Gerald P. Lunderville
Long Beach, California
To the editor:
Reading the Eagle Times weekend edition of June 2-3 brought me back to the enjoyable times I spent at the beautiful Latchis Theatre on Pleasant Street in Claremont in the 1940s and ‘50s with my parents and then with friends. As you’d open the stately doors and traipse across the colorful carpeted floor, you would be able to gaze at billboards lined up on either side of the entryway that displayed coming attractions before you were greeted by a familiar face who would take your tickets and welcome you to the seating area. As children we called the gent Mr. Latchis. It wasn’t until I grew older that I found out his real name, which escapes me now.
The theatre was so much more elegant and spacious than the Magnet Theater, and it showed more first rate movies. I was always awed by the art deco stage that seemed like a backdrop to the Roman Colosseum, a Greek play or something that could have been designed by artist Maxfield Parrish.
I recently did research on Latchis history and see that the founder Demitrios P. Latchis was born Latsis but his name was misspelled when the family entered the U.S. from Greece. Mr. Latchis was born in 1864 and died in 1932; his son continued controlling the Lathis legacy for many years thereafter. I also learned that the Latchis dynasty actually at one time had 14 theatres in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Latchis Theatre was truly one of a kind from a bygone era.
Gerald P. Lunderville
Long Beach, California
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