Category:Jeanette Theater, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Jeanette Theater opened in May 1957 425-429 Tilghman Street in Allentown. It was a renaming of the former Franklin Theater, when its format changed from a general audience theater to an adult-only theater. It closed in July 1992 due to the wide availability of porn on home video.

The Franklin Theater had closed in 1956 due to poor attendence caused by television. After sitting empty for about a year, the theater was bought by Al Moffa, the owner of the Americus Hotel in 1957. Moffa had been in the theater business since he was a teen, running two theaters in Allentown (Park, Astor) before being drafted into the Army in late 1943 during World War II. He served in the Motion Picture Service during the war and upon his discharge, began to purchase several theaters and drive-ins in the area. He also owned and operated a theater supply and equipment company. Moffa renamed the theater it for his wife, Jeanette.

In 1959 he found himself in competition with another theater he owned, the Towne, and to differentiate the theaters, Moffa renamed it the Jeanette Art Theater and began showing foreign made art films. Most were European films featuring European stars such as Alec Guiness or directors such as Igmar Bergman. Many of these films also were subtitled. However, the films were much more adult-themed than the Hollywood produced films made under the Hayes Code, containing adult themes and sexual situations not found in Hollywood-produced films. By 1963, the foreign films dominated what was presented by the Jeanette. More and more of the films being shown were for adults only and children were not admitted to the theater. According to Moffa, these were bad years to be in the theater business because most people would stay home and watch television. The adult-themed films drew an audience and it was the only way an independent theater owner could really make any money during this time. In 1968, with the introduction of the MPAA film ratings system, the Jeanette became an exclusively "X-Rated" theater, showing what many considered pornographic films. It also showed unrated foreign pornographic films. Moffa's closure of the Towne Theater in 1978, which had also showed X-rated films brought a boost to the Jeanette as its audience shifted to the Jeanette.

The development and availability of consumer videocassette recorders in the 1980s with the wide availability of pornographic film titles available for home rental, led to lower attendance. By the early 1990s, the Jeanette had lost its profitability as a porno theater, along with the deterioration of the neighborhood led to its subsequent closure in July 1992. After its closure, Moffa renovated the theater and reopened it as the "Franklin" again in December 1992.