Promise Unfulfilled: The Brief Life and Bizarre Death of Actor Robert Morris

A couple weeks ago an email popped up in my inbox from a Vernon Gravely. He had cited BerksNostalgia.com as a source in a book he had recently published that was a biography of a Reading-born man named Robert “Bobby” Morawczynski, later known under stage name “Robert Morris”. Robert lived a short but interesting life and Vernon was nice enough to provide me with a copy of his work, so I dove right in and told him I would publish a review when I finished it.… Read Full Article

Shillington Theatre

Shillington Theatre
Shillington Theatre
Shillington Movie Theatre pictured in 1957

The Shillington Theatre was located at 29 E Lancaster Ave between Liberty and Brobst St. It opened Sept. 3rd, 1949.

Shillington Theatre
Sept 3rd, 1949 Reading Eagle Ad for Shillington Theatre
Shillington Theatre
1956 ad

It was not until the late 1960’s that the Shillington was able to run movies on Sundays due to the local municipality refusing to repeal and continuing to enforce Pennsylvania’s antiquated “blue laws”.… Read Full Article

On this Day – June 19th 1972

See what was happening in the June 19th 1972 Reading Eagle-

(click to enlarge)

Hurricane Agnes hits the Florida coast, 14 people were killed. The hurricane would hit Berks County hard just three days later, wreaking havoc on the area.

This morning’s rain delayed until this afternoon the opening of Reading’s playgrounds, but it didn’t dampen things at Hillside Playground where these youngsters decided not to wait and improvised their box hockey equipment – sticks and a stone.

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Berks Nostalgia