SHARON Columbia Theater's future is bright

Singer Tony Butala said he can't wait to be among the first performers to sing on the Columbia's stage again.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- "I used to sit right here on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons," Tony Butala said as he stood at the front of the Columbia Theater's balcony.
His mother paid the admission -- a nickel apiece -- for him and his three brothers, he said.
"It's beautiful, even now," the Sharon native said.
The 1,740-seat facility at 82 W. State St. was built in 1923 as a performing arts theater, but it's been closed since its entryway was destroyed by a fire in early 1981 and years of neglect and a leaking roof took its toll on the ornate plaster decorating the ceiling and walls.
The main floor is filled with scaffolding that reaches to the domed ceiling.
It's a long way from reopening.
"I think we'll need a couple million dollars in it before we can hold a show in here," Butala said, adding that is probably a couple of years away.
Butala left Sharon 52 years ago to join the Mitchell Boys Choir in California and later was one of the original three members of the singing group The Letterman. Although he makes his home in California, he has family in Sharon and still maintains contacts here.
Purchase
He, along with Sharon businessman James E. Winner Jr., opened the Vocal Group Hall of Fame & amp; Museum on East State Street in December 1997, and it was Butala who bought the Columbia Theater at a tax sale in 1984, turning it over to Columbia Theatre Inc., a nonprofit group set up to oversee its restoration.
Although the group was able to put about $1 million into the project, it couldn't raise the estimated $6 million more it would take for a complete restoration and determined that there wasn't sufficient community support to continue the effort.
The group announced last fall that it was abandoning the restoration project and would try to sell the theater.
Butala came back into the picture recently when, as chairman of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation, he engineered the foundation's purchase of the theater from Columbia Theatre Inc. for $10,000 earlier this month.
He and Bob Crosby, president and chief executive officer of the foundation, are now working on plans to get the theater open.
It will be an ideal showcase for Hall of Fame induction and other concerts, he said.
Fund-raisers
Part of the fund-raising effort will be in the form of benefit shows put on by performing groups, Butala said, noting that The Lettermen will kick the drive off with a show at 7 p.m. Sunday at W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren.
Other groups, including the Four Freshmen, Bill Pinckney of the Drifters, The Chordettes and The Modernaires have offered to do similar shows, he said.
Money raised from concerts could be used as matching funds to attract state and private restoration grants, he said.
The idea is to get enough work done to satisfy safety and building codes to get the doors open and shows started there. The restoration itself could take several more years, Butala added.
"This was the grand old lady," Butala said as he walked through the cavernous building that once had live vaudeville and other shows before it became a movie theater in its later years.
"Knowing that it's going to have another rebirth, it's exciting to see it like this," he said. "I'm looking forward to being among the first to perform on this stage again."
gwin@vindy.com