Butler’s theater history comes alive at Penn Theater
Over the past few months, the Penn Theater has gone from a decaying relic to a new entertainment hotspot, thanks to the efforts of Bryan and Marina Frenchak to restore the building to its former glory.
Local historian Bill May celebrated the renaissance of the theater, which originally opened in 1938, by taking the audience Friday, March 22, on a journey through the history of the town’s movie houses.
“I think Bryan Frenchak and his wife, Marina, have done an incredible job here,” May said. “What they’ve done here is absolutely amazing. The auditorium looks beautiful. The sound system is incredible. Everybody should come and support the Penn. It’s the only way they’ll keep the doors open.”
For two and a half hours, May outlined, step-by-step, the history of classic movie houses in Butler from the 19th century up to the recent renovation of the Penn Theater. These included places such as the Majestic, the Lyric Theater, the Capitol Theater and the Butler Theater, all of which are now gone.
The Majestic Theater opened in 1904. It had the honor of hosting the first sound feature in Butler, 1927’s “Don Juan,” which featured the Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology. President William Howard Taft also visited the theater in 1918, speaking on the importance of the United States joining the League of Nations. The theater closed in 1952, as television drove audiences away from movie theaters.
The Butler Theater, which opened in June 1930, was the first air-conditioned theater in Butler. It was one of more than 500 theaters designed by famed movie theater architect John Eberson, who pioneered the “atmospheric theater” style of the 1920s.
“Most people had never been in air conditioning in their life,” May said. “Not only this was this going to be a beautiful theater, it was going to be air conditioned in 1930.”
The theater was torn down in 1965.
The Lyric Theater fell victim to arson in 1914, but was eventually rebuilt and renamed “the State.” Shortly thereafter, a larger theater opened next door to the State, which would come to be known as the Capitol. The Brick House restaurant and bar stands on the site where the State and the Capitol once stood.
Also mentioned during May’s presentation were two film stars who called Butler home: silent film actor Johnny Hines; and Joan Cheeseman, a.k.a. Joan Chandler, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Rope.”
Standing behind May on stage for the entire presentation was an ornate, multi-colored light fixture which, May later revealed, was a relic salvaged from the Capitol Theater when it closed in 1952.
The fixture was donated for the presentation by George and Karen Musko, both of whom are retired school teachers from the Butler School District.
