THE BERWICK THEATER

I’m sure my readers who lived in South Easton Pennsylvania in the 50s and early 60s fondly remember the Berwick Theater.  Situated on the south side of the 500 block of Berwick Street, it was a typical neighborhood theater of the times.  By that I mean it didn’t get any first run movies and usually showed a fare of second run films, B horror films (some of which were really tacky and some were quite good, like the Hammer Films from England), occasionally a 1930s movie serial, and always cartoons. I doubt if anyone from any neighborhood in the city other than South Easton ever attended a show there. South Siders in those years were as thick as thieves. By that I mean if you didn’t actually know a person, more often than not you would at least recognize them or their names, and rarely did I see anyone there who I truly did not know
It was sandwiched in between a small corner store (though it really wasn’t on the corner) and an appliance store. The exterior of the front of the building, from the marquee to the poster cabinets and the walls themselves looked as if passing the theater in a painter’s truck was as close as a bucket of paint had been to the place in many years. This seediness wasn’t just outside either. The lobby, small and dark, had a threadbare carpet that I am sure was seeing the grandchildren of some of its first patrons. It also contained a forlorn popcorn machine and a few mechanical candy machines. A water fountain with perpetually tepid water was on one wall, and two bathrooms with barely functioning facilities were on opposite sides of the lobby, which ran across the theater from side to side after you entered the double doors.
Except for one row of good seats, the auditorium of the theater was just as seedy as the rest of it.  That row of good seats was fought over every week by whatever children happened to be at the head of the line.  Early entry when the doors opened guaranteed that you would not have a seat that was little more than a cushion on the floor, or which contained broken springs that would poke you in the ass if you moved around. The screen was in such bad shape that it actually fell over one Saturday afternoon during a show and they had to give us our money back.
An older couple, Russell and Anna Shafer (unsure of spelling), ran the Berwick Theater. He was a retired carpenter and they ran the theater on weekends. What made them think that having a theater full of sometimes squabbling children would be a good way to spend their retirement, I’ll never know. Russell Shafer sold the tickets and recycled them.  By that I mean the same tickets had been reused so many times that the only way you could tell if it was an adult or child’s ticket was by the color. Mrs. Shafer took the tickets and was also the usher of sorts, walking up and down the aisles like a storm trooper. That is actually a happy memory for me, because as an adult I have come to appreciate what the Shafers provided for those of us on South Side, and what they had to put up with from all of us. She didn’t tolerate moving around or noise of any kind. If we misbehaved, the close nature of South Siders at that time worked against us because usually she knew our parents and they would get a phone call before we got home.  I think they had a projectionist too, but I really don't remember that.
A typical show at the Berwick usually consisted of coming attractions (sometimes given the misnomer of trailers), usually at least one cartoon, sometimes a newsreel, and either 2 B grade movies or a second run A list movie. It was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when I was growing up. The lowest price I remember paying as a child was 20 cents and I think the most was 75 cents, though I don’t recall exactly.
As I had said the theater was open on weekends mostly, Friday nights, and then Saturday and Sunday afternoons. But that was just for the movies. The Shafers had it open on Wednesdays during the winter for the KYM (Know Your Master) Club, a sort of winter version of the Vacation Bible Schools that a lot of churches used to run in the summers. I know very little about it other than seeing the signs for it in one of the poster cabinets on the front of the theater and the large letters KYM on the marquee. My cousins Craig and Gail, who lived almost directly across from the theater used to attend sometimes. To my knowledge the Shafers took care of all the expenses of the KYM club themselves, in addition to using the theater for the meetings.
At some point after the Shafers had closed the theater, Mrs. Shafer was walking their German Shepherd on a real rainy day and was unfortunately hit and killed by a driver who did not see her. To this day it saddens me that she died in such a tragic way. I miss her and can still see her face in my mind. The theater fell into disrepair after both the Shafers had passed away, with the roof caving in the final straw. The city tore the remainder down and there is a house on the property now. The Berwick Theater was home to generations of South Siders on the weekends. I can still close my eyes and remember a lot of it like it was almost 55 years ago, when I first attended a show there.