November 7, 1914 The First Silent Movie in Interlaken

An alternate title for this could be, “The Evolution of a Snippet.” Back in July 2016, as I was working on dates and topics, this article pretty much wrote itself. It describes the events of one day from idea to research, into the article you see here.

I was at the Interlaken Historical Society Museum making a few copies and putting away folders from earlier in the week. Doug Shaw stopped by to say hello and ask about a book the Historical Society has for sale.

After talking with him about his great-grandfather’s walking stick and showing it to him through the window, he asked where the theater had been as his grandfather, Royle VanArsdale, had a note in his 1914 diary about attending the first silent movie there.

Hmmm, I knew that the theater building was not built until 1915, after the former bank building was moved to Knight Street [June 2 Snippet].

Via email Doug sent me a copy of the 1914 entry, “The Moving Picture show opened tonight! Harmon’s old grocery store has been converted into a moving picture establishment. The floor has been dropped at one end and enough seats placed…for 160 people. The first night three performances were run and each time the place was jammed. The pictures were fairly good but the music was rank. ([Volume] A, p311).

I went into the paper file databases to see if anything quickly floats to the surface, nothing. Next I tried www.fultonhistory.com where “Harmon Interlaken 1914” had a few hits but nothing to grab onto except Harmon Building. Using “Harmon Building, Interlaken,” an item in the “Glancing Backward through Our Files” column from the Friday, December 18, 1942 Interlaken Review issue appeared under the heading of five years ago…“Bert Darling has opened a restaurant in the Harmon building on Main Street.”

Local businessman outside Darling's Restaurant, ca 1950
Interlaken Historical Society photo collection #2197

I now knew exactly what building was the Harmon building with Bert Darling’s restaurant. In 1980 we had purchased the building from Seneca County along with the building attached to it and owned by my parents. When Seneca county took the Harmon/Darling building for taxes etc. they had thought to tear it down; until they realized that it was attached via a common stairway to Victor Mount’s law office and the apartment above.

A check of the Cornell Preservation report for the property confirmed that it indeed was the home of an early movie theater, and even a grocery store. “It is believed that it was first occupied by a grocery store. A long-time resident of Interlaken remembers that it was used as a movie theater in about 1918 [sic].” [A Survey of the Village of Interlaken, 8379 Main Street Interviews 4/27/79, page 154.]

We completed the removal of the building in late fall 1981, using some of the outer walls to build an addition onto the rest of the usable building. For the section where the floor was lowered, we put a deck over that area.

Dewitt’s Diary: Saturday, November 7, 1936

Caught a coon in a trap in Miller’s woods. They came out of a hole in the ground.

Cloudy and the snow melting.

Burglars broke in eight places in Romulus, Ovid, Lodi, Interlaken and Trumansburg. Post office at Lodi.