New Britain herald., 1922-11-25
Many Small Houses Clamor- ed for Business in Good Old Days" When Prices Ranged From Five to l5 Cents.

picture theaters within the past Is
 years which have proved failures, or
 the sites have given way to other bus
 iness interests. although there are
 probably few members of the younger
 set in town who remember, where
 when and by whom these amusement
 places were started.
 The theaters. although they could
 not rightly be called such, as most of them were small stores converted in-
 to theater by the installation of a
 few seats, piano, a screen and a
 moving picture machine. were the Bijou, where the Newark shoe store Is now located; the Scenic. where the present Scenic theater is now located, although 1t was once again converted Into store use; the Ardel, on the site of Raphaels department store; the Moon, on Church street next to the Regal hotel: the Lyric on Church street where the Trewhella Market is now located; the Mazda, in the Halli- nan block on Main street: the Broad way in the Mueller block on Arch street; the Palace in Lees hall on Lafayette street; the Polonia, on Lee street, and the Open Air theater on Myrtle street where the Grand hotel now stands.
 Prices Were Cheap
 It seemed as though those were the good old days as the prices ranged anywhere from five to fifteen cents. If more was charged the managers were sure that the people of New Britain would not patronize their houses. During the run of these theaters with the exception of the Polonia, the Lyceum and Keeney's now known as the Palace, ran vaude- vile and road attractions, as Fox's theater was not built at that time.
 Glackin A Pioneer Operator
 John Glackin. present manager of the Lyceum theater is one of the pioneer moving picture machine oper- ators in the state and was about the first New Britain man to take up this sort of work when the business first came to be known. As MT. Glackin says. he learned the business while the out of town moving picture operators when they came to New Britain in the early '90's.
 MT. Glackin recalls when moving pictures were first introduced to a | New Britain audience as regular | shows at the old Hanna armory on East Main. street in about 1900, al- hough the Hyman Lowe travelogues lad played at the Lyceum as early IS in 1898. The Hanna armory was ocated on a site which is now by part of the Landers, rrary and Clark manufacturing com ,any plant.
 Machines Were Different
 In speaking of the old time picture Mir. Glackin said that the llm in those days did not rewind tself on the machine as is done at he present time, but it was allowed o unroll in bag attached to the machine and then it was necessary or the operator to rewind all of his Inns after each performance before hey could be shown over again.
 One of the first films ever brought ) New Britain was that of '-The rain Robbery which was shown at 1e Hanna armory every Sunday night ,r several weeks until the public be- ame weary of it. This was followed y a French film which was shown the Lyceum several Sunday nights ntil the public also tired of it.
 Short Reelers. Most of the films in those days con- sted of one, two and three reelers, ,,
 five or eight reeler having never zen heard of. The films were of a : 'mdy nature and very crude in com Lrison to the ones shown today. The Bijou, the first of the smaller owing picture houses in the city, as started by a Mir. Manning from This theater existed for few months and then went out of 2 lsiness. The old timers say it was cause the public did not know what . owing pictures were and for that 2 ason they would not attend. At this time Messrs. Hallaby and Y .rokas from New Haven came to n, nv Britain and reopened the Bijou. 2 ter they started the Scenic theater. ', bout this time the Ardale was start U and Hallaby and Perokas went into 2 at going back to the Scenic at la 7; " date. U Fred Elliotts started 1T 3 Lyric on Church street which ted for about six months and then mt out of existence. The Moon was } next on the list, but only catered fho n,,hNc for fuyo v,,0r<hu xvhor 1te