Quick Fun Facts Regarding Classic Movie Theaters and Film History: My Free Local History Presentation in Athol MA

Some of my audience

A week prior to Thanksgiving I had the privilege of doing a local History multi-media presentation at the public library in the town of Athol Massachusetts. The topic I discussed was the history of Athol's two movie palaces the York Theatre and the Capitol Theatre, which existed from the 1930’s up through the 1950’s. While I only anticipated a small ten to twenty people at my show I was instead greeted with the pleasant surprise of about fifty to sixty people from the Athol community present at my lecture; all of whom enjoyed my presentation and shared a number of great stories with me following the show.

My interest in Athol Theaters began during my first year of middle school. At this age I began researching old movie Theaters around Franklin County and Western Massachusetts. My interest expanded to the town of Athol when my best friend in elementary school moved to Athol. Whenever I went to visit him my parents would drive through downtown Athol. Driving through the town, I was always fascinated by a beautiful, slightly beat up, triumphant building which at that time housed the town’s bowling alley. The building with its giant arched window accompanied by some intriguing art-deco comedy & drama designs on its façade, grabbed my attention and my suspicions of this bowling alley once operating as a theater began. After asking several elderly people at my church (who told me that they grew up in Athol) about the building I soon learned that this building was at one time the York Theatre, an extremely popular movie palace in the Athol area. Though this intrigued me, I did not further look into researching the theater as I was at the time researching other theaters in Massachusetts that were closer to home.

The York Theatre Building Today.

Jumping ahead about twelve or fourteen years, I was going through some microfilm and researching some theaters at a library, when a gentleman asked for my assistance on a microfilm machine he was using. I assisted the gentleman on the machine and he greatly appreciated my assistance. He introduced himself as Richard Chaisson and stated he was a historian and author who resided in the town of Athol Massachusetts; one of his books, which featured a photo of him, was in the room where we were talking. I shared my interest in local theaters with him and asked about Athol’s York Theatre. By doing so, Mr. Chaisson told me that he had several photographs of the York and Athol’s other theater the Capitol. A few weeks later I went over to Athol and had an amazing visit with Mr. Chaisson. Not only was I shown some beautiful photographs of both the York and the Capitol but Mr. Chaisson shared with me a large number of fascinating stories regarding both theaters in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Along with this I also learned about a popular 1940's era movie star who was born and raised in Athol named Charles Starrett. During the 1940’s Mr. Starrett starred as the “Durango Kid” in the popular B-Western “Durango Kid” kids movies made by Columbia Pictures. Mr. Starrett came from the same family that owned the famous Starrett Tool Company in Athol.

The remaining portion of the Capitol Theatre: the lobby and part of the foyer areas.
The building operates today as a beauty parlor.
Love the remaining Light Fixtures!

A few years later I decided to put my knowledge on Athol Theaters to use and produced a PowerPoint presentation (utilizing about 15 years of self-taught PowerPoint skills) discussing and showing the history of the York and Capitol Theatres. The end results were spectacular as many attendies, including Mr. Chaisson raved about the show. However one wonderful thing I did not expect was the applause and thank you I received from the audience for taking an interest in the history of their town and putting together an ornate and polished presentation.