A pair of once-vibrant communities faced a bleak future.

Their heyday behind them, the towns struggled to find their way and continue to provide services to their residents.

Filled with the opulence of the once Gilded Age of King Coal, and dealing with the scars left from accumulating that wealth, they searched for answers.

Railroads still chugged up and down tracks that snaked along the banks of the river that separated them.

But the train whistles went silent, dashing the hopes of the townspeople and dimming their enthusiasm to move on.

“What are we to do?” they wondered.

Suddenly, a handsome drifter with a chiseled chin strode into town out of nowhere.

Little did the townspeople know how he would change their lives.

It’s the stuff that films are made of.

And it might be a loose interpretation of what happened in Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk in the early 1950s.

That’s when Chunkers got behind a plan to accept the remains of Jim Thorpe, dubbed “The Greatest Athlete in the World” after his medal-winning performances in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1912.

In March 1953, Thorpe died of a heart attack in his suburban Los Angeles home while eating dinner with his third wife, Patricia. There was some indecision, though, on where Thorpe would spend eternity.

A 1951 film chronicling his life, “Jim Thorpe — All American,” with award-winning actor Burt Lancaster in the title role, was still making its way through theaters in small towns in Oklahoma, where Thorpe was born in 1888.

That film was still fresh in the minds of locals when a former editor of this newspaper spearheaded a movement to merge the sister boroughs, name the new community after the fallen hero, and erect a memorial in his honor.

Community leaders at the time also saw the possibility of a hospital for treating heart and cancer patients, which would be funded by a foundation in Thorpe’s name.

There was even talk of locating the National Football League Hall of Fame here.

Business would boom. Yet-to-be-built hotels would host tourists from across the nation and world.

News stories of the time reported that the boroughs’ original names were lined to a fabled past that had little or no chance of resurrection.

They said many believed the consolidation plan would be a “Godsend, designed to arrest the decline of civic progress and start it on an upward spiral to the advantage of future residents — the boys and girls who are now growing up.”

And here we are today.

Though there’s no Hall of Fame or hospital, Jim Thorpe has grown into a tourist mecca that’s famous for its quaint style and eclectic shops.

The borough has been featured in countless productions since then, the largest arguably being the Paramount Pictures production of “The Molly Maguires” in the late 1960s that featured megastars Samantha Eggar, Richard Harris and Sean Connery.

There have been film and video crews visiting and doing their work over the years, all pieces that help complete the puzzle of a growing trend across the state.

Last year, the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau formed the Pocono Mountains Sports, Entertainment and Film Commission, tasked with promoting film production and driving economic development in local communities.

But recently, in a 4-2 vote, borough council went against that grain, denying an international media group’s request to film a documentary on the borough. Officials cited overtourism, admitting they “have more than we can handle” when it comes to crowded events, and that social media use negates the need for other exposure.

They cautioned added crowds could strain local businesses and potentially damage historic infrastructure.

One suggestion was to look to Harrisburg for funding that would help deal with some of the issues and ensure visitors’ safety. Answers, though, don’t always flow free in the state capital.

Opposing council members suggested the denial could hurt the local economy, especially if more requests are turned down.

A documentary — or its denial — isn’t going to make a difference in a community that can’t grow enough to keep pace with an economy that’s been its lifeblood for years.

What might help is some new thinking — an updated, open-minded version of the vision that saved two boroughs from almost certain decline — to continue the saga of success Jim Thorpe has witnessed.

It could move the latest installment in the story of a community working together closer to a happy ending instead of dropping it on the cutting room floor.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years’ experience in community journalism.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.