Jo Ann Barton, "Footprints: The end of an era," Garrison in the News, July 22, 2010:
The State Theatre was in Garrison for many years, and we went there as long as it lasted. The first time I saw Gone With the Wind, (my favorite movie to this day) it was at the State Theatre. It was released in 1939, but it didn't make its way to Garrison until I was in high school. Bob didn't like it because we lost the war, but to me nothing compared to the love story in the movie. I thought Vivian Leigh who place Scarlotte O'Hara was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I could never understand what she saw in that dippy Ashley Wilkes instead of the handsome Clark Gable . . . .
. . . .
By the time the State Theatre had closed which was like a funeral in our town, the Main Theatre [in Nacogdoches] was at its peak. . . .
. . . .
["The Last Picture Show"] was the story of a bleak and sleepy 50s Texas town, two high school seniors star on a losing football team. . . . The movie house closed and [the boys] were forced to reexamine what lies ahead for them. All they could figure out was it signaled the end of an era.
That movie was "too close to home" and ended our movie-going days.
Unca D's memories:
Way before I started school, Uncle Raymond would take me to matinees at the State. (He also taught me how to drink a fountain soda through a straw.) I didn't get that the action on the screen wasn't real. When Superman flew up and disappeared through the top of the screen, I searched the ceiling to see where he had gone. It must have been somewhere above the ceiling.
I had the same problem with radio. Where was the guy who was speaking? How did he get in there? When one guy stopped speaking and another guy started speaking, what happened to the first guy?
And I never could figure out the news with Edward or Murrow. Which one was it? Always sounded like the same guy to me.
"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." (Jack Benny)
Posted by: madmilker | September 11, 2010 at 02:54 PM