By Gene Kuleta
From our September 2025 issue
When Bar Harbor’s Criterion Theatre opened, in 1932, nearly 2,000 people gathered for back-to-back screenings of Arsène Lupin, a crime movie with a seductive female lead, released shortly before the major studios adopted guidelines for self-policing the moral content of films. A seven-piece orchestra played the “Star-Spangled Banner,” telegrams from Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Arsène Lupin star John Barrymore praising the new venue were read on stage, and local newspapers gushed over the theater’s opulent Art Deco interior featuring a mirrored foyer, a floating balcony, and an elaborately painted sunburst ceiling medallion. “The carpets are thick and give with pressure, the curtains hide little nooks and corners that are mysterious and fascinating,” the Bar Harbor Times reported. “It has the air of Broadway — of the Big Time.”
Beneath a stage swathed in crimson draperies, the Criterion was also hiding a speakeasy. Concerned about the viability of an arts center in the Depression Era, owner George McKay, who’d spent a year in a Bangor jail for bootlegging, “hedged his bets, in case going legit with the Criterion didn’t pan out,” says Bar Harbor restaurateur Michael Boland, who has been involved with efforts to preserve the theater for decades. But the Criterion persisted, with the McKay family overseeing a 34-year run of films, concerts, and plays. Betty Jane and Peter Morison ran the venue for the next 35 years, until 2001. A stickler for manners who demanded patrons spit gum into her palm before entering the theater, Betty Jane, who went by B. J., had nevertheless applauded when Hollywood lifted its (largely ignored by then anyway) censorship guidelines, in 1968.
In recent decades, the Criterion fell into disrepair and, in 2011, it shut down. Boland formed a nonprofit group to revive it in 2014, shoring up the structure, reupholstering seats, repainting the ceiling, installing carpet, wall panels, and sconces that match the originals, and investing in a new digital projector before reopening eight months later. Then, this past January, a deteriorating brick wall caused another closure, and it was unclear if the curtain would rise again. So, on April Fools’ Day, when the theater announced on its Facebook page a summer concert by Jamaican musician Barrington Levy, a commenter wondered, “Is this for real or is it an April 1st kind of joke?”
“For real,” a Criterion official responded. “Giddy up!” A few days later, a nonprofit foundation run by longtime Bar Harbor summer residents Stephen and Allison Sullens assumed ownership of the venue, committing $1 million to its upkeep and programming. By June, the theater’s zigzag-shaped marquee was glowing again, and movie nights and acts including local comedian Bob Marley and country singer Chris Janson had been scheduled through the fall. “This should be a priority for people from away as much as it is for the town,” Allison says. “I want them to come here and say, ‘Wow, that was a great night.’ What else can you ask for?”
Visit criteriontheatre.org to view a list of the theater’s upcoming events. 35 Cottage St., Bar Harbor. 207-288-0829.
