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The Girl Who Lived Above The Orpheum Theater -Karen Hechler
Dauna Woodward Prinkey with her Aunt Louise Klitz
You have to be of a certain age to understand what going to the movies was like in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Think of a time when you didn’t have a VHS or DVD player or movies available on your computer or smart phone. Today, you can see a movie on your electronic equipment whenever you want to or have the time. Ages ago, unless you had a film projector and access to films, going to the movies was a big deal. My little movie theater in Rockwood, PA had three different movies a week. When we moved to Connellsville, there were three movie houses: the Orpheum, the Soisson, and the Paramount. I only visited the first two as I was never inside the Paramount. The Orpheum was a classy, elegant movie house with a large stage area and a beautiful stairway leading to the balcony, and the Soisson was the theater where kids could spend all day Saturday at the movies. When you see reruns on television of series like The Andy Griffith Show, you realize what a treat it was to go to the movies back then. What if your father was the manager of the theater, you could go to the movies whenever your parents allowed you to go, and you lived in the apartment building where the Orpheum occupied the entire first floor? What a dream! Well, Dauna Woodward Prinkey was that lucky girl in Connellsville. She was “The Girl Who Lived Above the Orpheum Theater.” Dauna is the wife of Pastor Ralph Prinkey who serves at the Connellsville Presbyterian Church as a guest pastor from time to time. After worship, we meet in the Fellowship Hall for coffee and refreshments. I knew something of Dauna’s background at the Orpheum and thought that her story would make a good article for Crossroads Magazine. Kids who once lived in a village like Gibsonville had fathers who worked at the Etna iron smelting furnace, cut timber for heating the furnace, or hauled the wood, ore and limestone. Kids who lived in a coal patch town had fathers who worked in the mines. Kids who lived in the church manse had a father who was the pastor of the church. Our kid, Dauna, lived over the Orpheum Theater and her father ran it. The building that housed the Orpheum was built as the Royal Hotel in 1916. I can imagine Connellsville in 1916, a bustling railroad center for the active coal mines and coke ovens turning out coke for the hungry steel mills of Pittsburgh. People who were in and out of Connellsville on business needed a place to stay overnight or if you were employed by one of the industries having its home base in Connellsville an apartment to live in. The Royal Hotel offered both single rooms and apartments. People can’t work all of the time and need some entertainment, so the lobby area of the Royal Hotel was turned into a theater which staged vaudeville shows and silent movies. The first movie to seen at the new Orpheum on December 14, 1916 was titled Less Than the Dust and starred Mary Pickford, “America’s Sweetheart.” Silent films gave way to talkies in May of 1929, when the Vitaphone system allowed films to enter the “Sound Age.” The theater was owned at different times by Pete and Gus Mikalarias, Greek brothers. Pete had created the theater within the Royal Hotel in 1916, and it was he who installed Vitaphone in 1929 to equip the theater for sound. My friend, Fotenie Melassanos Mongell, told me stories about the local Greek families and their involvement in restaurants and theaters, not uncommon occupations for Greeks who had immigrated. Her father was born in Greece, and he eventually moved to Connellsville where he owned and operated the Star Restaurant.
The Daily Courier Connellsville, Pennsylvania - 11 Dec 1916, Monday Page 8
You may recognize this table. It once sat in the lobby of the Orpheum Theater. Donated to the Connellsville Canteen by Dauna Woodward Prinkey.
