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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 10, 1934 |
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| STATE THEATRE June 12, 1939 |
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| STATE THEATRE December 10, 1940 |
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| STATE THEATRE December 22, 1944 |
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| STATE THEATRE November 21, 1947 |
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| STATE THEATRE January 8, 1948 |
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| STATE THEATRE May 27, 1948 |
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| STATE THEATRE November 18, 1948 |
A History of the Movies Exhibited in Salisbury / Rowan County, N.C. from JANUARY 1920 - TODAY
Sunday, February 24, 2013
IN PERSON AT SALISBURY THEATRES
Saturday, February 23, 2013
A little hamlet called PEYTON PLACE
In 1956, a novel, written by a then-unknown author named Grace Metalious, was published by Fawcett Books. Written under the working title THE TREE AND THE BLOSSOM, Fawcett changed the title and released the novel as PEYTON PLACE.
By the time the dust had all cleared, PEYTON PLACE had sold twenty million hardcover copies and twelve million more in paperback. It remained on the New York Times Best-Seller List for 55 weeks.
Naturally, a movie would have to follow. And in February, 1958, the Twentieth Century Fox film hit the movie screens. To say it was a smash would be an understatement.
It's initial Rowan County engagement, at the CAPITOL THEATRE, ran for twelve days. Very few films ran that long in a town the size of Salisbury during the 1950s.
The movie, just as the novel, was condemned by many churches worldwide as being totally immoral. It's probably fair to say that many of those who spoke against it on Sunday went to see it on Monday, then went back to see it again on Thursday.
Today, PEYTON PLACE seems as tame as TOY STORY. The film revitalized the career of Lana Turner and made a star of Hope Lange.
Then in 1964, PEYTON PLACE became a prime-time television series on ABC, enjoying equal success, running as many as three episodes each week. By the time the series was canceled in 1969, 514 episodes had been produced. The series made superstars of Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal.
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The movie PEYTON PLACE played Rowan County theatres eleven different engagements:
February 25 - March 8, 1958 - CAPITOL THEATRE
June 8 - 13, 1958 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
August 17 - 18, 1958 - 601 DRIVE-IN THEATRE
October 12 - 14, 1958 - ROCKWELL THEATRE
April 17 - 18, 1959 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
April 17 - 20, 1960 - JOE'S DRIVE-IN THEATRE
April 29 - 30, 1960 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
November 8 - 9, 1962 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
March 24 - 26, 1965 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
April 30 - May 1, 1965 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
July 11 - 13, 1965 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
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As for the woman who started it all - - suffering from cirrhosis of the liver from years of heavy drinking, Grace Metalious died February 25, 1964 at the age of 39. Sounds as if she lived in her own little PEYTON PLACE.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The 1920s: PROHIBITION, CAPONE and the MOVIES
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| IRIS THEATRE January 5, 1921 |
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| IRIS THEATRE February 5, 1922 |
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| STRAND THEATRE February 6, 1922 |
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| STRAND THEATRE August 26, 1922 |
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| IRIS THEATRE October 9, 1922 |
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| STRAND THEATRE March 11, 1923 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE January 17, 1926 |
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| VICTORY THEATRE April 18, 1927 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 26, 1927 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE December 25, 1927 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE February 5, 1928 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE February 12, 1928 Note: The original title of this feature was to be HEAT, but MGM changed it to LOVE at the last minute when they realized that theatre marquees everywhere would say Greta Garbo in HEAT. |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 25, 1928 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE November 22, 1928 This was the first ALL TALKING feature. |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 14, 1928 |
Saturday, February 16, 2013
M*A*S*H was a S*M*A*S*H
107
That is the number of days M*A*S*H played Salisbury movie screens. That is a lot. Over three calendar months.
Here was a movie, adapted for the screen by Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner Jr., once an American journalist and screenwriter blacklisted during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s and the last surviving member of the Hollywood Ten at the time of his death in 2000.
A movie about the Korean War released during the Vietnam War. Risky, many in the industry said. But Twentieth Century Fox took a chance, and the chance reaped huge dividends, both on the theatre screen and the TV screen as well.
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M*A*S*H played sixteen different times in Salisbury (the initial engagement lasted three weeks).
May 8 - 28, 1970 - TERRACE THEATRE
August 14 - 20, 1970 - CAPITOL THEATRE
December 17 - 19, 1970 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
May 21 - 27, 1971 - TERRACE THEATRE
July 25 - 29, 1971 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
May 19 - 25, 1972 - CAPITOL THEATRE
July 21 - 27, 1972 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
January 6, 1973 - TERRACE THEATRE
February 16 - 22, 1973 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
June 29 - July 2, 1973 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
December 5 - 11, 1973 - TERRACE THEATRE
June 21 - 27, 1974 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
June 6 - 12, 1975 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
February 18 - 20, 1977 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
June 24 - 30, 1977 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
May 11 - 17, 1979 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE
Sunday, February 10, 2013
THE WORLD WAR 2 YEARS
During the World War II years, the average American went to the movies three times per week.
The film studios produced lots of great movies during that time, and the U.S. public, living a life of fear and concern, sought entertainment. The movies provided that entertainment. Remember, there was not yet televison in the American home.
The usual theatre program during the early-to-mid 1940s included a full-length feature (of course), but also a cartoon, comedy or travelogue and the latest newsreel.
The newsreel was as important to home front Americans as was the feature. Here they could see the first video representation of the war events they had heard on the radio and read in the newspaper two-to-three weeks earlier.
Besides churches, the small-town movie theatres were the most common places of assembly. To support the war effort, patrons bought millions of dollars of War Bonds at their local movie houses.
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| CAPITOL THEATRE December 7, 1941 The day of the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor |
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| STATE THEATRE February 22, 1942 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE July 5, 1942 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE August 16, 1942 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE November 22, 1942 |
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| ROCKWELL THEATRE December 13, 1942 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE April 18, 1943 |
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| SPENCER THEATRE April 25, 1943 |
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| SPENCER THEATRE May 13, 1943 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE July 18, 1943 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 19, 1943 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE February 15, 1944 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE May 14, 1944 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE March 18, 1945 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE September 9, 1945 |
Saturday, February 9, 2013
SALISBURY MOVIES IN THE 1950s
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| VICTORY THEATRE February 17, 1952 |
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| VICTORY THEATRE October 24, 1952 |
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| SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE May 2, 1953 |
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| VICTORY THEATRE June 21, 1953 |
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| SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE June 25, 1953 |
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| HITCHING POST DRIVE-IN THEATRE September 27, 1953 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE October 4, 1953 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE July 18, 1954 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE August 15, 1954 |
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| SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE February 5, 1955 |
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| CENTER THEATRE March 20, 1955 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE February 8, 1956 |
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| SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE September 23, 1956 |
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| SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE April 19, 1958 |
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| CAPITOL THEATRE April 29, 1959 |
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