THE LYRIC THEATER ON SUMMERS STREET
The Lyric Theater Fire, Thanksgiving
Day, 1975 | On Thanksgiving Day 1975, I was on Probation
with the Charleston Fire Dept, having a total of two months on the
job. The Lyric Theater was a porno house in it's last days,
and I don't remember a great deal about the fire, other than I remember
seeing about 30 inches of water backed-up behind the glass door of
a business, possibly a couple of doors down... or maybe even within
the Lyric building itself. Anyway, I pointed this out
and was told to break the glass with an ax and relieve the pressure
and allow the water to escape. When I did, all sorts of things
that cannot be mentioned on this website started flowing out the door,
across the sidewalk and down the gutter. You see, there was a shop
(I cant remember what it was) that had storage in the back and sold
all sorts of "marital aids". These "marital aids"
were pretty dangerous looking to be quite honest, and the firefighters
all had a good laugh over them. I'll end this part of the story
here and now... but there was more to the story that would last
right up until around 1981 with the opening of the "Firehouse
Number 4 Restaurant" on East Washington Street. |
The Fire |
The blaze began just before 3 a.m. Thanksgiving
Day in an old three-story brick structure housing the Chicago Meat
Market at 142 Summers St. and spread to the Lyric Theater on one side
and a building housing Curly's Men's Shop on the other. John Allessio
was owner of the Chicago Meat Market, and the Butts estate owned
the property that housed the Chuck Wagon Restaurant and the Gun Store.
Spyro Stanley owned the Lyric, which was then torn down (as
were others) and made into a parking lot. The Lyric showed X Rated
films, and the business was moved to West Washington Street. |
The Winos did it?
Charleston Gazette, Dec 4th, 1975
|
To people my age and older, there were
just two words for bums on the street: WINO was the most used,
and BUM was second. There were no "homeless" or "disadvantaged".
If they lived on the street, they were WINOS. As I look back,
our Winos were a much better class of people than what we have today.
Winos usually drank the cheapest wine $1.39 would buy... like "Night
Train", "Thunderbird", "MD 20/20" or
"Maddog". |
STERNO
| They also loved "Sterno", and
I'd find empty cans of it everywhere in the alleys. In case
you're too young, Sterno was a gelled alcohol... napalm in a can,
that you use to heat food with in camp stoves or a buffet. Invented
around 1900, Sterno is made from Ethanol. Ethanol, also called
ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is
a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug,
best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and
in modern thermometers. Sterno was so cheap and potent that the manufacturer
had to put a chemical in it (Methanol-wood alcohol) in order to dissuade
the Winos from drinking it. I personally think this came about
because the government couldn't tax that type of alcohol. Whatever
the reason, huge signs were posted in every store that sold
Sterno to warn people that it was no longer safe to drink. (not that
it ever really was) Many Winos disregarded this warning and as a result,
died over time. Our Winos seldom ever bothered anybody.
They usually kept to the back sides of town and you'd NEVER see them
downtown Capitol Street, because the cops didn't allow it. They'd
get their monthly checks, buy their booze and maybe a little food.
When that ran out, they'd sometimes show up at a back door looking
for a handout of food. NOT money... but FOOD. They didn't stand for
hours at an intersection holding a sign begging for money like the
Bums of today. We all knew most of the Winos and "sort
of" looked out for them. They were rarely a threat of any
kind... unlike today. |
Finally: |
These kids are standing in front of the Lyric in the early 50s. Brenda Wantlin Young Photo |
THE LYRIC WAS CHARLESTON'S OLDEST THEATER 
Some real doozies were playing...
Notice the "Adults Only".... and this was 1938! |
| In that same year of 1938, this
movie was showing. It says" See the creation of baby and 3 different
births of the baby. Not terribly erotic. Soon, the new owners took
over and remodeled the Lyric. |
| The Lyric was purchased then by "Bramwell Theaters". Yes, from Bramwell WV in the heart of the coal
fields where at one time were more millionaires per capita than
anywhere in America |
In 1940, there was a bit of a issue with this movie...
 FINALLY:| Also
in 1940, the following article appeared. The plan was to build a
huge theater right across the street from the Library. That would place
it where Stone & Thomas Dept Store later went in. So what
happened? Was it the war? Who knows? We know that it
never got built, and stayed on Summers Street right up until it
burned down in the 70s. |
Back To Seventies Index
|
