Charlie Chaplin In Conshohocken

Charlie Chaplin In Conshohocken

Hollywood’s Biggest Attraction Could Be seen on Stage In Conshohocken

As long as you had a 15 cent ticket!

By Jack Coll

3-25-14

(Part of this column is an excerpt taken from

“The Tales of Conshohocken and Beyond” Book

Written by Jack and Brian Coll)

It was 95 years ago, on a cold February night in Conshohocken, much like the cold February nights we experienced during the month of February in 2014, residents of the borough were buzzing about the expected appearance of Charlie Chaplin, and his wife Mildred Harris.

The Conshohocken Recorder Newspaper advertisement stated the married couple would be appearing at Conshohocken’s “Gem Theatre,” on February 15, 1919.  The Gem Theatre was one of four movies houses located in the borough at that time.

Conshohocken has had a total of six movie houses over the years including the “Palace Theatre,” the Palace Theatre opened on Thanksgiving Day November 28, 1907 and was located at 69 Fayette Street.  If the address sounds familiar 69 Fayette Street was the home for Jacobson’s Men’s Store throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s, Domenic’s Shoe Store was located at 69 Fayette Street in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

“The Bijou Dream,” opened in 1906 and was located on Hector Street near Poplar.  A year later in November 1907 the Bijou Dream was moved to Fayette and Elm Street dropping “Dream” from the name and “The Bijou” quickly became a Conshohocken hot spot, selling out most of the performances.

The “Gem” Theatre opened in October 1907, and was a beautiful theatre, the Gem was located in the heart of the business district at 26 Fayette Street in the old McGonigal building.  Sometime after the Gem Theatre closed in 1920, the Gem Meat Market opened for a couple of years until Benny and Red’s Barber Shop opened at 26 Fayette Street and called that address home for more than four decades.  In the early 1970’s Pete and Linda’s Photographic Services occupied 26 Fayette Street for a number of years.

“Little’s Opera House,” was built in 1872, and was located on the northwest corner at First Avenue and Fayette Street.  For many years the opera house hosted both live shows and silent film performances.  Dave Little also hosted all the early graduations of Conshohocken and St. Matthew’s High Schools, and it’s also the location where SS Cosmas & Damian parishioners first met to form the church.  The Riant Theatre and Forrest Theatre came later, for a full history of all of Conshohocken Theatre’s refer to the “Tales of Conshohocken and Beyond” book, copies of the book are still available at Coll’s Custom Framing, 324 Fayette Street.

The Gem Theatre was noted as the most handsomest amusement hall in the Montgomery County area when it opened.  The theatre was described as 110 feet deep and sixty feet wide with an immense seating capacity.  Lower Fayette Street in 1919 was a major shopping hub and most nights the sidewalks would be crowded with pedestrians.  Although motor cars had established themselves on Conshohocken’s main drag by 1919, horses and wagons were still a common site, and trolley cars were often crowded during the evening hours.

Conshohocken was a boom town thanks to the steel industry, in 1919 the Alan Wood Steel Company employed more than 5,000 men and women from Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Bridgeport, Swedeland, Swedesburg, and Plymouth Township.  (Remember this was 1919 and people didn’t commute from Jersey, Delaware or even from other local areas, people lived where they worked back then.)  Besides the Alan Wood Steel Company we had Fulton’s iron mills, John Wood Manufactures, Philadelphia Iron and Steel, Lukens’s Steel, Schuylkill Iron Works, Hale Pumps was still a young industry that had started hiring employees on Spring Mill Avenue, Harrison’s Carpet Mills in West Conshohocken, Bullock’s Mills and other textile mills that offered thousands of jobs.

With all this employment in and around Conshohocken, a lot of families found themselves shopping , dining and drinking at local establishments in both borough’s, and on Friday and Saturday nights, the working class residents of Conshohocken filled the five cent movie houses in the borough.

In 1919, of course there were no televisions, any and all the information residents received on sporting events, Hollywood, and pictures of the news came from newspapers, or short news movie clips at local theatres.  So it came as a little bit of a surprise when the Conshohocken Recorder ran the following ad on February 14, 1919:

Mr. & Mrs. Charlie Chaplin

Will be at

The GEM

Saturday, February 15^th

Mrs. Chaplin, formerly

Mildred Harris

Starring in

“The Price of a Good Time”

IN SIX ACTS

And Charlie in a Comedy

Jewel Productions Present

Lois Weber’s Latest Photo Dramatic Triumph

“The Price

Of a

Good Time”

The mysteries of a young

Girl’s heart laid bare.  A

Revelation of the age-long desire

of the moth for the flame.

A powerful play that every father,

mother and young girl should see.

A picture of lasting force, driving home

a message that will demonstrate its worth

as it unfolds itself before the millions who will see it.

Do not forget the day and date!

ADMISSION—Afternoon & Night

Children 10 cents;  Adults 15 cents

(Plus War Tax)

     When I said the announcement in the Conshohocken Recorder Newspaper came as a bit of a surprise about Charlie Chaplin’s expected appearance in the borough, well Chaplin became one of the best known film stars in the world before World War One.  Chaplin’s “TRAMP” character which he first played in the Keystone Comedy “Kid Auto Races at Venice” in 1914 is possibly the most imitated character on all levels of entertainment.  It is said that Chaplin himself once entered a “Chaplin look-alike” competition and came in third!  Back then, a star of this magnitude didn’t just show up in small towns.

The reason for Chaplin’s visit was serving as a side kick for his actress wife who was touring with her play “The Price of a Good Time.”  Mildred Harris was a child actress whom Charlie married on October 23, 1918, Mildred was just 16 years old at the time, and Charlie was 29.  Shortly after their joint appearance in Conshohocken the two were separated before divorcing in November 1920.  Charlie went on to marry twice more, Lita Grey on November 26, 1924, whom he divorced on August 22, 1927, and later married Oona O’Neill on June 16, 1943, Charlie was 54 and Oona had just turned 18.  Charlie had 12 children, the last one when he was 76 years old.  Charlie was Knighted “Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin” in 1975 at the age of 85.  (No doubt he was knighted for having a kid at 75, should I be lucky enough to father a child at the age of 75 I want to be knighted as well.)

Charlie Chaplin goes down in Hollywood history as one of the most creative and influential personalities of the Silent Film era, Charlie died on Christmas Day, 1977.

And that folks is the way it was 95 years ago:

When Hollywood’s greatest star, stepped off the train in Conshohocken,

and gave the locals a thrill of a lifetime.

This walk down Conshohocken’s Memory Lane is proudly brought to you by:

The Conshohocken Italian Bakery &

Dominic A. Coccia, Jr. Certified Public Account