Sunday, February 24, 2013

IN PERSON AT SALISBURY THEATRES


CAPITOL THEATRE
October 10, 1934


STATE THEATRE
June 12, 1939

STATE THEATRE
December 10, 1940

STATE THEATRE
December 22, 1944

STATE THEATRE
November 21, 1947

STATE THEATRE
January 8, 1948

STATE THEATRE
May 27, 1948

STATE THEATRE
November 18, 1948

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


IRIS THEATRE
January 5, 1921


IRIS THEATRE
February 5, 1922

STRAND THEATRE
February 6, 1922

STRAND THEATRE
August 26, 1922

IRIS THEATRE
October 9, 1922

STRAND THEATRE
March 11, 1923

CAPITOL THEATRE
January 17, 1926

VICTORY THEATRE
April 18, 1927

CAPITOL THEATRE
October 26, 1927

CAPITOL THEATRE
December 25, 1927

CAPITOL THEATRE
February 5, 1928

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.

CAPITOL THEATRE
October 25, 1928

CAPITOL THEATRE
November 22, 1928

This was the first
ALL TALKING
feature.
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.

CAPITOL THEATRE
December 7, 1941
The day of the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor

STATE THEATRE
February 22, 1942

CAPITOL THEATRE
July 5, 1942

CAPITOL THEATRE
August 16, 1942

CAPITOL THEATRE
November 22, 1942

ROCKWELL THEATRE
December 13, 1942

CAPITOL THEATRE
April 18, 1943

SPENCER THEATRE
April 25, 1943

SPENCER THEATRE
May 13, 1943

CAPITOL THEATRE
July 18, 1943

CAPITOL THEATRE
October 19, 1943

CAPITOL THEATRE
February 15, 1944

CAPITOL THEATRE
May 14, 1944

CAPITOL THEATRE
March 18, 1945

CAPITOL THEATRE
September 9, 1945

Saturday, February 9, 2013

SALISBURY MOVIES IN THE 1950s



VICTORY THEATRE
February 17, 1952

VICTORY THEATRE
October 24, 1952

SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
May 2, 1953

VICTORY THEATRE
June 21, 1953

SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
June 25, 1953

HITCHING POST DRIVE-IN THEATRE
September 27, 1953

CAPITOL THEATRE
October 4, 1953

CAPITOL THEATRE
July 18, 1954

CAPITOL THEATRE
August 15, 1954

SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
February 5, 1955

CENTER THEATRE
March 20, 1955

CAPITOL THEATRE
February 8, 1956

SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
September 23, 1956

SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE
April 19, 1958

CAPITOL THEATRE
April 29, 1959