8/17/2019 Going to the Movies in Rockcastle County

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Serving Rockcastle County Since 1887  Thursday, August 23, 2012Second Section

Webb Theatre

Boone Way Opera House burns down in 1922.

Valley Drive-In

Vernon Theatre

Broadside for movie at the Boone Way OperaHouse.

Boone Way Opera House

Gray Theatre

Valley Drive-In concession stand.

 By David W. OwensNow that summer vaca-

tion is over and school hasbegun, we look forward tothe fall movie releases. Thisis the season of the big blockbuster movies. Now the lat-est movies are shot in 3-Ddigital with surround soundeffects. Recently I took myeight year old grandsonJacob to the RichmondMovie Theater; watching

his face light up when the

Going to the movies in Rockcastle Countyfilm started suddenlywhisked me back to mychildhood days. I saw myfirst movie at The GrandCombs Theater in Mt.Vernon.

I guess some would findit strange that at one timeMt. Vernon, Brodhead, andLivingston all had state of the art, top of the line, movietheaters. They were theVernon Theater in Mt.

Vernon, the Gray Theater in

Brodhead, and the WebbTheater in Livingston.There was also the ValleyDrive-In at Renfro Valley.

Before the oncomingevent of television, localmovie theaters were preva-lent in small communitieslike Rockcastle County.Certainly memories havetheir place in everyone’spsyche and movie theaterswere often the places where

young couples experiencedtheir first kiss and hold aspecial place in patrons’hearts.

In the 1940s three firstclass state of the art theaterswere built in RockcastleCounty. At that time therailroad business wasbooming in the county andcreated a need for leisuretime enjoyment.

Willetta Kirby Owens re-members as a child, goingon Saturdays, catching thetrain at Pine Hill to Mt.Vernon. The kids prices

were .10 cents for admissionand they were given an in-expensive toy. The programstarted with the peoplestanding up with a pictureof a waving American flagand the playing of the na-tional anthem. Then theywould have a singalong andyou had to follow thebouncing ball and singalong with the screen.

After that they wouldplay three cartoons, usuallyPop Eye or Mighty Mouse,and a serial. I remember The

Iron Claw; the foolish thingnearly scared me to death.

A movie short, usually theThree Stooges and the mainfeatures of two movies thathad intermission breaks togo to the bathroom and con-cession stand. Candy barscosts 5 cents and were largerthan they are now. Later asa young adult and dating herfuture husband, ClydeOwens Wiletta said that onweekends they would go toall three of the county’s the-

aters.Movie theaters tracetheir origins back to ancientGreece where crowds of sometimes 15,000 peoplegathered to see a play. The-atre was so important to theancient Greeks that prison-ers would be released from

 jail temporari ly so theycould attend. The Greeksbuilt huge outdoor amphi-theaters and the seating sec-tion was called the theatron,which is the origin of our

word “theater.”All three of Rockcastle’s

theaters were built in theclassic Samuel RoxyRothafel impresario archi-tecture style. They con-sisted of a single auditoriumwith rows of comfortableseats on an elevated floor,as well as a foyer area con-taining a box office andsnack counter with stairsgoing up to the projection

room. They had one largescreen with a stage and abalcony. The screen andstage were draped withdecorative, hand painted,thematic curtains withquaint metal-covered ceil-ings, art deco furnishingswith boldly patterned carpetthat was trimmed with smallaisle lights.

Before television,Rockcastle citizens listenedto radio shows at home andwent out to see movies. The

movies arrived by Grey-hound bus then. The reelscame in leather suitcasesthat contained the moviecans, usually four permovie, and promotion post-ers, usually two, and a setof lobby cards tucked in apouch on the outside of thecontainer.

These theaters, oftencalled picture shows, pro-vided a world of escapism

for many Rockcastlecountians after a hard weekof work. In 1950 the aver-age ticket price was 50 centsfor adults and 25 cents forchildren, the equivalent ofaround $4 in today’s cur-rency. In 1950, despite theKorean War, Americanswere spending 25.7 percentof their recreation budget inmovie theaters, by 1960 thathad dropped to 5.2 percent.

(Cont. to pg. B8)