The Majestic Theater
When you talk about Ellwood City, one topic that almost always comes up is the Majestic Movie Theater. The theatre is most commonly remembered as being owned by the Biordi family but actually had a handful of different owners. John Biordi was born in Aquila, Italy and came to Ellwood City sometime during 1902. He and his brother bought the Majestic Theater in 1918 but six years later sold it to Joseph and Nick Shuler in 1924 for $30,000. Thomas Barnes purchased the theater from the Shulers and eventually in 1936 he re-sold the theater to John Biordi and his sons, Frank and Andy. The Biordi’s continued to operate the Majestic Theater for the next thirty years. After selling the Majestic, Thomas Barnes built the Barnes Theatre which occupied half of the former G.C. Murphy Building on Lawrence Avenue.
Unfortunately we do not have many pictures of the Majestic Theater and absolutely no pictures of the inside. Due to the lack of pictures we can only recall from our own memories what the lobby looked like with the candy counter and the gorgeous velvet and brass staircase. We may never know how it looked upstairs (which we don’t think anyone ever saw), and can only rely on our own memories of the huge theater itself with 396 seats and the big stage up front. Additional memories we have heard from others involved the basement as the restrooms were located down there. To be more precise, the bathrooms in the basement were actually more under Lawrence Avenue then they were under the theater.
Then on a cold January morning in 1984 disaster struck. Fire was discovered in the rear of the Majestic Theater and quickly spread completely destroying the building. The third and final installment of the Star Wars trilogy “Return of the Jedi” would be the final movie ever shown in the theater that brought so much joy to those that grew up in Ellwood City.
The burned down theater was purchased and razed by Dr. Walter Dickson who already owned the G.S. Young property next to the theater. The Young block had also received extensive damage from the fire and restoration to that property was already underway by June of that same year.
The Majestic was a popular stage before motion pictures were common. We would love to hear what celebrities you remember seeing perform there or any other memories you may have of the theater. Please leave a comment below or you can email us you memories or even pictures at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com
I remember watching the smoke from the fire from the windows at North Side Elementary school. I remember seeing E.T., Fox and the Hound, Dragon Slayer and I want to say Grease 2 at that theatre. Ahh the memories.
Additional information about the Majestic theater: My grandfather, Horace O.Abbaticchio (born 1872 – 1970)was a partner with Mr. Biordi at the Majestic and also was part owner of the Manos theater as well and he was owner of the first 5 & 10 store, Abbey’s Racket Store, in Ellwood.
I can recall the morning the disaster happened vividly. The weekend prior, my Grandfather (Henry Hienz) and I attended a movie at the Majestic. When word spread that it had caught fire, he and I went to the dead-end of East Ave located on chicken coop hill and watched the smoke roll. Few flames were able to be viewed from atop the hill, however I can still recall the sirens and what seems to be a heartbroken Grandfather.
I remember going to the Majestic alot. One time, my girlfriend and I went to see the Hard Days Night of the Beatles. We SCREAMED during the whole movie, and changed our seats constantly. Can you imagine that now?
I was probably between the ages of 8 – 11 and got to ride the bus from Wampum Rd. to the Majestic on a Saturday afternoon, to see Clarabelle the Clown from the Howdy Doodie Show. This was a great treat for me and he also squirted me from his water bottle. This was back in the early 50′s.
I don’t remember the year, but Tony Guerrera bought the Majestic and I painted the ceiling before it reopened. I also worked with Tony’s father in law to rebuild part of the stage. If you would go down to the basement in the front of the building, like going to the bathroom, there was another door that went to a store room in between the men’s and women’s bathroom. When you went into that room it was wallpapered with posters from many movies that had shown there. I do remember a poster that stated that Kate Smith, whose signature song was “God Bless America” had been there, but I can not recall when that was.
I am the eldest daughter of Andy Biordi, one of the co-owners of the Majestic Theatre. All of my sisters and I worked in the theatre as a seller of either tickets or candy. We loved meeting people and seeing movies, but we were only allowed, at most, a once a week movie!
As little kids we were fascinated by the “projection booth” upstairs a few more steps above the balcony… and its noisy, gray room with two projectors going. My Uncle Frank Biordi ran the projectors and my dad managed the theatre and obtaining the movies. And now, more than 50 years later, I can recall when movies were a dime, and when we raised the prices to 25cents an adult, folks were outraged! As girls we also were ushers with flashlights on Saturdays when double features and cartoons had a “houseful” of energetic youngsters in attendance. And, as for the balcony… it was gorgeous but dark.
The lobby was redone in the early 50′s, with glass mirrored tiles and lots of gilt and modern painting on the ceilings. The theatre held a lot of happy memories for me, and I’m so glad to see that others thought so too. Thanks for having this website… it is wonderful to see our hometown’s history so well featured! Diana
Thanks Diane for your comments…I really enjoyed going to the movies. We went to the Majestic a lot on Saturdays when my parents wanted to get rid of us for a few hours. My sister Sandy and I went together usually.I enjoyed hearing your inside knowledge about it.
Diana, I remember your sister Celeste, she was good friends with Sherry Spencer who lived next to me on 4th st. I also believe that you had another sister younger than Celeste but i dont remember her name. I remember going to see so many movies there and sharing a piece of licorce with Georgia Herko and getting a kiss when we got to the middle. Tell Celeste I said Hi.
Don, Mercedes was also a Biordi sister. Was that whom you remember???