Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Muriel Schwartz 1914-2014

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Posted by Donald Brown (Member # 5427) on 01-07-2015, 06:15 PM:

In a remembrance published in today's edition of the Dover Post, the passing, on December 18, 2014, of Muriel Schwartz was announced.

While Ms. Schwartz had long since retired from exhibition, her family's holdings once included Dover's Capital Theatre and Kent Drive-In; the Smyrna Theatre in Smyrna, Delaware; the Everett Theatre in Middletown, Delaware; the Super 50 Drive-In Theatre in Denton, Maryland; and the Cross Roads Drive-In Theatre in Trappe, Maryland. Muriel Schwartz and her father, George, were local exhibition pioneers, their names synonymous with movies to mid 20th century Delawareans.

Although I never met Ms. Schwartz, I became well acquainted with her contemporary and one time competitor, the late Mildred Steele. Mrs. Steele gave me an old, long faded article from the 1970s chronicling Muriel Schwartz arrest for the exhibition of Deep Throat at the Capital Theatre!

Mrs. Schwartz dignity, determination, and resolve throughout the incident left an enduring impression on me. While the issues are vastly different and the occasions are separated by more than 40 years, today's exhibition community could take a lesson from Mrs. Schwartz example as it bows to fear arising from the irrational rants of a North Korean dictator.