The "Long Live The Fulton Theatre" Story!

It was an ordinary day.  Driving past the Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  For years I had made plaques that were given to members on their board of directors when they retired.  When I no longer had the facilities to make the plaques, they searched elsewhere for someone else who could make the plaques for them.  I enjoyed so much making the plaques, since it gave me a chance to drop off the plaques which in turn gave me a chance to walk through their theatre on N. Prince St. in downtown Lancaster.  Today I opened my daily newspaper and read a column titled "I Know A Story" which runs in the newspaper every week.  Today's headline read, "Before Fulton Theatre saved, he went there for movies."  Article was written by Robert A. Martin.  Began with....In the 1950s, the Fulton Theatre was on its last legs.  Some people were ready to tear it down.  I went there as a boy to see old B-movie reissues.  For a quarter, I watched Westerns with second-stringer heroes who didn't sing.  I saw 10-cent Saturday matinees with single episodes from old serials, and I occasionally watched imported "art cinema," with subtitled dialog and titillating flashes of female flesh.  There was a no-name soda machine in the lobby, which might have sold you a drink if you had the skill to hold the cup upright.  There was also a loud machine that dispensed the oldest popcorn in Lancaster, and a concession stand that sold petrified candy, if you could find the attendant.  I certainly remember that!  Even as run-down as the place was, I thought it was a cool place that just needed a good cleaning and touch-up.  Boy, was I  naive about how much that would take.  Eventually the theatre became run-down, but even as a run-down place, I thought that with a good cleaning the theatre just might survive.  Thank heaven the right people with enough money and influence were able to save this great, historic gem of a theatre.  It came very close to becoming just another patch of black asphalt on the landscape, another victim of "urban renewal," which wouldn't have stopped downtown's slide anyway.  Its unique history would have been lost forever.  Today it has made a grand turn-around and is a great place to take in a show or a film.  I'm so sorry that I no longer can provide them with the plaques that I once did, but that's life!  I'm so happy to drive past the theatre now and say that I went to see this or that movie at the Fulton.  Long Live The Fulton!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.