About F. m. kirby center for the performing arts

About company

The Comerford Movie Theater opened its doors to the public, showing the movie, Alexander's Ragtime Band, starring, Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, and Alice Faye. That was the beginning of a rich and colorful history for the building that is now called the F. M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts. In 1937 the Comerford movie chain chose this site on Public Square on which to erect a movie house as a monument to founder Michael E. Comerford. It was the flagship gem of the M. E. Comerford 45-theater chain located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and New York. The grandest of movie houses was planned, replacing a bus terminal, a printing company, a stonecutter and a drug store.