By William “Skip” Deegans
The first showing of a “movie” in Lewisburg may have been in May 1897 when a demonstration of a Thomas Edison’s Vitascope with a phonograph to provide the sound was presented at the Town Hall. Capitalizing on the excitement of motion pictures, the Lewisburg Female Institute Alumnae Association held a fund-raising Pink Tea on the two following nights in a room above R. P. Rittenhouse’s store. Patrons could see demonstrations of the Vitascope while being served by young women dressed in pink who served pink ice cream on pink saucers. For sale were various items – all in decorated in pink.
While Edison’s name is associated with the Vitascope, he didn’t invent it. C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armet developed a projector they called a Phantoscope. It was demonstrated in 1895 at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta. Edison agreed to manufacture the machine and films to go with it on the condition that it be advertised as a new Edison invention named the Vitascope.
Beginning with silent films, Lewisburg’s first movie theatre was The Princess Theatre on Washington Street. The second, more modern theatre, The Lewis was built on Court Street by Sam and Alex Yarid in 1939.
Sources: The Library of Congress; Greenbrier Independent.
