Wonderland Theater

Bennington’s first movie theater, Whitney’s “Wonderland,” opened in 1907, shortly before this picture was taken. Admission was 5 cents, approximately half an hour’s wages for the average worker, and the shows changed every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The program on the day of this photograph, April 18, 1908, included the 1907 Military Tournament at Saumur, “Afraid of the Microbes,” billed as “Very Funny & Exciting,” “Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest,” “Tipperary,” and a musical number by Mr. E. F. Stannard (baritone). The theater was closed by 1912 and the building was demolished. In the 1910s Benningtonians could attend movies at the Free Library building, the modernized Bennington Opera House, and John B. Harte’s new theater on the south side of Main Street.