Continuous Showings -- The history of your hometown theater

”From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s,” said the U.S. Office of Management and Budget  “worker productivity rose at only 1.5 percent a year on average. In the mid-1990s, average productivity growth accelerated to around 2.5 percent per year. Since 2001 the rate of productivity growth has accelerated again to 3.4 percent per year.” No wonder I have so little time to get together with friends I first met in the 1980s!

Be that as it may, one of those friends and I have pledged to go to a movie from time to time, just to keep in touch. Even with DVDs and premium cable channels, cinemas have weathered the times, just as they survived the onslaught of television in the 1950s. I checked out the newspaper microfilms at my public library for my hometown's cinema history:

Beaufortonians (we residents of the coastal town of Beaufort, South Carolina) have been going to the movies for entertainment and social interaction for eighty years. The first cinema recorded in The Beaufort Gazette was the Ritz Theatre, of which the September 12, 1927 edition said the “house (was) packed on opening night,” with “two air cooling machines (to make) it pleasant during the hottest night.” Manager W. A. Murphy “stated on opening night that order would prevail during all pictures.” The newspaper posted no ads of coming attractions, stating simply that the Ritz had “some wonderful pictures scheduled for the next few weeks, so don’t miss them.”

Less than ten years later (July 2, 1936), the Gazette announced that a “modern theatre and store building will be erected” on property then known as the “Buzzard Roost,”  at the corner of Bay and West Streets in downtown Beaufort – home of the “Twilight Club.”  The new theater was to be “occupied by the Breeze Theatre” and boasted 400 seats downstairs and 175 in the balcony.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> The balcony was the zone of segregation for African-American moviegoers. This writer worked as a projectionist in the old Breeze Theatre and the management kept its separate “colored” entrance, concession service window and balcony until late 1968. In December 2 of 1937, the separate audiences at the Breeze were watching Thin Ice with Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power. Sons at Sea and  Handy Andy with Will Rogers were booked for the following week.

The Breeze had competition a decade later. On December 5, 1947 the Palm Theatre was showing Duel in the Sun, starring Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotten.  Folks were watching <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Deep Valley with Ida Lupino (The Yearling – another Gregory Peck film – was scheduled as the next attraction). Although the Palm Theatre was gone by December 5, 1957, two drive-in theaters had entered the local market. At the Greenlawn teenagers were making out beneath a screen filled with Victure Mature in Zarack – Mightiest of the Mighty, followed by The Wild Dakotas with Colleen Gray. Gene Kelly was dancing down The Happy Road over at the Royal Drive. Downtown, the Breeze was addressing contemporary social issues with Motorcycle Gang and Sorority Girl.

The Ritz, Palm,Breeze and the more recent Island Cinema have all closed their doors. Shopping center parking lots have displaced the Greenlawn and Royal Drive Ins. But the Beaufort Plaza Theater is still doing good business. The Highway 21 Drive In Theater just added a second screen.

Sometimes, a moviegoer needs more than a DVD.