By Athan Maroulis | Edited by Peggy Gartin
The Callicoon Movie Theater
L
ike Alfredo, the movie theater projectionist in the 1988 film Cinema Paradiso, movie characters have often proven themselves to be my best friends. There’s Ilsa and Rick, Rhett and Scarlett, Luke and Leia, Norma Desmond, George Bailey and Harry Lime, to name a few of my most loyal pals. Far away from their Holly‑ woodland world of swaying palm trees and bungalows lays a filmic oasis nestled in the Catskills, a time capsule called the Callicoon Theater. I was hooked the first time I laid eyes on it. Not long ago, the entire community feared what could happen when the theater hit the real estate market. But suddenly some old movie magic happened: the perfect new proprietor stepped in and saved the day. That person is Krissy Smith, a native New Yorker, with her heart, mind and experience all in the right place. I enjoyed my conver‑ sation with Krissy, which I’ll get to in a minute. First, a little background on the star of this piece.
a pre-war art deco facade. The theater, reportedly one of only 17 like it in the country, boasted more than 500 seats. Today, that stands at a more practical capacity of 380. While Starck was quite the player in area movie houses, the Harden became the main link in a chain of regional cinemas owned by Harvey D. English and his wife Eva of nearby Hancock. The H.D. English theater chain of Harden Theaters was a major operation; at the time of the 1948 grand opening of the Harden in Callicoon, the chain even sponsored their own radio program, broadcast locally over
The Callicoon Theater was originally opened as the Harden Theatre on July 8th, 1948, and has continuously operated for the last 72 years, the longest tenure of any movie theater in Sullivan County. On that July evening the marquee read Green Grass of Wyoming starring Peggy Cummins, a Technicolor oater primarily remembered today for an uncredited extra named Marilyn Monroe. Built by local businessman Fred Starck, the Harden’s unique Quonset hut design, a prefabricated steel structure used during the war, was melded to a dreamy lobby building, complete with Jeffersonville Journal ‑ 50
Interior theater and techni color photos by Jerry Cohen
