THE 1930s — By
the early '30s, The Casino was a dance hall and movie
theatre.
An advertisement published in "This Week in the Poconos"
in July 1932 outlines a typical schedule for a summer
week: Dancing Monday and Friday nights to recorded big
band music, movies Tuesday and Thursday nights, and a
live dance band Wednesday and Saturday nights. Click page
to see larger view.
It cost 25 cents to be admitted to the Casino's dance
nights, which feature "electric reproductions of world's
greatest dance bands" and promise "volume equal to that
of original band."
At the Casino, the big attraction for the week is a live
band. Donlin's Pennsylvanians, a group founded by
Wilkes-Barre music teacher William J. Donlin, plays at
the Casino twice a week, bringing a five-piece group on
Wednesdays, when admission was 50 cents, and a
seven-piece band on Saturday nights, when admission
jumped to $1, tax included.
In 1932: Herbert Hoover is president, and the country
is in the depths of the Great Depression. (Franklin D.
Roosevelt defeats Hoover in a landslide election in the
fall.) Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
The Revenue Act of 1932 creates the first gas tax: 1 cent
per gallon. Walt Disney's "Flowers and Trees" is the
first animated cartoon in full Technicolor. Radio City
Music Hall opens and New York City's Palace Theatre
converts to a movie house, marking the end of vaudeville.
The Academy Award for Best Picture went to "Grand
Hotel."
The Casino was purchased by Mrs. Hyacinth C. Smith of
Stroudsburg some time in the late 1940s or early 1950s.