Consider the Ritz Theater in Scranton. Will Rogers did rope tricks there in the heyday of vaudeville and metal bands and jazz ensembles play there today. With that framework in mind, here is a sampling of the history of regional entertainment as America celebrates 250 years.
Jazz
Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, influential American jazz musicians and bandleaders who shaped the big band and swing era, were born in the early 1900s in Shenandoah, in Schuylkill County.
Today Wilkes-Barre and Scranton both have lively jazz festivals. The Wilkes-Barre Cavalcade of Jazz began Friday and the Scranton festival is Aug. 7-9.
The Ritz Theater in Scranton on Thursday, March 05, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Musician and business owner Josh Balz, in a store he formerly owned in Kingston. (CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE)
John “Stanky” Stankovic received many citations and awards over the years, including this from the Pennsylvania Senate commemorating John Stanky and the Coal Miners 55 years in the entertainment business. (Citizens’ Voice file)
Ed E. Rogers, left, then-managing editor of The Scranton Times and The Sunday Times, presents actor Bruce Dern, center, and writer-director Jason Miller with a dummy cover for the newspaper in July 1982 for use in the film version of “That Championship Season.” The film was partially shot in Scranton in 1982. TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE
Playwright Stephen Karam accepts the Tony Award for Best Play for “The Humans” onstage during the 70th Annual Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre on June 12, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Douglas Carter Beane (Courtesy of Douglas Carter Beane)
A historical plaque denotes the building next to it as the home of John O’Hara from 1916 to 1928, pictured Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
A statue of John O’Hara stands on S. Centre St. in Pottsville, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
Author John O’Hara (FILE PHOTO)
Endea Owens and The Cookout headlined the Wilkes-Barre Cavalcade of Jazz. (Wilkes-Barre Cavalcade of Jazz Committee.)
A scene from “The Trouble With Cali,” directed by Paul Sorvino. It was a costly flop for Lackawanna County taxpayers. (The Times-Tribune File)
Billy Crystal and Jack Palance at the Oscars.(AP)
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The Ritz Theater in Scranton on Thursday, March 05, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Pennsylvania Polka
The region’s role in the development and continued popularity of polka is right there in the lyrics to the 1942 classic “Pennsylvania Polka.” “It started in Scranton, it’s now No. 1.”
Polka is part of the region’s Polish and Eastern European heritage.
One of polka’s biggest stars was from Nanticoke. John “Stanky” Stankovic died in 2025 at age 89. He is a member of the International Polka Association Hall of Fame, and Stanky and the Coal Miners performed on five continents.
Polka superstar Jimmy Sturr, a University of Scranton graduate, often describes himself as a friend and a fan, praising Stankovic’s rendition of “Apple, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie.”
Joe Stankovic, John’s brother, is also a well-known polka musician. Joe and Sturr paid tribute to John at the Pennsylvania Polkafest near Wilkes-Barre in April.
While polka still draws local crowds, the region is also known for other genres.
Local rock goes national
Rock groups born locally with national reach include the metalcore band Motionless In White, punk band the Menzingers, the Buoys, roots rock group the Badlees and Breaking Benjamin.
“Northeast Pa., it really gave us our first chance and really believed in us,” said Josh Balz, a former member of Motionless In White. That’s part of why he is loyal to the region. He owns the Ritz Theater on Wyoming Avenue. It was called Poli’s in the vaudeville era.
Motionless In White formed in the early 2000s. Balz recalls it as a time when young people without enough to do turned to drugs and drinking. “When that heavier style of music came out, it really gave people something to do and something to be involved with” instead, he said.
John Legend
At a recent Wilkes-Barre concert, superstar John Legend said he attributes an early break to connections he made in Scranton. As a young man, he commuted to Scranton to lead music at a church.
Briggs Farm
Audiences come from all over every year for the Briggs Farm Blues Festival in Nescopeck. The Record Company will headline the 29th annual Festival from July 9-11.
There was a niche open in the market for the Briggs to fill, said Dena Briggs. “It’s just been years of chipping away at trying to build a great festival,” she said. She estimates last year’s attendance at 10,000.
The biggest Briggs act was probably Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who played his hit “Blue on Black” in 2022, Briggs said.
The festival occasionally hosts acts based in the region, such as blues artist Clarence Spady.
