Page 7 - BusinessWest November 14, 2022

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House, then the finest hotel in the city, said Sanders, adding that this was a pattern followed by many cit- ies at that time.
The Victory was what’s known
as a ‘legitimate house,’ said Sand- ers, meaning that it had the finest of accommodations and was the there- fore the preferred theater of choice for many performers of that era.
“That terminology means it hosted the highest level of shows and was a theater that was the best-equipped, had the best dress- ing rooms, etc., etc.,” he said, add- ing that Holyoke didn’t have a ‘legit house,’ and its leaders were deter- mined to build one.
Fast-forwarding through the his- tory of the Victory, Sanders said its fortunes mirrored those of the city.
As the paper and textile mills that enabled Holy- oke to boast one of the highest per-capita income rates in the country a century ago began to move south and then eventually offshore, the theater and the area around it started to decline, and the Victory eventually became a movie house.
As the trend in movie theaters shifted to smaller facilities in large complexes with mul- tiple screens, its fortunes faded further until it ultimately closed. After it was taken for non-pay- ment of taxes in the early ’80s, there were vari- ous efforts to restore the landmark, said Sanders, adding that, in all cases, the money needed — $9 million maybe 30 years ago and then progres- sively higher figures as the scope of the work increased — could not be raised.
In 2005, an item came before the Holyoke City Council to raze the Victory Theatre, he said, adding that he lobbied that group to stay the execution, arguing that such a vital landmark —
“I worked on one in Ohio, the Woodward Opera House, that took 33 years. So there are two generations of people who have been involved with that. I was brought in in the last three years, and I would talk to people who would say, ‘my parents were working on this back when I was in grade school.’”
and potential economic-development engine — should not be lost to the past.
The council listened, he said, and the Victory lived to fight another day.
To the casual observer, meaning those who haven’t been in for a tour, the facility seems frozen in time and unchanged. But that’s not the case, said Sanders, noting that a number if
Victory
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The Victory Theatre closed in 1979 and hasn’t seen much light since then.
owner William Skinner, in 1918, said Sanders, adding that it was intended to be the largest, grandest theater in a thriving city that already boasted many of them.
Turning back the clock a century or so, Sand- ers said Holyoke had several theaters in its down- town area, as well as a 3,000-seat opera house that stood where a parking garage now exists across from City Hall. The theaters included the Strand, the Majestic, the Suffolk, and the Bijou.
The site selected for the Victory Theatre, a name chosen to commemorate the Allies’ vic- tory in World War I, was adjacent to the Holyoke
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