"The most thorough research ever compiled on the Kaier Grand Opera House was accomplished by Joanne Pangonis Kinder, now of Hometown, who completed the project in 1964 as a thesis for her master in arts degree from Pennsylvania State University Department of Thratre Arts. Lorraine Stanton, assistant librarian at the Penn State Schuylkill Campus, received permission from Mrs. Kinder to publish the work as a contribution to the borough's quasquicentennial celebration."
Evening Herald August 12, 1988
The webmaster received Mrs. Kinder's kind permission to scan the eighty-four page thesis. The digitized copy is available to the public at the historical society room in the Rhoades Building. The digitized copy contains a bibliography, an extensive list of the documented plays that appeared at the opera house and a list of performers.
In the interest of conserving space I have used the Evening Herald's edition of the thesis instead of the entire digitized thesis.
Thanks also to Charles Palulis for the interior views of the opera house scanned from the original glass negatives and for the correspondence of Mary (Mame) Kaier to her parents. Some of the photos and information came from the Mahanoy City Public Library's Elwood M. Young Collection. Mr. Young was devoted to the preservation of the borough's history long before the existence of the historical society.
Click here to read the Mahanoy Record Front Page from October 15, 1913
After the fire in Ooctober of 1913 the lot at the corner of Main and Market stood empty for almost twelve years.Mrs. Kaier died two months after the fire and her son Charles F. kaier died in 1921. In 1923 the lot was sold to the Chamberlain Amusement Company. Finally in March of 1925 a new theatre opened.
