The Avalon Turns 100 by Leslie Orndorff
a low point in its history, brought about, not in small part, due to the shuttering of the Avalon Theatre. When the theater opened in 1922, it instantly became an important cultural hub, hosting vaudeville acts and silent movies. Demonstrating its gravitas as a premiere theater, it was the venue for the 1928 world premiere of The First Kiss, a film starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray, both heavyweight actors at the time. Not only was it a place for people of the Mid-Shore region to watch the new tech that was moving pictures, but patrons also had the chance to dance to a live orchestra in the second-f loor ballroom. It indeed was a place that epitomized the joy that was the Roaring Twenties.
Though I have lived full-time in the Easton area for nearly 20 years, I began spending weekends and long stints here in the summer in the mid-1980s. Back then, I enjoyed so much of what the Shore had to offer by way of the Chesapeake Bay; boating, hydro sliding, eating crabs and rockfish ~ sometimes caught right off the dock. My summertime memories come sweeping back with the smells of briny diesel, Old Bay and Coppertone suntan oil. I know we ventured there, but when I was growing up, Easton was a shell of what it is today. There was no bustling arts scene, no festivals ~ other than Waterfowl ~ no music in the streets. My introduction to the little town that now holds so much vibrancy was during
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