Act 3

One side of the marquee reads “Hilarious Comedy.” The other, “Great Family Shows.” More than just an advertisement, that marquee is a tidy history of the Glendale Centre Theatre.

When Nathan and Ruth Hale opened a 90-seat theater on Colorado Street in 1947, they had no idea they were setting the stage for generations to come. Now in its third building and expanded to 440 seats, the community theater is celebrating its 50th anniversary under the guidance of the Hales’ grandsons, Tim and David Dietlein.

“We think we are the longest-running center-stage theater in the world,” said 88-year-old Ruth Hale in a phone interview from her home in Salt Lake City. Then she laughed. “Of course the Greeks had it much earlier than we did.”

There is no way to be sure, but the Dietlein brothers suspect theirs is one of the oldest continuously operated family-owned theaters in the state, if not the country. Certificates of commendation and congratulations have come in from the city of Glendale, the California State Assembly and President Clinton’s office.

It all started, actually, in 1943 when Nathan Hale came home from his work in the Utah copper mines and told his wife, “I don’t want to carry my lunch pail the rest of my life.” She knew what his real ambitions were and told him about a story she’d read in the newspaper: There was a shortage of leading men in Hollywood because so many actors, like Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart, had enlisted to fight in World War II. The father of seven children, Hale wasn’t eligible for the draft. So he went to Hollywood to fill the void there.

Of course, after the war most of the leading men came back, and Hale went undiscovered. In 1947 the Hales were in a play with another couple, Elizabeth and Joseph Kerr, in Altadena. “She said the magic words,” Ruth Hale remembered. “She said if you had your own theater you could put on your own plays and you could have any part you wanted.” Together the two families opened the first Glendale Centre Theatre, and then the Hales took it over about five years later.

The Hales’ daughter Sandy and her husband, Allan Dietlein, became partners in the theater in 1960. About that time the Centre moved to its second location, on Doran Street, and the Dietleins moved into a house right behind the theater. Their children, including Tim and David, grew up with the stage as their backyard.

“The only problem was that occasionally the kids would slip away from the baby sitter and come on stage. And one night David came on stark naked,” said Sandy Dietlein. “Mom happened to be on stage and she scooped him up in her apron and made some comment about ‘those neighbor kids.’ ”

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Even after the Dietleins moved to another house, the children were immersed in theater. At age 13 or 14, Tim and David worked as stage managers. Even earlier they handed out programs or sold soda at intermission. They learned quickly the hard work it takes to run a theater and were ready when they took the reins in 1994. “Our heritage is one of hard work,” said David Dietlein. “That has to be there to succeed, especially in theater. You can’t take an armchair approach and expect to turn on the lights and have a full house.”

From the beginning, the Centre Theatre was a home for comedies--a tradition that continues there today. The anniversary season started with a production of Neil Simon’s popular standard, “The Odd Couple,” which runs through Feb. 15. Then, after the West Coast premiere of a musical version of “Jane Eyre,” the theater will present “Love Is for the Byrds,” one of dozens of plays--more than 20 of them published--written by Ruth Hale during her years at the Centre Theatre.

The year-round season now includes four comedies and three musicals (musicals were added in 1979), all family oriented. Or, as Ruth Hale put it: “Not namby-pamby, but not offensive.”

Tim Dietlein said that’s why people come to the Centre Theatre. “They don’t want to go to an equity-waiver house and watch someone take their clothes off. They don’t want those preachy issue-oriented plays,” he said. “Our audience, if they went to one of those theaters, would walk out.”

Their audiences come from the Valley, the Foothills area, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and sometimes as far away as Orange and Kern counties. They also tend to be price conscious, Tim Dietlein said. “If we raise our prices 25 cents every two years, we get calls.” Regular admission is only $11.50 to $16, but discounted group tickets--sold to civic organizations or tour groups--bring in 40% of their houses.

The Centre can afford to sell ticket so cheaply because it is not, technically, a professional theater. Though it is operated for profit, it has no contract with Actors Equity, the union. The performers are all volunteers. But being so close to the film and TV industry, they don’t have a problem finding volunteers. “A lot of them were professional actors now retired, and they do it because it’s in their blood,” said Tim Dietlein. “Others are aspiring. Others are working all the time.”

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Also working all the time is Ruth Hale. She and Nate retired to Utah in 1983, but soon found themselves bored. They opened, with other family members, the Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake City, and then another theater in Orem, a small city near Provo. They also have a summer stock theater at the family ranch in southern Utah. Nate Hale was acting--as Marley in “A Christmas Carol”--until five days before his death in 1993.

Hale’s matinee idol aspirations spawned generations of theater performers, directors and producers--and the group keeps growing. Tim Dietlein was married last October, and his new wife, Brenda, is co-directing “Jane Eyre.” And when the Hale family--all 103 of them--gathers at the ranch in southern Utah, they could cast “The Sound of Music” four times over.

Not all of them want to be in theater, of course, and even Tim and David Dietlein considered other careers. But, said David Dietlein, “you come back to what you grew up with and feel comfortable.”

DETAILS

* WHAT

The Glendale Centre Theatre. Currently playing “The Odd Couple.”

* WHERE

324 N. Orange St.

* WHEN

8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday.

* HOW MUCH

$11.50-13.50; musicals are $13.50-$16.

* CALL

(818) 244-8481.

* FYI

“Jane Eyre,” the musical, opens Feb. 19 for an eight-week run.