Category:Lyric Theatre, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Lyric Theater opened on 10 October 1899. It's heritage dates back to 1817 when Northampton Town got its first farmer's market on Center Square. It was a wood and stone building. In 1848, that building was consumed by fire when most of the Allentown Central Business District burned. It was rebuilt in 1859 at the corner of Church Street and Linden. In 1896, a new Central Market was built at the northeast corner of Sixth and Court Streets. However, it was not an economic success.

Shortly after its opening, the market began to host concerts and in 1899, the firm of J.B. McElfatrick converted the structure to a theater. The name, Lyric Theater, came about through a contest, with a five dollar gold piece as prize for the best submission. It also served to replace the former Academy of Music at North Sixth and Linden Street, which burned down in 1901. The Lyric opened with a comic opera production based on the life of 18th century Prussian King Frederick the Great. The theater offered vaudeville, operas, plays, dramatic skits, minstrel shows and concerts. Beginning in 1917, to help entertain the many Army Ambulance Corps troops training at Camp Crane, the theater began to show silent feature films as part of their presentations as well as the occasional boxing match. These were extremely popular, and they continued after the war ended. However the theater remained focused on live plays and various music performances with only the occasional film or sports presentation.

During the Great Economic Depression of the early 1930s, the attendance at the Lyric was sparse. In order to increase attendance, in 1933 the theater was renovated to attract customers. It also increased sharply the number of feature films, as film rentals were less expensive than stage and music productions to present. However within a few months of reopening the theater went into foreclosure and was sold at a Sheriff's sale for $1 in December, 1934. The new owners reopened the Lyric in March, 1935 as a combination stage theater and occasional cinema, but within a few months again encountered financial issues. It was in October that the decision was made to add Burlesque to the theater's offerings two nights a week. During the depression, few could afford to attend the shows, yet people craved entertainment. Furthermore, there now seemed to be an unlimited supply of unemployed pretty women who considered the steady work offered by burlesque, which sold tickets for less than $1 per show. Along with the strippers, who were mild by today's standards, the burlesque shows also featured comics and other entertainers, hungry to perform, even for low wages. Many of the strippers and entertainers were New York City based, who performed on the Misnky's circuit and would later become headliners. That decision increased revenues to subsidize the legitimate theater and other presentations of the Lyric. Burlesque remained a staple of the Lyric for the next 40 years, and the Lyric became one of the most popular, and longest lasting Burlesque halls in the United States.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Lyric became the home of the annual Allentown Cooking School, usually held in April of each year. This was previously held at Trainman's Hall at 10th and Walnut Street, but when that venue closed it was moved to the Lyric. Sponsored by various organizations, including local supermarket chains, famous chefs were invited to appear with the stage configured with kitchens, with the new appliances of the day provided by several local appliance stores. On stage, the chefs would prepare simple, easy to cook recipes using food donated by various supermarket chains in the city. The audience was usually filled with housewives, who were admitted at no charge that watched and were entertained by the celebrity chefs, preparing various meals which the audience could prepare at home using groceries which were available in the local markets. The Morning Call newspaper would publish the recipes which were presented and also provided the food list so they could be prepared at home. These cooking schools lasted until the mid-1960s and were very popular.

With the beginning of the television era around 1950, the Lyric, along with other theaters saw their attendance decline sharply, and the theater subsequently began to lose money. Several of the large theaters in downtown Allentown closed in the early 1950s, and it appeared the Lyric would join in their demise. This included the Orpheum, later State Theater a few blocks down the street at Sixth and Linden street. The Opheum had been built in 1906 as a vaudeville theater and converted to showing movies full-time in 1926 as the State Theater.

Its owners, I. Hirst Enterprises, Inc. planned to close the theater and sell the property to Park and Shop, who were planning to tear down the theater and use the space for a parking lot, as they had torn down the State theater in 1954. However, Donald and Sam Miller, the owners of The Morning Call newspaper, offered to buy the Lyric theater from Hirst Enterprises. The Millers proposed a plan on June 2, 1959, to the Allentown Symphony Association to purchase the building for the orchestra as a concert hall. They secured financing with the First National Bank of Allentown for the purchase which they completed on July 14, 1959. Later, the building was renamed Allentown Symphony Hall.

The name Lyric Theater, however, persisted as the burlesque shows, which were held on Friday and Saturday nights were extremely profitable and contributed substantially to the operations of the venue. When burlesque was being presented, it was by the Lyric Theater, not Symphony Hall. By 1975, Burlesque was dying both as a performing art as well as audience interest. The burlesque manager, Jack Beck, was also in failing health at the age of 79. At the end of April 1975 Beck decided to close up the shows at the Lyric. With the end of the burlesque shows on 3 May, the name Lyric Theater passed into history.