Mahanoy Area Historical Society

April , 1973 - PIctures of Mahanoy City Forty-seven Years Ago.

In April of 1973 Mahanoy City High School Class of 1959 grad, Ed Curvey, returned to Mahanoy City and took the seventeen photos that appear below. Seven of the buildings are no longer in existence, others have been changed. Ed's photos take us back to a simpler time. The United States was still involved in the war in Southeast Asia, but that seemed far removed compared to the threats we face in 2020.

The town was different then. The population was over 7,000 and there were still over forty bars in the borough. The American Bank paid 4.5 % interest on regular saving accounts. Service Electric began to offer Home Box Office , a new concept in television, for $6.00 a month. On telvision the first week in April you could tune into " Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii". At the Capitol Theatre in Shenadoah you could see " The Posiedon Adventure".

The number one song in early April was" The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" by Vicki Lawrence. Later in the month the top hit was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn.

On Sunday in Mahanoy City, Catholics could attend any one of seventeen different Masses and Protestants could attend services at nine different churches.

No one had a computer or a cell phone.Simpler times.

Ed's pictures appear below the clips from the Evening Herald.