Movie theaters hold a special place in the American cultural landscape, and for good reason.
Enter a darkened cinema with popcorn in hand, and you are soon transported to a world of heroes and villains, comedy and drama, adventure and mystery.
The archives of the Bastrop Daily Enterprise tell many stories from the Princess, Rose and Swan theaters operated in Bastrop from the 1920s through the ‘50s. However, these were not the only picture shows in Morehouse Parish.
Felix Clack of Mer Rouge said he recalls a time when movies were projected on the side of a grocery store in the village.
T.J. Parker said he recalls traveling tent shows in Mer Rouge. Sometimes the tent show included exotic animals in addition to the motion picture.
According to local memory, there were at least two actual movie theaters in Mer Rouge before and during the 1950s.
William H. Parker said the theater he remembers was converted from the 1920s-era post office and was located just behind the current site of Mer Rouge State Bank. It was owned by a Mr. Gates, and Parker sold peanuts there.
“I purchased the peanuts from the J.A. Davenport store, and parched and bagged them at my brother’s apartment at the Mer Rouge Hotel,” said Parker. “I had a little table and chair sitting just outside the door of the theater. On a Saturday I would profit about three dollars, which was a good day’s work back then.”
Either this theater was purchased by Cecil Frost of Monroe in the early ‘50s, or Frost built a second theater in the same general location.
T.J. Parker said he recalls going to see movies a few times.
“I remember they showed Western stuff,” said Parker. “But maybe that’s all I was interested in.”
Don Costin said the theater closed before or in 1956. He and Bob Clark took the chairs to sell in Mayfield, Ky. where Dr. Clark of Mer Rouge auctioned his Shetland ponies.
“They were cushioned seats,” said Costin. “Although not like they have today, of course.”
George Sims said he grew up in Mer Rouge and recalls the old theater stills standing in the 1960s, but he does not think it was ever open again.
T.J. Parker said the theater finally burned down, sometime in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. He was returning from Baton Rouge when he happened on the scene of the fire.
An interesting side note: The old post office that was converted into a theater is slated for inclusion in the Mer Rouge Landscaping and Beautification Association’s third mural project. The mural by West Monroe artist Lissy Sanders will depict the great flood of 1927, and will draw from a photo of the post office all but submerged during that time.
Oak Ridge had its own picture show for a short time in the 1950s, mentioned in the book “Memories of Oak Ridge” compiled by the Caddoan Club in 1981.
Bowden Folse says in the book that E.B. Folse and M.T. Limerick put benches and a projector in a large room at the back of the store. Two shows played each week, sometimes with an animated short.
Folse recalls a “Mutt & Jeff” cartoon in which the characters were trying to cook a Thanksgiving meal. Just as Mutt was putting the turkey in the oven, the film in the projector caught fire, causing excitement in the audience.
Martha Ann Gilchrist of Oak Ridge said her father, Leland Loughridge, ran the picture show in Limerick’s store.
“He would order Western movies, Hopalong Cassidy and things like that,” said Gilchrist. “He just built benches and showed movies on Saturday afternoons. Admission was five or 10 cents.”
Sonny Baker of Oak Ridge said he sold popcorn at the show as a high school student.
“They showed mostly shoot-’em-ups,” he said.
Tent shows are also mentioned in “Memories of Oak Ridge.” Kate McIntosh says in the book these makeshift cinemas usually came in the Fall and were set up on the Episcopal church grounds.
Folse says the tent shows were well-attended, and some audience members got so involved in the films as to shout at the characters on the screen.
Bonita had a cinema by the early 1940s. The Enterprise reports Oct. 1, 1942 that fire had destroyed both the Bonita post office and the “picture show,” described only as a frame building. The Bastrop fire department arrived too late to save either building, although “[s]ome fixtures from the picture show building were saved.”
Oren Robertson opened the second theater in Bonita in 1946, in a mule barn owned by his father. Two years later he and his wife, Lois Robertson, built the Village Theatre on what is now a vacant lot next to Big A Auto Parts on Bonita Avenue.
Arthur Baggett of Bastrop said he was in high school when his family bought the Village Theatre around 1951. The theater was next door to Baggett’s Pharmacy.
“We had two soda fountains in the pharmacy,” said Baggett. “The people would come to Bonita early enough to get treats before they went in the theater.
“I could make anything you wanted out of ice cream, any kind of drink, any kind of sundae. My arm would be so tired and so cold from dipping that ice cream, I swore I never wanted to see any more ice cream.
“That was one of the main things that brought people into town on the weekends. People came down from Wilmot [Ark.], up from Bonne Idee and Mer Rouge to see movies.”
Baggett said the 35-mm film reels were delivered to the theater by truck and left inside the door. He opened the theater, popped the first batch of popcorn, and took the heavy reels upstairs to the projection booth where Henry Crosby operated two projection machines.
“You had to know how to thread [the film] and switch from one machine to the other,” said Baggett. “He was a good projectionist.”
Baggett’s other responsibilities included “splicing” the film together so previews, news and features showed in the right sequence. He also changed the movie posters outside and ran the evaporative cooling system for the theater, which drew a fine mist from a vat of water and fanned it into the audience.
“One thing I remember,” said Baggett. “I guess I got in a hurry and switched the reels.”
The movie started somewhere in the middle with the death of one of the characters.
“They shot him and killed him, and the next thing you know, he was going strong,” said Baggett. “My daddy didn’t think too much of that.”
The Baggetts sold the theater to Mrs. Gene Gee, who owned a grocery store in Bonita. Baggett went on to a career in pharmacy.
“It was just an attraction in a small town,” said Baggett. “It was a good thing for a small town like Bonita.”
