Title

The present-day Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor was opened in 1932 by George P.

Authors

Peter Cooper

Source

Salt

Date

1-1-1982

Pages

4-17

Abstract

The present-day Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor was opened in 1932 by George P. McKay, a local entrepreneur who wanted to lure the town's monied inhabitants. McKay's close friend, Dan Heurley, kingpin of the Bar Harbor bootlegging trade, backed the theater, on which McKay spared no expense. His son, George Jr., who runs the McKay Cottages, and his daughter, Marguerite McKay Dwyer, a retired physician from Bangor, remember the glittering era when Rockefellers and Fords attended shows. Roy Blake, 80, worked at the theater for over 40 years; Pearl Wescott, 88, used to play the pipe organ at the other theater in town, the Star; and Jean Curtis Frost used to attend shows as a young girl. They recall those days and the divisions between the summer people and locals, as well as the Great Fire of 1947, which the theater survived.

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