Vaudeville
The region, especially Scranton, was a proving ground for vaudeville, perhaps because of its proximity to larger cities. Local audiences were considered to be tough and have a good eye for talent.
The Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Harry Houdini, Fred Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen and Will Rogers were among the famous performers who appeared in Scranton theaters in the early part of the 1900s.
Sylvester Poli, an Italian immigrant and New England entertainment mogul, built Poli’s Theater, which is now the Ritz Theater, in 1907 and also built one of the same name in Wilkes-Barre.
Early movies
Lyman H. Howe, born in Wilkes-Barre in 1856, was an early innovator in the film industry. At the peak of his success, Howe had six traveling movie companies headquartered in Wilkes-Barre.
The literary canon
John O’Hara was born to a wealthy Irish-American family in Pottsville in 1905 and lived there until his early 20s. His father’s death destroyed the family finances while he was a teen, forming a backdrop for much of his work. He wrote for a Pottsville newspaper, which fired him twice. Many of his stories and novels were set in Gibbsville, a fictionalized version of Pottsville, including the well-known “Appointment in Samarra.”
‘Sex and the City’
“Sex and the City” producer/director/writer Michael Patrick King is from Scranton and Scranton was mentioned on the spinoff show “And Just Like That … “
‘The Office’
The NBC sitcom “The Office,” set in Scranton but never filmed here, put the city on the pop culture landscape in a big way. It left primetime in 2013 but is still a draw in syndication and fans of the show make the pilgrimage to Scranton to visit some of the sites referenced in the popular show.
Movies
Arguably the two biggest movies to come out of Northeast Pennsylvania are “The Molly Maguires” and “That Championship Season.”
“The Molly Maguires” was based on coal industry unrest. The 1970 movie was partly filmed in Eckley, Jim Thorpe and other regional locations.
Scranton writer and actor Jason Miller wrote “That Championship Season,” which won a Pulitzer and Tony as a play and became a movie in 1982. Scenes were filmed in the area and the West Scranton High School band appears in the soundtrack.
Neither movie was a hit, but they did bring big names to the area. Sean Connery played the lead in “Molly Maguires” shortly after leaving the James Bond franchise. “Championship Season” starred Robert Mitchum, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach and Paul Sorvino.
Miller was also nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor for “The Exorcist.” He died in Scranton in 2001.
A Hazle Twp. native won an Oscar. Jack Palance was born Volodymyr Ivanovich Palahniuk. His coal miner father died of black lung disease and he worked in the mines before escaping with a college football scholarship. He was nominated for two Oscars in the 1950s before winning best supporting actor for the 1991 movie “City Slickers.” The 73-year-old made a splash by celebrating by doing one-armed pushups on stage. For a time, he owned a farm in Drums and returned to the area frequently. He died in California in 2006.
More recently, a movie flop cost Lackawanna County taxpayers $500,000. “Championship Season” cast member Paul Sorvino persuaded the Lackawanna County commissioners to back a movie called “The Trouble with Cali” and dangled the hope of a film studio in the area. The 2012 movie was never widely released and the few who have seen it mostly give bad reviews. A documentary about the debacle is in the works.
Stage
Two area natives are successful Broadway playwrights. Stephen Karam, a Scranton High School graduate, is the Tony Award-winning author of “The Humans,” and many other works. “The Humans” brought a fictional Scranton family to Broadway in 2016, as they visit a relative who has moved to Chinatown. Douglas Carter Beane’s extensive credits include five Tony Award nominations. “The Little Dog Laughed” was nominated for the Tony Award for best play in 2006. Beane wrote the screenplay for the movie “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!, Julie Newmar.” He was born in Wilkes-Barre, raised in Wyomissing and spends summers in the region.
Both are major talents who keep up their connections with the local arts scene, said Michael Bradshaw Flynn, artistic director of the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. He has worked with Beane and directed local productions of Karam’s work.
Local play headed overseas again
“Ulysses of Scranton,” an original work produced by the Scranton Fringe Festival in tandem with the New Vintage Ensemble, will travel to the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. Last year it was performed in Ireland. The play reimagines the James Joyce novel in Scranton on St. Patrick’s parade day.
It will also have another local run, on July 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. at the Sanctuary Theater in Scranton. Which brings us back to the Ritz, where “Ulysses of Scranton” premiered last year.