page_title: Colonial Theater (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
section_title: Golden era
hierarchical_section_title: Colonial Theater (Allentown, Pennsylvania) / History / Golden era
caption_attribution_description: English: Colonial Theater Interior after 1963 renovation
context_page_description: The Colonial Theater was a former cinema and stage theater in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1920, for over 50 years it was considered the glamour cinema in the central business district. It closed in 1982, and was torn down in 2005 after years of being vacant and deteriorated. The site has been redeveloped as Three City Center, part of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone.
context_section_description: The Colonial had its opening night on October 11, 1920.   Its first film was "The Idol Dancer" by D.W. Griffith.  Also on the bill were a Pathe newsreel and a comedy starring silent screen favorite Harold Lloyd entitled "High and Dizzy" Matinee prices for the orchestra and balcony seats were 25 cents, but box seats on Saturday evening would be 65 cents, a high price by the standards of the time. 
   
  For most of the next 50-odd years, the Colonial was one of the most profitable and popular theaters in Allentown. Although designed primarily for films, it also was on occasion a performing arts theater.  It was also host for traveling jazz spectaculars, specializing in touring groups from Harlem's Cotton Club.  In 1929, the theater installed sound equipment for talking pictures.  In February 1935, it was the site of a live national radio network broadcast of "Amos and Andy".
  It was remodeled in 1937; seats were added, new projection equipment installed and a new air conditioning system put in place, just in time for a big event of 1938. By that time Walter Vincent was chairman of the board of Hollywood film studio Republic Pictures. It was his idea to make a film about the city called "Allentown On Parade".
  Along with a Republic Pictures romance called "Army Girl", the film on Allentown premiered on the night of August 18, 1938. Before a capacity crowd on the flag-draped stage of the Colonial Theater, a coast-to-coast phone conversation between Allentown community leaders and the stars of "Army Girl" was broadcast throughout the theater. In an era when a cross-country phone call was a big deal, hearing the live voices of Hollywood stars was quite an event.   In 1944, the property was sold to Fabian Theaters, Inc., which operated a chain of thirty theaters in New York and New Jersey.
caption: Interior of the theater after its renovation in the early 1960s
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