When you entered the Orpheum lobby, you could see the handsome stairway leading to the balcony. I don’t remember ever sitting in the balcony. The large stage area was used for live performances. Pastor Ralph told me that his mother, Geraldine Prinkey, and Sam Brooks’ sister, Jeanne Brooks King and Mildred Burkholder were in a minstrel show at the Orpheum. Ralph remembers seeing Paul Shannon, a Pittsburgh television celebrity, at the Orpheum, and the Mouseketeer, By Williams, at the Orpheum when he was a kid. Ralph said that on the days when celebrities were in Connellsville, the kids lined up around the block up to the Elks on Crawford Avenue to get into the theater and get autographs. Paul Shannon also showed a lot of Three Stooges movies which the kids loved. Dauna remembers that the films were huge and came in great metal cases. Her dad, William “Woody” Woodward, would meet the bus to pick up the new film and send the film just shown in Connellsville to the next theater on the schedule. There was a special machine used to splice the film together, and there were times when the film tore and had to be spliced during show time. The projectionist at the Orpheum that Dauna remembers was Irvin “Fats” Albright. Fats’ grandson, David Albright, lives in Uniontown, and he told me that his grandfather and great grandfather ran the projectors at other local theaters including the historic Colonial Theater on the South Side of Connellsville. Candy sold at the Orpheum came from the ABC Corporation, and popcorn arrived already popped. It came in a big truck, and was stored in large bags. The popcorn was put in the warmer to heat it before it was sold to the patrons. The first 12 years of her life, Dauna lived in an apartment on the first floor of the hotel immediately over the theater complex on the ground floor. According to Dauna, the first floor had three apartments and one single room. The second floor had five single rooms and one apartment the entire length of the building. The third floor had a host of apartments and a big ball room. It was on the third floor that the residents had their washing machines. So you had to climb to the third floor to do your laundry rather than going to the basement. Being the only child living at the Royal Hotel, later known as the Royal Apartments, Dauna had her tricycle on the third floor and could ride all around this big space. There were lots of nooks and crannies to explore. The apartment building was her playground. Dauna’s grandmother and aunt and uncle lived on the second floor, and it was a grand time for her when the grandchildren came, and she had someone to play with. She told me about the great big fire escape and an office in the building where there were bars on the windows. Some teachers from the Connellsville schools had apartments in the Royal. Dauna remembered a Miss Wilhelm and a Miss Metzler. Her family apartment had high ceilings and fancy wallpaper. It had huge rooms except for the kitchen which
was galley style with a stove and refrigerator. A larger area next to the galley held a living room and dining room with a trellis dividing the room where you could display knickknacks, a bath room, and a bed room. She said there were large hallways as well. Being in the heart of downtown and having a balcony, the family had a front row seat for any downtown Connellsville special occasions. She remembers seeing a big parade in the 1950’s. Dauna was about 6 years old at the time. We figured out that she was watching the Sesquicentennial Parade in 1956. She also remembers when the White Front Apartments building burned on Feb. 4, 1961. There were 12 apartments in the building along with Gigliotti’s and the Double Dragon. Woody opened the Orpheum so that the firemen could go inside to keep warm. Living downtown as a youngster was a good place to grow up, according to Dauna. She went to elementary school at the Cameron Building, and she walked to school with other kids some of whom lived in the apartments over Oglevee’s Florist. Her mother, Nancy Kibble Woodward, allowed Dauna to stay up and go to the movies on Friday night if the movie was acceptable for children. After the movie, she and her parents would enjoy the nice store windows of Connellsville’s many merchants in the 1950’s, and end up at Judy Jean’s, in the north end, where they were making their wonderful fried doughnuts. Dauna could go to the movies with parental permission, and she did get in for free, but she had to pay for her candy and soft drinks. The theater was open every day when she lived there and on Sunday, it opened at 2:00 pm. Woody Woodward had a long history with the Orpheum having started there at age 17 as an usher. He went off to the World War II and eventually got married in 1948. By that time, Woody was the theater’s manager. He worked a very long day. He left the apartment at 11:00 am and did not come back to the apartment until midnight when the theater closed. The Orpheum was remodeled in 1965, but was closed on April 27, 1969. The last film to be seem at the theater was The Wrecking Crew featuring Dean Martin. On June 14, 1969, the Orpheum was demolished and became a parking lot. It had been a cultural highlight in Connellsville presenting live shows, silent films, and “talkies.” Many local kids worked their first job as an usher at the Orpheum. It had been a big part of William Woodward’s life, but in 1962, the family left the apartment to find a house with a yard. I know the importance of a yard to a kid. So, living over the theater, where your dad was the manager, had its “perks,” and you got to see events that others didn’t since you lived downtown. These days theaters, in our area, are found in Malls. Our girl, Dauna, had a unique experience living in Connellsville. You can read about The Girl on the Train, or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but we have The Girl Who Lived Above the Orpheum Theater.
