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With the bold front-page headline, "Campus Theatre Opens Friday Night," The Lewisburg Journal celebrated the approaching opening night, January 17, 1941, with nearly four entire pages of coverage for the grand new motion picture theatre. Lewisburg Borough could now boast of Central Pennsylvania's finest movie playhouse residing right in its own commercial district, Market Street. Situated within an assortment of architectures inspired by the achievements of the past, The Campus, by contrast, offered 1940s Lewisburg "The Most Modern Showplace In Pennsylvania." (The Lewisburg Journal, 16 Jan. 1941). The Campus was designed by Philadelphia architect David Supowitz, whose characteristic Revival Art Deco architectural style also marked other theatres and building façades in Pennsylvania.

From its first screening on, The Campus promised to set a new standard for excellence in programming, featuring only Hollywood's Class "A" productions. On opening day, people came to see the musical comedy Love Thy Neighbor, a Paramount Pictures vehicle starring Jack Benny and Fred Allen. Most people came just to see the magnificence of the building, with its modern lines and interior and exterior decorative theme featuring orange and blue, the colors of Bucknell University. Lewisburg resident Betty Cook, then a captivated young girl, recalls the gala opening: "The fire trucks were there with lighting" beaming spotlights into the evening sky. "It was like a Hollywood premiere."

Over the years, The Campus Theatre has survived with astonishingly few changes. The Journal's feature article in 1941 emphasized the new Campus's functional and formal innovations, and its more than sixty-year old description fits nearly all of the interior and exterior décor and fixtures that remain intact today.

The newspaper detailed the theatre's functional properties, including its completely fireproof structure, air conditioning and heating systems, chrome turnstile for "ticketless" ease of entry, and seats containing springs that automatically raise when not occupied.
In keeping with the era's strategy of marketing the new decorative approach to movie theatre design, The Journal specified The Campus's form as well as its function. The theatre's curvaceous orange glazed terra cotta exterior façade anchors a prominent marquee featuring giant chrome and green neon letters spelling out "CAMPUS" and facing east and west on Market Street. The blue bison relief on the exterior front wall and the stainless steal blue and silver images of athletes embedded into each of the interior lobby doors characteristically respond to the local Bucknell University spirit.

The building's finely appointed interior, from its mirrored lobby and lounge furnishings to the wall and ceiling murals and light fixtures, is marked by luxurious Art Deco quality with its rich materials and novel decorative motifs. The ceiling in the auditorium is painted with a minimalist wave pattern and abstracted floral designs influenced by machine geometry. Ceiling light fixtures conceal air conditioning vents. Framing the stage is a fine example of trompe l'oeil: false vertical tent drapes flank the proscenium arch, edging real four- foot high walnut finished wood bases that extend down each side of the auditorium. Above the wood and "special acoustic plaster," four carefully placed Deco-inspired lighting fixtures span the walls. Years ago, these lights softly glowed in an ever-changing display from their six-color palette.

Two twelve-foot high murals, imaginative male and female flesh-tone figures further rendered in various shades of blue, orange, crimson, and silver, adorn each mid-auditorium sidewall. In the rear, beige, blue, and yellow chevron and circular motifs are set on cork wall tiles. The overall effect is regional American modern. In 1941, the unique beauty of the Theatre combined with the excellence of the film programming promised to make every event at The Campus a work of art.

A Gift to Market Street

An additional front-page headline appeared in The Lewisburg Journal as The Campus neared its opening day. Just above the masthead read: "Congratulations to the Stiefel Brothers for Building The Campus Theatre," foregrounding a family story that parallels the development and creation of the American movie theatre as an unique building type in general, and The Campus in particular.

Oscar, Harold, Barney, and Morris Stiefel emigrated from Russia to the United States in the 1920s. Oscar began operation of one movie theatre in Philadelphia and another in Downingtown, PA, and in time his three brothers and several nephews joined him in building a small showmen's empire. The Stiefel's eventually ran eleven Pennsylvania theatres with locations in Ephrata, Lock Haven, Myersdale, and Lewisburg.

