THE 1970s — The
Casino Theatre building was purchased in 1975 by three
local couples: George & Sheila Litz of Cresco, and
two couples from Pocono Farms, Victor & Diane Genco
and John & Ruth Hildebrand. The three families formed
a business entity called LIGEND, Inc., from the letters
of their last names, and incorporated it with the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 12, 1975.
The families soon got busy fixing up and modernizing the
vintage structure.
"It was a very old, grand building with a lot of
character to it," George Litz recalls.
The old place reopened for new business on April 4, 1975,
with the addition of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor
called the Village Malt Shoppe, with 20 flavors of ice
cream. The new decor featured paneling with an
old-fashioned newspaper design, along with crisp white
curtains and Tiffany-style lamps. The building was also
home to two other LIGEND businesses: the Needles N'
Things sewing and craft shop and the Early American Gift
Shop.
The single 426-seat Casino movie theater reopened with a
showing of the classic "Gone With the Wind."
Hot time at the old
Casino
Less than a year after the
grand reopening, disaster struck. On March 11, 1976, the
renovated Casino Theatre and neighboring businesses
burned to the ground. Operated as a summer business, the
movie theater and malt shop were closed for the season at
the time. The building had been broken into several times
over the winter, fueling speculation about the cause of
the fire.
The Casino had been scheduled to reopen for the season on
April 26 with the movie musical "1776" in honor of the
national bicentennial, and the local bicentennial
committee had been planning to sell tickets to the show
to raise money for a Fourth of July parade.
But it was not to be. Two hours after the first
firefighters arrived at the scene, only the brick facade
of the old wooden building remained.
A new building was quickly planned. "We rebuilt it the
same year," George Litz said. "Of course, we made it much
smaller. At that time, it was strictly a summer
operation."
The all-new
Casino
The new building opened just
four months later — July 4, 1976 — with a new
single-screen movie theater and new ice cream parlor. The
first movie to be shown was the Neil Simon comedy "The
Sunshine Boys," with George Burns and Walter Matthau. If
there was any good news to be had after the disastrous
blaze, it was that the new theater could be built with a
slanted floor, allowing a modern movie-going experience
instead of the neck-craning involved when watching a film
from the flat floor of the old dance hall.
Within just a few years, the Litzes bought out their
partners and began expanding the operation. Today, after
more than 30 years, the business is still owned and
operated by the Litz family, and the Casino is in its
second generation of family management. (With the third
generation often employed there.)
Over the years, the Litzes added a kitchen, miniature
golf course and a game room targeted at pre-teens and
younger, with prize redemptions. "What we wanted to do is
make it a multiple entertainment center," George says.
The size of the Village Malt Shoppe eventually doubled.
The 1950s theme of the decor dates to 2004, when a gift
shop featuring nostalgia and retro items was added.