The Idle Hour Theater (or possibly the Happy Hour) is was located "at Bloomingdale and Depot Street, identified either as the Idle Hour or Happy Hour but best known by youthful patrons as the "Itch," for reasons now unimportant." 1. John Duquette wrote "On Saturday afternoons ten cents would get us into the Pontiac Theater for Tom Mix or we could catch Hoot Gibson at the "Itch." This latter pleasure palace, which was located on Bloomingdale Avenue, earned its nickname from the velvety plush seats." 2
Other than these references there is surprisingly little evidence of its existence. It can't be found in the online archives of the Daily Enterprise or the Lake Placid News, it seems not to have been listed in the village directories, and it does not appear on any Sanborn Maps in the location specified by Duquette, above.
Footnotes
1. Adirondack Daily Enterprise November 14, 1969 (see Jim Munn) Lake Placid had an early theater named the Happy Hour, so Saranac Lake's theater would likely be the Idle Hour.
2. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 7, 1987 (see High School Days)