In 1953, Harold Stiefel, son of Morris Stiefel, took over management of The Campus when his Uncle Barney retired. Harold, a graduate of Bucknell, and his wife Jacquie managed the theatre until Harold's death in 1988. Their partnered tenure produced a lasting legacy. Harold and Jacquie started and maintained many of the community outreach programs, such as the free matinees and canned food drives. Today, a brass star honoring Harold is embedded in the sidewalk in front of the theatre's entrance. After Harold's death, Jacquie Stiefel devoted her time and energy not only to continuing a family legacy, but also to keeping a piece of bygone Lewisburg alive. Throughout the 1990s, The Campus Theatre hosted a special film-showing each year, honoring Harold, with the proceeds benefiting a local charity.

The Campus indeed fulfilled, and continues to realize, the mature role of community centerpiece. During World War II, The Campus's second-floor office space served as a USO canteen, and later, in the 1970s and 80s, a dance studio. Beginning in the 1940s, The Campus began to offer free movie matinees to children during the holiday season, complete with local merchant giveaways. One weekend of the year, two cans of food secure admission; the theatre donates the contributions to the local food bank.

In the early-mid 1990s, renovator Owen Mahon (Open Door Gallery, Lewisburg) worked intermittently with Jacquie Stiefel on a project to repair and restore the auditorium's ceiling, interior light fixtures, and seats. The ceiling had suffered some condensation damage from the air conditioning system, the lighting fixtures were dirty, and the seats needed reupholstering. Mahon recalls that it was easy to tell that The Campus hosted many matinees: the seats in first few rows "were shot." Mahon worked with J&J Upholstery (Milton) to restore nearly all damaged seats. He and Jacquie took each one of the lighting fixtures down and cleaned them. After photographing "every square inch" of the ceiling, together with Jayco Inc. (Mifflinburg), they meticulously repaired and repainted. "We took paint samples and put colors back the way they should be." Insurance covered some of the restoration costs and before any restoration work commenced, Mahon and Stiefel visited other restored landmarks, such as the Williamsport Community Center, for guidance.

Today, many of the surviving mid-century movie houses, like The Campus, are now old enough to have been awarded historic landmark status. In 1994, several local residents, together with Jacquie Stiefel, began the application process for listing The Campus on the National Register of Historic Places. Having survived economic recession, competition from cable television, video, and mall-based multiplexes, film distributor control, real estate development, and above all, age, The Campus Theatre has long been recognized by members of the Lewisburg community for its importance in their social, architectural, cultural, and, interestingly, local family history.

For example, by 1941, Montandon resident Nettie Meachum and her sister Delena Himmelreich had worked at Lewisburg's other movie theatre, The Roxy (located at Market and 2nd Street--demolished in 1961), for a number of years. Barney Stiefel at The Campus then hired Nettie on a trial basis. She was to give her best try as cashier. Through marriage, raising children, and balancing other careers, Nettie took tickets at The Campus for sixty continuous years, retiring in 2001. Delena's husband Herman worked for many years as a projectionist at The Roxy, while Nettie's brother Frank Lewis was the projectionist at The Campus. Nettie's family and the Stiefels maintained a long lasting working and friendly relationship. Harold's vision to offer "a certain intangible personal touch," as he wrote in his personal correspondence in the 1980s, thus extended beyond the offerings of the finest in screen entertainment in Lewisburg.

In the Summer of 2001, as the theatre celebrated its sixtieth anniversary, Jacquie Stiefel sold The Campus to Bucknell University Film Professor Eric Faden. In the summer of 2002, Dr. Faden started a non-profit organization, The Campus Theatre, Ltd., that eventually was able to purchase the theatre in June of 2006. The Campus Theatre, Ltd. continues to promote the art of cinema and preserve Lewisburg's architectural treasure.

© Denise K. Cummings
Last Updated: February 23, 2010