History

From the Museum: Essay One

By Betty Van Newkirk

The closing of the Palace Theatre was a blow to the people of Frostburg who, for almost seventy years, had trudged through the snow for children’s matinees, sat in the balcony with high school sweethearts, and taken advantage of Penny Night in their tight budgeted early years of marriage. They missed the movies, the atmosphere, and the popcorn that tasted better than any other they could buy.

Competition from new movie houses, where one projectionist could handle four screens, and Frostburg State College, where students could see a nearly new film for a dollar, put the Palace in difficulties. The last straw was the contract made with a distributor who sent out inappropriate pictures.

In November of 1981, for instance, there was Brubaker , the story of a warden who investigated prison life by having himself confined as a criminal. It was not family fare; even the reviewers said it was not for the squeamish, and the people of Frostburg stayed away.

The last film, opening the first week of December, was Paper Chase. Made eight years earlier and recycled as a TV serial in the ’70s, its only distinction was John Houseman in an Oscar-winning supporting role. The theatre closed abruptly on December 8.

In earlier years the Palace was a very successful enterprise. It had begun as a nickelodeon owned by a Mr. Talbot. Customers were lured inside by the strains of a phonograph and the spiel of a barker; Joe Durst served in the capacity. The short, jerky reels of film were supplemented by slides and lectures to provide approximately an hour of entertainment.

The Spates brothers bought the building in 1911 and added the auditorium we now think of as the theatre. When it reopened in 1913 more than a thousand people paid to see “Child of War,” a tearjerker based on an incident at Williamsport, just before the battle at Gettysburg. Proceeds went to the sons of Veterans.

Another memorable picture was “Stand Up and Fight,” in 1939, when Robert Taylor and Wallace Beery, setting out for the west, announced that they would be traveling through Frostburg. Local audiences cheered when they heard the town motioned, and sent their friends to fill the theatre on following nights.

Local pride contributed to record-breaking attendance in 1915, but in a somewhat different way. On Monday, June 21, the Palace ran the first installment of a twenty-five-part serial called “A Diamond from the Sky,” touted as “one of the fines conceptions ever brought forth.” What made this production very special was that its author, Roy L. McCardell, had local connections. His father, who had served in the Confederate Army with J. Benson Oder of the Mining Journal , was for a number of years managing editor of the Cumberland Evening Times . Roy became a reporter for the New York World and wrote stories that were published in a number of magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post .

He offered his services as a script writer to the Biograph Film Company in New York, and was told that if he could supply ten scripts an week he would be paid ten dollars for each of them (most movies at that time were improvised as they were being filmed). By the time “A Diamond from the Sky” was made, he was the highest-paid scriptwriter in the world, receiving thirty thousand dollars for the script and editorial supervision on that film alone.

There was still another inducement for seeing “The Diamond” at the Palace. A prize of ten thousand dollars was offered for the best sequel to the series. There is no report that the prize was ever awarded. Perhaps, after twenty-five weeks of watching Lottie Pickford, Mary’s younger sister, escape from seemingly inevitable disaster, everyone was glad to forget it.

Oddly, in spite of the length of the film and the success of its author, neither one is mentioned in most of the sources on motion picture history; it takes deep digging to find proof that they actually existed.

There is one more movie incident in Frostburg that should be mentioned. In 1922 an ad appeared in the Times announcing that “The Romance of Frostburg” was about to be filmed with local actors. Readers were invited to cast their votes for the young lady and gentleman in the major roles; the ballots printed in the paper could be dropped either at the Palace or at the Lyric in Frostburg. Until the last hours of the contest, Edna Eisel and Noel Speir Cook led in the polls, only to be nosed out by Guy Wright and Meyer Abramson.

Then the cameraman, expected from Washington, D.C., was delayed. When he finally appeared, shooting the picture seemed to take less time that the choosing of the stars. Perhaps it is fortunate that there seems to be no record that the promised picture- a stirring story of a young man arriving in the town on a freight train, making good, and marrying a local girl- was never shown.

The Palace Theatre is a landmark in Frostburg, but it is not just a building. The shows it presented, the experiences of people in connection with those entertainments, are woven into the texture of our lives in Frostburg.

From the Museum: Essay Two

By Betty Van Newkirk

Two years ago, when RC Theatres rented the Palace Theatre, we were delighted with the promise of a brightly lit marquee and the prospect of seeing movies in traditional surroundings, instead of an electronically equipped cement box. Unfortunately, Frostburg citizens were disappointed in the choice of pictures that were offered, and RC was disappointed in the small audiences that showed up. The contract has been terminated, and along Main Street we hear a murmur: What will happen to the Palace Theatre now?

The building itself is owned by the people of Frostburg. It was their contributions that bought it. Donors elect officers to manage the facility, and three Trustees, one named by the Mayor and Council, one chosen by the Business and Professional Association, and the third representing the community at large, are specified in the articles of incorporation. No individual profits from the enterprises; no one is paid for his services, and no one holds any stock in the company. Monies received from the rental of the upstairs apartments or space on the marquee cover the cost of utilities; rental of the theatre is added to donations and applied to improving the building and its facilities.

Fifty-year-old theatres are considered ‘historic’. The Frostburg Palace Theatre turns Eighty-seven in June! The lobby area of the building has been an entertainment center even longer, dating back to 1906 when it was a nickelodeon (literally, a five-cent theatre) called Dreamland. Mr. Talbot, the owner paid teenager Jonas Durst ninety cents a week to lure customers with music blasted through a Victrola horn. Once inside they could see ten one-reelers, over-acted, and soundless. Only one hundred ninety-nine people could be admitted at one time- an audience of two hundred would have required Mr. Talbot to purchase a theatre license.

