The owners of this theatre also own theatres in Kinston (Premiere Theatres 7) and Rocky Mount (Premiere Theatres 14). They have been successful in ridding Goldsboro, Kinston and Rocky Mount of ancient Carmike theatres and giving these towns a first-class movie experience.
I remember Stewart & Everett used to run at least two other “42nd Street”-style grindhouses in Eastern North Carolina besides the Drake. The Paramount in Kinston ran grindhouse films (but no X-rated films)from at least 1974 until its closing in 1975 or 1976, charging 99 cents adult admission. About the same time, the Tryon Theatre in New Bern also ran grindhouse films, but they also showed XXX adult films. By 1977 the Tryon was strictly porn and remained so until it closed in 1979. What I find to be unusual about the Drake (for Eastern North Carolina anyway) is that it ran porn films in close proximity to another pornhouse (Wilson Theatre).
This theatre was a “Rocking Chair Theatre” when it first opened, and still had rocking chairs under Carmike. I haven’t been to the Neuse Cinema since the present owners took over, so I’m not sure if they still have rockers in the auditoriums.
The very last movie to play at the Pitt was “The Amityville Horror”. The theatre caught fire during the end credits of the film on the second evening show.I believe the date of the fire was August 13, 1979.
I was wrong about the “R” on the marquee; it is now an “F”. Also, I remember that back in 1972 or 1973 the movie “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (“Rated X by an All-White Jury”) played the Roxy, or at least was listed on the marquee. It was the first time I remember seeing the word “ass” (in this case an alternate spelling thereof) on a theatre marquee. I was shocked, but then again I was only four or five years old at the time!
The Roxy may be considered outside of downtown, since Albemarle Avenue was considered the"wrong side of the tracks" back when the Roxy showed movies. Also, Google screwed up on the location of the 264 Playhouse (I fixed that theatre’s Google picture), and several other theatres. The book “The Architectural Heritage of Greenville, North Carolina” lists on page 122 the “Roxy Theatre, 629 Albemarle Avenue”. Maybe this information is wrong.
The Roxy Theatre is located at 629 Albemarle Avenue in downtown Greenville. The building still stands and is remarkably intact. The “ROXY” letters have been removed from the marquee and the “R” on the marquee front has been altered to a “P”. It has been used most recently as a church.
I have corrected the Google picture to show the correct location of the former 264 Playhouse Theatre. The theatre building is in the center of the picture (the building which is furthest from the highway). The address listed by Google is 5427 US 264 Alternate West (also known as US 13 South), which is between Bell Arthur Road and Nash-Joyner Road.
I remember seeing an ad for a “Carmike Ultravision” four-screen theatre in the Charleston newspaper in the early 1990s. Could this be the same theatre?
This theatre was actually located in the Carolina East Center next to Carolina East Mall, not in the mall itself. The Mall was demolished a couple of years ago, but the theatre still stands,including the Carmike Cinemas sign on the marquee.
Was the Broadway Drive-Inn the same theatre as the North 11 Drive-In? That is the only drive-in I know of on Highway 11 that has any remnants still standing (in North 11’s case the marquee is all that remains). The North 11 played XXX movies until around 1980. The other drive-in I know of being on Highway 11 North was the Bright Leaf,closer to town near the Highland Avenue intersection and run by Stewart & Everett. Bright Leaf was demolished about 1975.
Stewart & Everett Theatres closed this theatre when they opened the Havelock Cinema 4 (later expanded to 6 screens)on McCotter Boulevard at US 70 around 1985. The Cherry Theatre, which was twinned in the early 1980s, burned down in the mid-1990s.
This theatre was definitely built by Stewart & Everett, as it appears to be identical to a 4-screen theatre S&E built in Havelock about the same time as this one (the Havelock Cinema 4 was expanded to 6 screens by Carmike in 1987). To the best of my knowledge, the Cinema 4 in Aberdeen and the Havelock Cinema 4/6 were the last theatres built by Stewart & Everett Theatres.
This theatre was originally operated by Cineplex Odeon, who also owned the Cardinal 3 theatres at Crossroads Plaza (formerly Kmart Plaza) located at the intersection of US 301 and Sunset Avenue. The Golden East 4/Cinema Grill is now a Books-a-Million bookstore.
Carmike Cinemas did not exist until 1982, when they bought Martin Theatres; they used the Martin name until 1985. Was the Louisburg Theatre sold to Martin in 1980 or to Carmike at a later date?
Nealb1992 is correct about the closing date of the Colonial. It was replaced by the Parkhill Cinema 3 located at Parkhill Mall (now Riverside Plaza) in 1982. Progress is slowly but surely being made on the restoration of the Colonial Theatre. It now looks better than it did when it was a storefront church.
Carmike Cinemas took over this theatre in 1990 when they bought most of Cineplex Odeon’s North Carolina theatres. They were the last chain to operate this theatre.
After this theatre closed it became a gentlemen’s club known as Silver Bullet, later Silver Bullet Dolls. About three years ago it became a music venue (I forgot the name of this incarnation) after Pitt County essentially banned strip clubs.
