By Jorge Batlle
Skaneateles Village Historian
Motion picture shows, or “movies” started with a device called “the magic lantern.” It was a method of showing images on a blank surface. (Our modern version is the slide projector.) It was first used in the “colonies” in Salem, Massachusetts in 1743.
The French Lumiere brothers are credited with showing the first projected moving images for a paying audience in 1895. Thomas Edison improved on the projector with the Vitascope, the first commercially successful projector in 1896. The Edison Company developed their own projector, known at the Projectoscope, and in November of 1896 discontinued the Vitascope. Two places take credit for the first movie theater. New Orleans claims the Vitascope Hall on Canal Street was the world’s first for-profit location, opening in June of 1896. While New York City claims that on April 23, 1896 they were the first to show films in a “movie theater.”
Legg Hall on East Genesee Street, a carriage factory, was extensively remodeled is 1867 by Joel Thayer to the building seen today. The Skaneateles Democrat in a Jan. 30, 1868 article “we can now boast of a public hall second to none in Central New York in a place of this size….Let everyone that can help, sustain all entertainments that may occupy it.” The Skaneateles Press mentioned an “entertainment” involving a moving picture event, a fund raiser for the Skaneateles Fire Department.
The movie business started in the early 1900s when Charles Huxford started showing movies in St. Bridgett’s Hall in Skaneateles Falls. He ran an electrical cord from the woolen mill overhead across the railroad tracks and street to the hall. The movies were silent films, so Huxford’s sister Nell McGinn played the piano to accompany the scenes on the screen.
In 1907 “The Skaneateles Amusement Company” announced the arrival of a moving picture machine and it has been set up in the upper story of the Legg Hall. Electric connections will be made in a few days, when the company will put on illustrated songs (using lantern slides) and (moving) pictures combined, with two changes every week,” according to the May 17, 1907 announcement in the Skaneateles Free Press. A May 21,1907 announcement continues to say the Legg Hall will be open afternoons at 2:30 and evenings at 8 o’clock. Songs will be a feature of the program, which will be changed twice a week.” Some of the films were: “Artist’s Dream,” “One Hundred to One Shot,” and “Wedding On Wheels.” Some of the songs were “Coming Through The Rye” and “Napanee.” Admission was ten cents.
Saturday, Aug. 9, 1911 about 9 p.m., a fire started in the Legg Hall attic. A moving picture show was playing to about 60 to 80 persons in the hall. The projector was placed in the rear of the attic, with a hole cut in the wall to allow pictures to be thrown on a curtain on the stage. Projectionist Walter Burdick said that the fire was caused by sparks from wiring in the attic and not from their picture machine. Flames dropping from the attic hit the highly flammable cellulose nitrate films causing a rapid expansion of the fire. (It took until 1950 for Kodak to develop an acetate based film which they labeled “safety film.”) Luckily everyone made it out safely. However, projectionist Burdick suffered burns on his face and hands. The fire burned the roof of the west end of the building, in the area where the fire started. The hall’s ceiling was burned but the floor was undamaged except from debris from the roof, the ceiling and water. The fire department’s valiant efforts and a good water supply, saved the building from total destruction. The Legg building was owned by Mary Webb, who leased the hall to the Skaneateles Fire Department, who in turn rented it for dances, entertainments and meetings. The businesses on the first floor suffered water damage. There was $3,000 insurance on the building.
Charles Huxford of Skaneateles Falls leased the International Order of Odd Fellows Temple on State Street (In 1939 it was sold to The Grange. In 1966 it was torn down and is where the M&T Bank drive-up facility is located). According to a front page ad in the Jan. 26, 1915 edition of The Skaneateles Free Press, In 1915 he was screening a four reel comedy “The Perfect 36” plus a Pathe newsreel on nights where there were no sporting events in the building. Admission to the show was ten cents. Although Huxford operated two movie houses, he only paid the rental cost of the films for one. Huxford hired Charles Ostrander the owner of a fast motorcycle. During the intermission, or when the piano was playing, Ostrander would race to the other theater and swap reels so each could be shown as a second feature.
In 1919 Huxford purchased Legg Hall and renamed the theater “The Huxford Theater.” Jessie Thurlow, Huxford’s new wife, was the piano player. When the action in the movie would get exciting, Jessie would make that old piano almost smoke. This ended with the advent to ‘talkies,’ about 1930.
In 1940 Huxford sold Legg Hall and the Colonial Theater to Reuben C. Canter. Canter remodeled the theater, putting in a sloped floor, new seats, new projector, upgraded restrooms, and hanging two elegant large murals on the walls. The rest of the walls were decorated in a gold brocade. He installed a marquee with two colonial bell ringer figures where it met the building. When it was all lit up and working, it appeared that the colonial figure was ringing a bell. A new ticket booth was placed on the street level. Admission was up to 12 cents for those under twelve and 30 cents for adults.
The theater showed a matinee on Saturday, with cartoons and a western serial such as Roy Rogers. In the evening there would two feature movies and newsreels, specially important during World War II. This was one way people got their news in the days before television. Unlike its past history, under Canter’s ownership, the theater hosted only one live show. This was a November 1973 concert by locals Brandywine, who became known as The Dean Brothers.
Canter, getting on in years, wanted to get out of the business. In 1972, he sold the property to Anthony T. Kolinski. He, like Canter, owned a number of theaters across the State. As times changed and movieplexes were being built as close as Auburn, the Colonial Theater slipped into a second run status. Kolonski, in a June 18, 1979 letter to the Skaneateles Village Board, citing yearly financial losses, announced that he would be closing the Colonial Theater. According to long time employee Jean Wallace, the last movie was “Rocky II” shown Aug. 29, 1979. She said it would have been more fitting to end this run with the Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd’s “The Last Picture Show.”
The building was sold to local developers in late 1979. The renovations created condominiums and street level commercial occupancies. They followed guidelines from various historic preservation agencies, along with local requirements from the Village’s Zoning Board and Historic Preservation Commission.
Submitted photo
The Colonial Man from the marquee is on permanent exhibit at the Creamery, along with a story board on this lost entertainment gem.
