BELMONT THEATER and JOHNNY CASH
This is on my mind because of the Johnny Cash Festival coming up in October here in Starkville.
When I was in the 7th grade (and I'm 64 now), Daddy bought the theater, and we kept it until I was a senior, with all the family working in it Mon.-Fri. nights and Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights. We even had what we called an Owl Show, which began at 10:30 on Saturday night. This sorta blows my mind now when I think about the fact that Mama taught, Daddy worked at the Texaco business all day, then we worked at night.
When we first bought it, there was a movie being shown on Sunday, but Daddy stopped that. For doing that, he received a "commendation" from the pastors in Tishomingo County. Neat, huh?
I remember the day that Daddy came to the school to talk to Mama, telling her that the theater was for sale and nobody was interested in buying it. He wanted to buy it because if we didn't have it in Belmont, the kids would have nowhere to go. She agreed, and then..........
Daddy supervised and took up tickets (and knew how to do everything, even to running the projectors), Mama sold tickets, (which were only 15 cents for children and 25 cents for adults. Can you believe that??), and my sister and I worked the concession stand--one of us sold popcorn, the other drinks and candy. I even "invented" a drink called the Elvis by mixing Coke, orange, and grape; and a lot of people would come and ask for an Elvis! Bud Pardue was the main one I remember buying those. I did my homework while sitting on the popcorn can after the movie started.
I'll probably forget someone in this list; but those who worked the projectors were Jerry Bostick, J.P. Fulton, Daddy, and I think Dean Deaton may have every once in a while. Dean and Linda Tiffin worked the concessions for us, too--then Kathy and I got old enough to make change and measure oil for the popcorn and fish big dill pickles out of the jar! You may or may not remember that Daddy quit selling pickles when someone threw one through the screen.
But, hey, I digress--I was going to tell you a Johnny Cash story. This theater had a stage in front of the screen; and sometimes on Saturday afternoons, local people would "play and sing" at the theater, especially Shorty Ginn. This was in the days of Elvis's and Johnny Cash's beginnings. Johnny was friends with Shorty, by the way; and Doris tells me that one of her daddy's posters for his band is in the Johnny Cash Museum. (Just a little side note there!) Johnny called my Daddy one day and asked him if he could come and play at the theater. Daddy told him he could IF he sent him all the publicity posters, etc. Well, we never heard from Johnny, so we assumed he wasn't coming.
One night we were visiting a sick friend (Mr. Yarber, Marilyn's granddaddy), and someone called Daddy and told him that Johnny Cash was at the theater ready to play! Panic city! He had never called or sent any info! There was a basketball tournament going on at the gym, and one of the teams didn't show; so Daddy went to the gym and had someone announce that Johnny Cash was at the theater. Would you believe, we wound up with a big crowd to see ol' Johnny!
Other theater memories are:
- Going over to the drugstore when it was where Lawyer Lloyd's office is now, getting little Pam Dickinson and taking her over to the theater to get a bag of popcorn.
- Jala Russell handing us a nickel for a drink, we told her a large drink cost a dime, and she said, "It'll be all right." And walked off with her drink!
- A group paying for tickets, then going down to the exit door and letting friends in. My Daddy was MAD!!
- A certain man who can't possibly be with us any longer spitting his tobacco on the theater floor. That didn't make Daddy too happy, either.
- Going around the corner to Miss Effie's Cafe and taking her daddy a bag of popcorn, then she would give me a hamburger. And there hasn't been a burger made as good since.
- Having Dr. Senter's office next door, just across the little alley, cutting my finger while boring a hole in a piece of wood with my knife, and having Dr. Jack stitch it for me. I think it was actually a piece of bark, and I was going to put a chain through the hole and make a necklace. I was using a pocket knife, and it closed on my finger. Blood everywhere--five stitches.
- Waving Bud Pardue down to take us riding, especially on Saturday nights after the first movie started, and before the Owl Show.
- Remember the speaker that stuck out the projection room window, and we played 78 records before the movies started? "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is one of the ones I remember well!
- Anyone remember sitting in the balcony? I will NOT tell any balcony stories! Whew, Lordy!
- Sitting down at the plant (what we called Daddy's office), counting out those colored calendars that showed which movies were on for the week.
- Almost memorizing "The Ten Commandments" because for a really popular movie such as that we had to show it seven straight days. (Remember the deep voice of God saying, "I am that I am"?)
- Convincing Bro. Stokes, our pastor, to come and see the above movie; and at the moment he showed up, Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils was going on!
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From Kathy (my sister):
"If memory serves me correctly (which it probably doesn’t) I believe when Daddy first bought it, I took up tickets and he did the drinks. If Mama had to be out you made me sell tickets and I couldn’t even make change well!! Jake would let me stay up there with him. I liked it when the film would break and he would have to splice the film, put glue on it and clamp it down in that thing to make it stick together. That thing (I don’t know what it was called) would probably be worth a lot of money now if we still had it!"
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From Jerry Bostick:
Better end this before I start crying!
Jenny Mann Reed
P.S. Elvis died never knowing what he missed by not ever calling and asking to play at the Belmont Theater! But wait.......I forgot......the King is not dead, is he??!! He could still call!