Roxy Rothafel: The Man Who Invented the Movie Palace

Samuel Lionel Rothafel, known everywhere as Roxy, started a small Family Theater on this Main Street in nineteen oh eight, and there he developed much of what we still expect from a night at the movies. He is said to have piped perfume through the ventilation system to scent the air, and he coached his staff to treat every patron like a guest. He took those ideas to New York City, where he opened the Roxy Theater on Seventh Avenue in nineteen twenty-seven, seating several thousand people.

He then brought the precision dance troupe known as the Roxyettes to Radio City Music Hall, where they were renamed the Rockettes and have performed ever since. It all started in this small Pennsylvania town with a showman who refused to treat the movies as anything less than an event.