Roscoe Theatre
Wayne Street,
Roscoe,
PA
15477
Wayne Street,
Roscoe,
PA
15477
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Well, here we go. 1927 and 1928 FDYs also list the Grand, the 1928 edition giving it 211 seats. The Roscoe first appears in 1929, also with 211 seats, and the only theater listed at Roscoe that year. That definitely looks like a name change, but maybe it was more. A comment by Robert Deavers on a photo of the Grand on this Flickr page says of the original wooden theater that “[in] either 1927 or 28 it burned down and was replaced by a brick building.” Since seating capacity wasn’t listed until 1928, maybe that was the new “brick building” already in use before the name change.
As for the original Grand, the photo shows signage for Pathé Newsreels (first made in 1910,) actress Ruth Roland (who made her first movie in 1911) and Baroness Blanc’s Talking Pictures, which were a topic of discussion as early as 1911, so the photo could actually be quite early. Pathé and Ruth Roland were around through the entire silent era. Baroness Blanc was more of a nine days wonder, and I haven’t found references to her later than 1917, so the photo most likely dates from the 1910s.
robboehm: I don’t think that’s a safe presumption. It’s merely one possible explanation, suggesting one avenue of exploration. The Star might also have been on Wayne Street and become the Roscoe. The Palace and Star might both have closed and another theater of unknown name could have opened and later become the Roscoe. The only theater listed at Roscoe in the 1926 FDY is called the Grand. The Grand might have become the Roscoe. The Grand itself might have been either the Palace or the Star renamed, or Grand could have been the new name of a third theater (or a fourth or a fifth or….) And the Roscoe might have been newly opened at some point, either in a new building or a remodeled existing building. In other words, the theatrical history of Roscoe is largely still a mystery that is yet to be revealed. But at least this is a start.
So, presumably, the Palace reopened as the Roscoe when it was retrofitted for sound.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory listed two theaters at Roscoe; the Palace Theatre on Wayne Street and the Star Theatre, no location given.