Berks County Arts & Culture
Performing Arts in Berks County
In 1872 John D. Mishler, a prominent Reading businessman took over the management of the Academy of Music theater. This theater, which was located at 533-535 Penn Street, was the first modern theater in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.​
​
The Grand Opera House Theater on Penn Street below 4th Street opened in 1873. During its time, it offered over 1500 performances including a reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by its author Harriet Beecher Stowe.
​
Other famous theaters in Berks County include the Rajah Theatre or Rajah Temple (now the Sovereign Performing Arts Center) which was built in 1922. It operated as a performance arts venue for vaudeville, operas, concerts, plays, and a movie theatre at various times during the 20th century.
​
Also well-known was the Astor Theater on Penn Street an Art Deco theater built in 1928 and demolished in 1998. The theater’s chandelier and gates became part of the new building on its site, now the Santander Arena.
​
On January 13, 1908 a Berks County theater became nationally known because of a tragedy - the Rhoads Opera House. Trying to escape a fire, people were trapped behind the theater’s doors that opened inward. Although people escaped, 171 died in the fire. The tragedy spurred the creation of laws to improve the safety of buildings.
​
In the early 1900s Berks County was known for acrobats, circus performers, and vaudeville acts. In 1909 the New York World newspaper described the importance of Reading, Pennsylvania as a center for acrobats, bare-back riders, and other performers. The Bard and Luken training gymnasiums produced professional acts - the Four Bards, the Four Lukens, the Four Londons, the Four Melvins, the Four DeHomans and the Four Readings. The family of TV actor Nancy Walker were vaudeville and circus performers from Reading including her father Dewey Barto (born Steward Swoyer) and grandfather Charles “Roxy” Swoyer, and several aunts.
​
Today there is still an active local theater community in Berks County including:
​
​
Music and Musicians in Berks County
Although most people have heard of Berks County’s most famous musician Taylor Swift, they may not have heard of musicians who came before Taylor. A wonderful resource is Cedric N. Elmer’s book Musical Remembrances : Profiles of Creative Berks Countians Copiously Illustrated which is available at many Berks County public libraries.
Berks County has one of the oldest community bands in the country – the Ringgold Band – which was formed in 1852 and is still active.
​
Berks County has produced composers such as Monroe A. Althouse (1853-1924) who was known for his marches such as the C.K.W. March that honored Calvin Kline Whitner of Whitner’s Department Store in Reading.
In the early 1900s a Berks Countian Paul L. Specht was described as the “Angel of Tin Pan Alley” and was a popular composer and band leader.
Also in the early 1900s William Frederick Cardin, (1895- 1960) "hailed as the most accomplished Native American violinist of his time" was a native of the Quapaw Nation in Oklahoma and a long-time resident of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Cardin (also known as Pejawah) had a long career in Berks County music circles as a lecturer, director of the Ringgold Band, the Reading High School music program, and as a performer in the Reading Symphony Orchestra. Below is an image of Cardin from the 1958 Whitehall PA yearbook.
Berks County has also produced two renowned opera singers –
​
Paul Shearer Althouse from Reading (1889-1954) who sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York for thirty years.
​
Kenneth Riegel from Womelsdorf (1938-2023) who performed around the world.
​
In the mid-20th century Berks Countians Dolly Dimples and Shorty Long were well-known for country-western music as performers with their group the Sante Fe Rangers as well as producers of shows at their Ontelaunee Park in New Tripoli, Lehigh County. Their real names were Gladys J. Ulrich of Mohnton and Emidio Vagnoni of Reading. Another well-know country-western musician with Berks County ties is Pat Garrett whose Bethel, PA venue offers performances.
​
Today Berks County offers many opportunities for people to enjoy music including
Boscov’s Berks County Jazz Fest
The Reading Symphony Orchestra
and at multiple venues including the Miller Center for the Arts, the Santander Arena and Performing Arts Center, and the WCR Center for the Arts.
​
