Mayfair’s Devon Theater for the Performing Arts may be gone, but its memories live on for many area residents who grew up watching movies at this Frankford Avenue landmark.
The Devon Theater for the Performing Arts was originally known as the Devon Theatre. In December 2009 the Devon Theater for the Performing Arts, on Frankford Avenue and Sterling Street, became another casualty of the recession, joining the ranks of other long-gone Frankford Avenue movie theaters, like the Mayfair, Merben and Holme.
Area residents recalled the movies and plays they’ve seen at the theater over the years.
Kelli Smelser, a Penn Hardware employee, has lived in the community for more than 15 years. She remembers seeing “Footloose” at the Theater in 1984, and later, when it was a playhouse, productions of “The Odd Couple” and “Nunsense.”
Steve Nebel, another long-time Mayfair resident, saw “Terminator II” at the theater when it first came out in 1991.
The theater used to offer $1 movies, said Stephen Kanoff, he’s worked on Frankford Avenue for 48 years.
Despite the nostalgia for cheap movies, The Devon Theater has had its share of troubles over the years. Built in 1946, the original 800-seat movie theater was a favorite among locals. But over the next two decades, multi-screen theaters slowly rendered the single-screen Devon obsolete, and in the late 1960s the struggling theater became an adult movie house.
Ed Lloyd, owner of Lloyd Sixsmith sporting goods, has worked on Frankford Avenue for 33 years and he remembers when the Devon was an eyesore in the community.
“I watched it develop and undevelop,” said Loyd of the theater, which in 1978, finally began airing regular films again.
In 2009, the theater was once again revived, becoming the Devon Theater for the Performing Arts, but shut down last month due to financial troubles.
Please visit our site http://www.savethedevon.org and help us save the Devon!!
Please email any backround or news links explaining the shutdown of the Devon Performing Arts Theater and any resolutions of patrons’ credit balances for cancelled shows.
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As recently as April 2011, Mayfair Community Development Corp. (CDC) controlled the Devon Theater. In OCT 2009 my dad purchased $432 worth of tickets to four Devon Theater plays/concerts, two of which were subsequently cancelled when the theater collapsed financially in 2010. The refund owed to my father was $275. CDC stonewalled on all refunds, and ignored my request for 3 1/2 months. After I asked CDC about possible Class Action resolution, they immediately issued dad’s refund 3/29/2011. I hate to think how many Mayfairians never got their refunds, especially Senior Citizens.
General perception/speculation: The Devon was renovated/operated primarily via Harrisburg $$$ controlled by then-honcho John Perzel. His political scandal/loss of power dried up the $$$ pipeline to Devon, whose operators apparently had no business model beyond taxpayer largesse.
I remember taking two buses from Harrowgate to pay my $1.00 for a movie. This was a Sunday Afternoon ritual. Miss it dearly. We knew our “feet would stick to the floor,” part of the charm!
Devon theater for the performing arts is reopening as Devon Concert hall on May 31st. Tickets are available at https://devoreopening.eventbrite.com