Pearl White Theater

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The Pearl White Theater opened on Main Street in Edinburg sometime in the 1920s showing silent movies for between 10 and 20 cents a show. Before it was completed, movies had been shown in the town hall. Electricity for this theater was provided by a generator powered by a water wheel on Stony Creek.
The theater was named for “Pearl White” the title character of a popular 1914 film series The Perils of Pauline. Later it would be called the Valley Theater and was part of a string of movie theaters owned and operated by the Dalke Family.

A new building holding the theater opened at what is now 121 S. Main Street in Edinburg on December 23, 1932. It was complete with a new RCA sound system. The date when the original theater was constructed is uncertain.
For many years the theater was managed by Lenny Winesburg who was also a local tinsmith. Several local women worked as musicians, providing background music to some of the silent films shown here and for theatrical productions. They included Mable Stoneburner Zirkle, Jeanette Murray, and Nell Wightman.

The theater closed sometime in the mid-20th century. It was remodeled to hold People’s Drug Store, now Murray’s Fly Shop.