(By Lindsey Snyder ’25, staff writer)
Annville’s beloved Allen Theatre and Backstage Cafe is entering a new era as new ownership takes over.
The Allen Theatre is a classic, single-screen cinema and stage that has been running since the early 1900s when it was known as the “Hippodrome.” Throughout time, the theatre went through many changes and management and eventually shut its doors in the 1980s.
In 1992, Skip Hicks purchased the theatre and renovated the cinema entirely into what residents of Annville know it as today, naming it the Allen Theatre. After successful management under Hicks, the theatre was sold in 2018 to Edward and Susan Felty, who continued Hicks’ legacy until 2024.
Now, professional magician and longtime bookstore owner Michael Cantor and his wife Cindy Vejar, LVC’s program director and associate professor of clinical mental health counseling, have purchased the iconic landmark.
The couple has merged their passions for books, music and cinema by moving their used bookstore, Salamander Books and Music, into the theater’s adjacent cafe, selling quality used books, vinyl, CDs and music gear. The newly combined businesses are now known as the Allen Theatre and Salamander Bookstore Cafe.
The combination of the theatre’s historical charm and the bookstore cafe’s social appeal creates a vibrant hub for locals and students to hangout and socialize.