A Movie Theater That Did It Right

County Press ^ | By Tom Teti

[Tribune7]

Perhaps you grew up in Delaware County in the post-World War II era, and perhaps you had a movie theater that was an important part of your youth.

When you opened the paper to the entertainment pages in those days, you would find no AMCs, United Artists or Regal 12s. You would find the Lansdowne, the Brookline in Havertown, the Waverly in Drexel Hill, the Media, the Stonehurst, the Boyd, and the Stanley in Chester, the College in Swarthmore and the 69th Street, the Terminal, and the Tower (yes, it was around before rock and roll) all three in the 69th Street shopping area. Perhaps I've missed one or two, but I am sure that they all had Saturday matinees, and that kids in those towns spent years of Saturday afternoons in those movie houses.

Recently, there was a fire in the Yeadon theater. Because of that fire, a decision has been made to demolish the theater that I went to while growing up in the '50s and '60s. When I learned all this, I realized that, over the years, I had been harboring a desire to say something about the Yeadon Theater of that time.

[Gondring]

I just saw a marquee for Hall & Oates in Reading, PA, this Wednesday, March 15.

[Gondring]

Take heart...I saw Lonestar (and Jimmy Wayne) at the Keswick a couple of years ago.

And how about the The Colonial Theater in Phoenixville. They are still restoring it and holding the annual Blobfest. Yes, I have attended, and I have taken part in re-enacting the panicked evacuation of the theater. :-) Amazing that Steve McQueen played a teenager at age 29...