The building was not new even then. It is shown on the Sanborn Insurance Map of 1890 as a candy store and bakery; the oven was in the basement.

In 1904 one side of the building, where a lawyer has his office now, became a print shop, where Mr. Zimmerly, chief printer for the Frostburg Mining Journal , did job printing on the side. He was still there when the Spates brothers bought the building in 1912, and added a fifty-foot auditorium behind it, and renamed it The Palace.

When Mr. Zimmerly moved his presses to Broadway, the eastern half of the building became Zeller’s Barbershop. It was noteworthy in its early years for providing not only shaves and haircuts, but also baths in big zinc tubs, with hot and cold water. Much later it gained notoriety as a gathering place and a betting parlor.

The enlarged Palace Theatre was redecorated by a firm from Baltimore, and was touted as the most beautiful movie house in Maryland. Further improvements came at intervals- a Wurlitzer organ, a wider screen, more comfortable seats, and a sound system when Talkies replaced silent pictures.

Along with progress, however, there were also setbacks. In March 1914, a fire that perhaps started in a wastebasket raged for two hours, and closed down the theatre for more than three months. In 1925 the Hitchins Department Store, across the alley from the Palace, burned down. Apparently the heat weakened the west wall of the theatre; it collapsed a week later. That time the rebuilding included a remodeled entrance and two apartments on the second floor, which had been only storage space before.

The Spates family closed the theatre in 1981, after the multi-screened shopping mall theatres began offering more movies with less overhead. Distributors added to the local problems by dictating which pictures were to be shown and for how long, regardless of their appropriateness for Frostburg audiences.

For several years the Palace stood empty. Then the non-profit Frostburg Theatre Corporation was organized. Local people contributed generously to saving the facility, and made it possible to install new heating systems, to renovate the apartments, and to provide much improved restrooms. When RC Theatres leased the building, they introduced a wide screen and better projections facilities, which remain in place.

The Frostburg Palace Theatre survives. It belongs to the people of Frostburg. The marquee is available for announcing local events, and the auditorium can be used for plays and concerts, for vintage movies and lectures, and the lobbies are ideal for small art or craft shows.

The Theatre belongs to all of us. Let’s make good use of it.

From the Museum: Essay Three

By Betty Van NewkirkFebruary 28, 2002

Frostburg is a community in which people work together to achieve common goals. We have a swimming pool dug by hand by volunteers, a library that began with curbside contributions, a museum where donated artifacts have been organized and exhibited by volunteers; the list goes on. Now we have a community auditorium – the final payment on the Palace Theatre mortgage was made in February!

From the time when Dreamland, a nickelodeon, was opened on that site in 1906, the theatre was a focal point on Frostburg’s Main Street. It was touted as the most beautiful movie house west of Baltimore; it attracted large audiences with Penny Night; and the popcorn tasted as good as it smelled in the lobby. It couldn’t, however, compete with theaters that could hire one projectionist to serve four screens, and it closed its doors in December of 1981.

More than two years later, while the building was deteriorating behind its for sale sign, Meg Faulk wondered whether it would be possible to acquire it as a community auditorium. Out of curiosity, I took the question to the real estate agent, and suddenly Meg, her daughter, Gretchen, and I had each written checks for $200 to obtain an option on the property.

In the next few months we checked with building contractors (yes, the building was sound), with bankers (yes, they would lend us a percentage of the purchase price), and with people of Hagerstown and Frederick who had bought old movie theaters. We accepted Hagerstown’s advice to incorporate as Citizens to Save the Palace Theatre, but we rejected a suggestion from officials in Frederick. There we were advised to identify the wealthy people in town, invite them to a cocktail party, and promise to rename the theatre in honor of the person who made the largest contribution. But Frostburg is not Frederick! Instead, we turned to ordinary people, inviting anyone who pledged $10 a year to become a member of our organization. Larger donations promoted the giver to the status of “Sponsor” or “Benefactor.”

Money was raised in other ways as well. The Frostburg Community Theatre replaced about ten rows of seats with a temporary stage and put on a series of plays that brought money into the ticket booth. Benefit movies (16mm versions) were profitable. Jazz combos and barbershop choruses were fund-raisers and admission fees were augmented by the sale of popcorn and soft drinks in the lobby. The Spates family, who owned the property, generously allowed us to use it while we attempted to raise the money for its purchase. We paid for the utilities, but they came to our rescue when the furnace balked, or the lettering on the marquee needed to be changed.

In spite of skeptics who thought we’d never make it, we were able to buy the theatre in 1987. Payments on the mortgage could be made from rentals of the second floor apartments, which were renovated with new heating systems, stoves, refrigerators, and carpeting.

It is impossible to count the number of people who have been involved in the Palace project. Boys from the vo-tech school rewired the theatre, gaining experience beyond what they would have had in an ordinary classroom. The old marquee was used as a pattern for a new one, made by the Kenney Signs Company. Updated restrooms, handicapped accessible, were installed. Fraternity members from FSU manned the concession stand in the lobby, changed the lettering on the marquee, and polished brass fittings on the doors. Still others contributed to a telethon, stuffed envelopes for mailings, vacuumed up spilled popcorn, and scraped chewing gum off the floor.

The Frostburg Palace Theatre has a board made up of volunteers, and three trustees, representing the Business and Professional Association, the Mayor and Council, and the citizens of Frostburg. It is strictly non-profit. Now, after 15 years, we have made our last mortgage payment. The Palace belongs to the people of Frostburg! Any suggestions about how YOU and your neighbors can use and enjoy the facilities will be very much appreciated.

But first, we want to have a gala mortgage-burning ceremony. The people of Frostburg are invited to come together at the Palace on Monday, March 18, at 8 o’clock to celebrate.

Frostburg volunteers have done it again!