There will be a double birthday celebration downtown this weekend as the city recognizes what would be Don Knotts’ 100th birthday and what is the Metropolitan Theatre’s 100th birthday as well.
Festivities kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Met with its Knotts movie marathon — featuring “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang” — and will run through Tuesday, July 24. Entrance to any of the movies costs $1. There will also be presentations and performances on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (all at 7 p.m.). For more info, visit morgantownmet.com.
While much of the focus will be on Don Knotts, we don’t want attendees to forget the beloved Met Theatre will also be celebrating its birthday. Imagine if those walls could talk …
Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the Metropolitan Theatre started as a vaudeville house in 1924. All the light fixtures, draperies and curtains were designed specifically for the venue (including four crystal chandeliers from Czechoslovakia that melted in a later fire) and made in the original color scheme of “French gray, old rose and gold,” according to the theater’s application to become a registered historic site. Modern (for the time) “fibre-reed” furniture furbished the sitting and lounge areas. The Met was built with cutting-edge (again, for the time) heating and ventilation systems. (In summer, hot air was cooled with water, then circulated through the building). In 1933, it got an upgrade to become one of the first theaters in the nation with air conditioning. The Met did suffer a fire in its early years, destroying the interior and much of the original furnishings. (Fun fact: The exact number of rooms in the building is uncertain. The original plans are gone and the architect’s wife apparently burned all his sketches.)
The theatre went strong for several decades. In the early days, it hosted “the original cast of George White’s “Scandals” which opened at the Met before going to New York for a multi-year run” and “ ‘Pat Rooney’s Five Rodeo Boys’ with three-year-old Mickey Rooney,” according to its historic register application. Over the years, the Met also featured the likes of Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby and Helen Hayes. In addition to live performances, the theater showed films and was the first theater in northern West Virginia to replace the pit orchestra and pianist for silent movies with Vitaphone and Movietone sound equipment. The Met was also one of a handful of theaters across the nation to receive movie pre-releases so production companies could gauge audience reaction before the film’s wide release.
As often as the Met featured national touring acts and professional performances, it was also very much a community space. Local clubs and service leagues used it for talent shows and fundraising events; WVU had its graduations there; community concerts and plays were performed on its stage; and the theater hosted games nights with cash prizes during the 1930s and 1940s.
As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the Met’s busy schedule began to slow down. Live performances trickled to a stop and the building became rundown, even as the theater was named to the National Historic Register (1984). By 1987, it was a movie theater only, but the growing disrepair made it unsafe and the Met closed its doors.
In the 1990s, concerned citizens worked together to purchase the building and begin renovations. In 2003, the revitalized theater was gifted to the City of Morgantown. Since then, the Met has once again become the beating heart of Morgantown’s downtown community, as performers — professional and amateur alike — walk its storied boards and bring art to life.
