In 2012, folks were treated to a fascinating presentation on the lost Smalley's Theatre which used to stand on Kingston Street. Presented by the Delhi Historical Society, "Mick" McGrade of Delhi presented memories, photos and old news items on the old theatre as his dad, Larry, had served as manager of the theatre from 1944 to the early '60s and the family accumulated numerous artifacts as well as memories from those years.
Shut down in 1963, the theatre, owned at that time by the Smalley Theatre chain, had a long and colorful history.
"Dad kept the balcony closed up because of what kids would do when they went up there," McGrade said. "They liked to throw stuff down on the people below. And do other things...."
The "air conditioning" consisted of a huge fan, McGrade said, up in the balcony. "You wouldn't want to be in there when it started up. It would blow you over."
Huge film canisters and a plethora of memorabilia filled spaces in the old building.
"The old type of film in those canisters is actually explosive," McGrade advised. "Some of the workers would have fun setting some of it off. Ernie Bird was one of the projectionists and Evelyn Cantwell was a ticket-seller for many years."
Other well-known names from the local area were remembered, some from more recent events related to the old building.
"Buck Wilson fell through the floor some time after the place was closed up. Elsie (Logwin, the last owner) had shut off the heat after she closed it in '63 and that was it for the old place. The floor rotted. Buck fell through and after that, it was condemned. Before that it had been a roller skating rink and an opera house."
McGrade remembered more of the architecture.
"The floor was rebuilt after it was no longer a skating rink, so that it sloped. That's when it became a theatre. There were diamond-shaped windows that you could only see from the inside since the exterior got covered over and you couldn't tell those windows were there from the outside."
Besides the canisters containing potentially explosive film, old movie posters, costumes, toupees and even sets of false teeth were discovered inside the theatre after it closed.
"You never knew what you would find in there. I wish we had saved more of it...." McGrade shook his head sadly as his wife concurred from her seat in the audience.
He told of celebrities who would arrive at the theatre for the openings of films in which they starred.
Some of those celebrities were other-than-human.
"Tom Mix and his horse came here, and Roy Rogers, too. They built a ramp so Tom's horse could go on in. And yes, they signed autographs like crazy and didn't ask for money first like they do nowadays."
Dressing rooms from the theatre's opera house days still held a costume or two.
"Where did the old seats go?? Many of them had names of servicemen written on the backs. Those would have been precious souvenirs," McGrade lamented.
He remembered hearing from his dad of "a lady during the silent movie era who lived on Meredith Street and she played the organ in the opera house. She'd walk from her home on Meredith and walk back after the show."
McGrade said his entire family helped out at the theatre when his dad managed it. "I remember putting up movie posters on the side of a barn going out on Rte. 28 towards Oneonta. Dad did a lot of 'baby-sitting.' People would drop their kids off while they went shopping. Dad was given a hard time when he wanted to show movies on Sundays. 'To Kill A Mockingbird' was likely the last film shown in '63."
The theatre survived a lot before it was condemned, McGrade said. "I remember when the water elevation was about 8 feet high during the flood of '35. But it came through."
Others shared their remembrances of Smalley's Theatre. Sue Pierson, secretary of the Delhi Historical Society and a 1961 graduate of Delaware Academy recalled seeing "The King And I" and sitting in the balcony.
"Four days after giving birth to my youngest, you couldn't keep me away from going to Smalley's to see 'Goldfinger.' I wasn't going to miss that film!"
Pierson remembered the McGrades fondly. "They were always so friendly when you went there to the movies. Such a nice family."
In its heyday, the Smalley Theatre chain included about 22 theatres throughout New York State. Others existed in Cooperstown, Camden, Fort Plain, Hensonville, Johnstown, Norwich, Oxford, St. Johnsville, Cobleskill, Sharon Springs, Sidney, Stamford and Walton. The string of theatres grew from a dream by William C. Smalley who began as a projectionist at an opera house in Danbury, Connecticut. When Smalley passed away in 1952, 12 theatres were still in operation. Gradually they disappeared or were operated by new owners.
Having stood so long, the theatre naturally found itself in headlines as part of its history, and not always happily so. The 1951 obituary of Albert William Dubben, 78, "a prominent business man for many years until his retirement in 1945, notes that Dubben died in the Delhi hospital hours after being struck by a car in front of Smalley's Theatre. Dubben and his wife had been crossing Kingston Street and he was struck by a car driven by Robrt Salton, 18, "a member of the senior class of Delaware Academy."
The Delhi theatre was originally built in 1882 as the Delhi Opera House and was purchased by Smalley in the 1920's. It suffered a sad end in 1990 after having been closed since 1963. The last owner, Elsie Logwin, lived in a house next door while she operated the theatre. She refused to sell to anyone who wanted to restore the unique local landmark, and in 1990, the village trustees of Delhi voted to purchase it. The board considered the structure to be an eyesore too expensive to restore following an engineer's estimate of over $1.1 million, and so opted to demolish it, in spite of a citizens' group that expressed interest in saving it. Demolition began on the morning of November 5, 1990.
Some in the audience noted sadly that Delh's theatre was lost while happily the Walton theatre was not only saved, but is still undergoing restoration. Sidney's is now a pizza place, and Cooperstown's theatre is now a, what else, baseball shop.
Some relics of the Delhi theatre are now at a theatre in Cooperstown, McGrade said.
Spread out on tables in the library were samples from the theatre's heyday. Copies of old ads showed films starring Ginger Rogers and a phone number for the theatre: simply PH.113.
"It's a big shame that it's gone," McGrade stated, echoing the sentiments of most in the audience.
But he added that the Paint & Paper store on Main Street sells reproductions of postcards that had originally been found in their attic and they donate the proceeds of those postcard sales to the Delhi Historical Society.
"That's real nice of them," said McGrade.