Way Back When Saturdays were spent at the local movie house, the afternoon matinees were for kids who earned the 25-cent admission by returning glass soda bottles to the grocery stores and filling …
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Way Back When Saturdays were spent at the local movie house, the afternoon matinees were for kids who earned the 25-cent admission by returning glass soda bottles to the grocery stores and filling stations.
The features were preceded by newsreels and much more importantly, a "Loony Tunes" cartoon! Later, many a Saturday night dating couple did a lot more than watch the film in the dark theater.
Several towns in Baldwin County had theaters in the 1930s-'60s, so I took a trip down a few folks' memory lanes. Barnhill in Loxley remembers well the Victory Theater in the 1950-'60s. He told of seeing Roy Rogers, Johnny Mack Brown, the Lone Ranger and also major blockbusters like "Quo Vadis" and "The Robe." Robertsdale Kiwanis Club held a Kids' Day each year. Barnhill always rode his horse in the parade and got a discount at the movie house for that afternoon.
The Rex Theater was opened in Bay Minette in 1932, and in the 1950s a drive-in was built. Both were still operating in the 1960s. Down the road in Foley, the movie house was a major attraction for the town. Judge Tim Russell described the theater where he saw the "The Ten Commandments" and where Roy Rogers and Trigger made in-person appearances. The owner walked from his home in Vernant Park all the way to town every day to operate the movie house. Russell said that one day, while they were watching the film, the theater was suddenly filled with smoke and evacuated. Come to find out, the tired owner had fallen asleep and missed changing the reel, causing it to melt.
At the height of World War II, Elberta was much larger than Foley and was the place most personnel at Barin Field went out for entertainment. The Lex Theater was built by J. A. Pilgrim who owned the Bretz Hotel next door. During its active years, Barin Field also had a cinema for the sailors stationed there.
The story of theaters in Fairhope was written by my friend Judy Culbreth for Mobile Bay Magazine. She interviewed people who knew the places first-hand, some now departed. When the building on Fairhope Avenue burned in 1910, lots of history went up in smoke but not the memories of us old-timers. It was first the Magnet Theater way back when silent movies were accompanied by a pianist or the Victrola record machine.
George Fuller III remembers when his father bought the place and operated the Fairhope Theater. He said his dad kept a close watch on sales, and if soda sales were slow, he told Fuller, who worked concessions, to add more salt to the popcorn. For a short time, an outdoor bayside theater, the Walk-In, was operated at the pier area with the screen facing The Bluff. Donnie Barrett said it operated in the summer and that when customers sat on the wooden benches, they were hot and bitten by mosquitoes.
Most of the oldest theaters were closed by the time Baldwin County became known for the movies filmed here, but they were viewed in the modern cinemas around the county, like the Eastern Shore Theater in Daphne operated by the Cummings family. When "Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood" was filmed, mostly at Byrne's Lake on Highway 225 and Bay Minette, Jason could often be seen locally — without the mask. Then, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" put the county on the movie map. The farmhouse used in the film is still standing on Highway 181. When I looked out the kitchen window, I felt like I was going to have a close encounter myself. "Frankenfish," "Oculus," "Before I Wake" and "Spring Breakthrough" are among others filmed locally.
You probably know someone who was an extra in one of these. When I drove down to take a look at "Crystal Lake," where Jason was chained to the bottom in "Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives," I talked to a fisherman who told me that every time he looks out over the water, he sees the emerging Jason, who was freed from his chains in "The New Blood." I think I saw him, too.
One of the most recent locally filmed movies was produced by our local claim to cinema fame, Scott Lumpkin. "The Life of Chuck," a Stephen King work, was filmed in several locations, including the old Bay Minette Elementary School.
I first met Lumpkin when he was a teenager, one of those "punk" skateboarders, enjoying every day of his life, trying avenues his genius mind explored. He and our son, Joe Stringer, struck up a friendship at Fairhope High School that has endured more than 30 years. My son remembers a teenage Lumpkin as a true friend, a genuine and sincere guy. He admired his deep thinking and sense of humor.
"He was very creative, and his mind was always working. No surprise that he ended up in film. Even in the late '80s, he had a camcorder that he took everywhere. As a pastor now, I hope some of those old videos are lost for good," he told me.
Most of Lumpkin's work will never be lost, however. He has impressive credits to his name and travels extensively but occasionally makes time to skateboard through the streets of Fairhope at midnight with his kids. I can vouch that the officers on duty just look the other way or even wave to their hometown boy made good.
See ya at the movies!
