TUNKHANNOCK — Unless one is over the age of 80, he or she cannot remember downtown Tunkhannock without the Dietrich Theater.
It was in 1937 that George Dietrich built the Dietrich Theater just 20 years after his father, C. Elmer Dietrich, opened the Savoy Theater right across the street. It was on the second floor of the building with a bowling rink on the ground floor. The brand new Dietrich Theater was a modern 481-seat theater with two apartments above it and two commercial spaces on each side – an ambitious investment.
George Dietrich’s three daughters, Barbara Zeck, Lavona Daniels and Laura Kirk, now living in Tunkhannock, have many memories to share about growing up with a father and mother in the movie theater business. In their early years, they lived in an upstairs apartment in the building. Their mother sold tickets in the outside ticket booth and their father was the projectionist.
Daniels remembers riding her tricycle on the upstairs patio above the theater.
Zeck remembers the cowboy movies with Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and the supporting characters like Roy’s horse Trigger.
They remember the restaurant adjoining the theater once called “Brownies” for the owner Cecil Brown.
Kirk remembers her first understanding of the meaning of infinity when she stood in the lobby looking into one giant mirror across from another giant mirror and seeing herself receding again and again.
They also remember a comfortable sofa in the lobby, a good place to sit and visit with friends.
Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, according to Daniels, they were required to see their father’s favorite movie “The Quiet Man.” Other movies they remember well include anything with John Wayne, westerns, “Gone With the Wind,” and “Ben Hur.” These especially stand out in their memories.
The sisters also remember their father’s need to have multiple jobs. They moved to a farm on Russell Hill when they were young, when their father would milk the cows during the day and go to the theater at night to project films. He also owned a locker plant where people could store their frozen foods. This was before people owned their own freezers. Some of these ventures were in partnership with his business associate, Cecil Brown.
George Dietrich was always on the forefront of technology, purchasing one of the first televisions and one of the first milk tanks on his farm.
Destroyed after the flood of 1972 is a poster that used to be proudly displayed at the Dietrich Theater of Will Rogers and C. Elmer Dietrich. C. Elmer Dietrich had an illustrious career of his own, not only as an entrepreneur, but also a United States Congressman at the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. He had close enough ties with the Roosevelt family that Eleanor Roosevelt visited a cousin of their grandmother’s when she was badly burned.
When asked if the Dietrich sisters were happy with the revived Dietrich Theater, they all expressed pride to see it become such an important part of the community.
Zeck related her great granddaughter Eliana “loves” the Dietrich Theater. And the Dietrich pride is also shown by the fact that three of the sisters’ grandchildren have the middle name of Dietrich.
