m sure of it being open in 1979, because I moved here on the day of the TMI accident.