For some who attended the Feb. 7, 1985, world premiere of the film “Witness” at what was then the Fulton Opera House, the atmosphere of the evening made an impression that has lasted 40 years.
“The premiere was incredible,” recalls Arthur Morris, who was mayor of Lancaster when “Witness” came to town. “It was so exciting. The whole community was in the kind of mood I’d never seen before.
“People were outside the Fulton watching people getting out of the vehicles and going into the Fulton,” Morris says. It was a really well-done premiere. ... My excitement was really in walking the red carpet, seeing the people and the excitement of the audience watching the movie itself, which was terrific and well-received.”
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“Witness” star Kelly McGillis sat right behind Morris as the film was shown.
“I remember the audience was not shy to react to the movie,” Morris says. The audience “was very responsive.”
In this file photo from November 2024, former Lancaster Mayor Art Morris speaks during the celebration of life for Ron Ford inside Brightside Baptist Church in Lancaster. Morris was mayor when "Witness" premiered at the Fulton Opera House in 1985.
He gives credit for the success of the evening to Andrew Armstrong, who was the general chair of the committee that organized the premiere.
“He was a real cheerleader for the city,” Morris says.”If anyone needs credit for making this happen, he’s right out front of it. It was one of those great events in the history of the city.”
Morris notes that, during the Lancaster County filming of “Witness” in the summer of 1984, he had been able to do a favor for the mayor of a nearby city.
“The mayor from Reading, Karen Miller, called me up and said, ‘Art, can you get me in to see Harrison Ford? I went to high school with him,’ ” Morris says. “She called him Harry.”
Both Miller and Ford grew up in the Chicago area.
Morris arranged a meeting through the film’s staff. The two mayors then watched Ford filming a prominent grain-silo scene at the end of the film, on a set built along Harrisburg Pike.
In this 2021 file photo, Robert Brock stands in front of the stage of his Lancaster Marionette Theatre, which had recently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was converting the theater into a studio for his fledgling YouTube channel. Brock attended the "Witness" premiere at the Fulton Opera House in 1985.
Robert Brock, an actor who worked at the Fulton, and who ran the Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre, later the Lancaster Marionette Theatre, for more than 30 years, says he had a “grand seat on the aisle” at the “Witness” premiere.
“It was a big, formal event. ... It was a big deal. That was back in the days when people dressed for the theater,” he says.
Brock believes he was given the ticket by former Lancaster mayor and Wohlsen Construction Co. executive Albert Wohlsen.
At the premiere, Pennsylvania’s first lady Ginny Thornburgh “sat right in front of me by herself, and I said, ‘I hope they’re not going to make you sit here all alone, and she giggled and said ‘no,’ ” Brock recalls. “We had a pleasant chat. It was lovely.”
She was sitting alone, Brock explains, because Gov. Dick Thornburgh later accompanied McGillis into the theater. Another actor in the film, former Russian ballet dancer Alexander Godunov, sat in front of Brock, as well.
“There was a presentation before the film,” Brock says, featuring the actors and the governor.
“They screened the picture, and at the end, everyone stood up when the credits were rolling, and the governor said, ‘I wish they’d sit down. I want to see my credit,’ ” Brock says, “which cracked me up, because I would have wanted to see my credit, too.”
(Thornburgh, along with the Pennsylvania Film Office, were mentioned in the film’s credits for their part in supporting the film.)
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Brock and Morris both recalled the audience laughing hardest during the scene in the film where a slow-moving Amish buggy is holding up a long line of traffic.
Brock remembers the audience leaving the theater pretty quickly after the film ended, adding, “I think they wanted to get to the food.”
Brock says it was hard to get to the buffets of food set up in the four corners of Lancaster Central Market at the post-film reception.
“I wanted an oyster, but you couldn’t get near the raw bar. .. No one moved” once they had a place at the buffet, Brock says with a laugh.
Amid the daily work of a city mayor, Morris says, the “Witness” premiere was a chance to get dressed up ”and to live it up with some real big film stars. You weren’t going to miss the opportunity.
“I remember it being an incredible night of celebration, for the movie, the film stars, the happening, all of the above,” Morris adds. “It was just a special night for Lancaster. It was just lovely.”