The map shows the wrong address for the 264 Playhouse theatre. This theatre was actually on the west side of Greenville, on OLD Highway 264 West (now US 13 South) between Greenville and Farmville, about 2 miles west of Frog Level. This was the only theatre in Pitt County to show X-rated films. It closed in 1986 when the Reagan Administration began cracking down on pornography. I turned 18 right after this theatre closed, thus denying me the chance to see adult films in a theatre.
This theatre was built in the early 1970’s as the Southgate Cinema 1 & 2, possibly Eastern North Carolina’s first twin indoor cinema. The owner was Gordon Parrott of the Gordon’s Foodland supermarket chain. One of the Foodlands was next door to the Southgate Cinema (last time I was in New Bern it was a Piggly Wiggly), and Mr. Parrott also owned the Midway Drive-In on Old Cherry Point Road near another one of his Foodland stores. The Southgate was expanded to six screens about 1988-1989. I lived in New Bern from 1990 to 1995 and the Southgate was the larger of New Bern’s two cinemas (the Neuse Boulevard Cinema, then operated by Carmike Cinemas, had only three screens). I spent many hours watching movies at both theatres when I lived there. The Southgate was one of only two theatres in eastern North Carolina to show the NC-17 rated film “Showgirls” (the other was the UA Litchfield 4 in Goldsboro). I am surprised to learn that this theatre has been closed and reopened, as it was the best cinema in town.
I was working for TJMaxx back in 1996 when they asked me to help with the remodeling of their store in Cross Pointe Center (my home store was Greenville, NC). The first week I went to Fayetteville was the same week that the Carmike 12 at Westwood had its grand opening. The night before they officially opened the 12-plex, Carmike had a 10-cent preview night featuring second-run films. (I had to work graveyard shift at TJ’s so I couldn’t go to the dime shows.) Two years later, Carmike repeated the idea when they opened their 12-plex quasi-stadium cinema in Greenville, NC (same name), except in Greenville Carmike charged a dollar for the preview night. The Fayetteville Carmike 12 was on the back side of Westwood Shopping Center, facing the All-American Freeway. I have corrected the Google photo so that the Carmike 12 is visible.
This theatre opened in 1977 as the Buccaneer Movies 1 & 2, a twin theatre with a lobby divided by the concession stand. A third auditorium was added a year later in order to compete with the newly expanded Plaza Cinema (which went from twin to triple shortly after the Buccaneer opened). Carmike bought the Buccaneer in 1989and slowly ran it into the ground. In 1998 the Buccaneer became the dollar theatre in Greenville after the downtown Park Theatre was closed. The Buccaneer closed around 2000 due to Carmike’s bankruptcy,along with all other Carmike “dollar grindhouses” east of Raleigh.
The owners of this theatre also own theatres in Kinston (Premiere Theatres 7) and Rocky Mount (Premiere Theatres 14). They have been successful in ridding Goldsboro, Kinston and Rocky Mount of ancient Carmike theatres and giving these towns a first-class movie experience.
I remember Stewart & Everett used to run at least two other “42nd Street”-style grindhouses in Eastern North Carolina besides the Drake. The Paramount in Kinston ran grindhouse films (but no X-rated films)from at least 1974 until its closing in 1975 or 1976, charging 99 cents adult admission. About the same time, the Tryon Theatre in New Bern also ran grindhouse films, but they also showed XXX adult films. By 1977 the Tryon was strictly porn and remained so until it closed in 1979. What I find to be unusual about the Drake (for Eastern North Carolina anyway) is that it ran porn films in close proximity to another pornhouse (Wilson Theatre).
This theatre was a “Rocking Chair Theatre” when it first opened, and still had rocking chairs under Carmike. I haven’t been to the Neuse Cinema since the present owners took over, so I’m not sure if they still have rockers in the auditoriums.
The very last movie to play at the Pitt was “The Amityville Horror”. The theatre caught fire during the end credits of the film on the second evening show.I believe the date of the fire was August 13, 1979.
The red bricks attached to the Hooker & Buchanan Insurance building to the right of the parking lot were part of the Pitt Theatre.
The Falls Twin was never a Cineplex Odeon. Martin Theatres owned this theatre before Carmike bought the entire Martin chain in 1982.
I was wrong about the “R” on the marquee; it is now an “F”. Also, I remember that back in 1972 or 1973 the movie “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (“Rated X by an All-White Jury”) played the Roxy, or at least was listed on the marquee. It was the first time I remember seeing the word “ass” (in this case an alternate spelling thereof) on a theatre marquee. I was shocked, but then again I was only four or five years old at the time!
The Roxy may be considered outside of downtown, since Albemarle Avenue was considered the"wrong side of the tracks" back when the Roxy showed movies. Also, Google screwed up on the location of the 264 Playhouse (I fixed that theatre’s Google picture), and several other theatres. The book “The Architectural Heritage of Greenville, North Carolina” lists on page 122 the “Roxy Theatre, 629 Albemarle Avenue”. Maybe this information is wrong.
The Roxy Theatre is located at 629 Albemarle Avenue in downtown Greenville. The building still stands and is remarkably intact. The “ROXY” letters have been removed from the marquee and the “R” on the marquee front has been altered to a “P”. It has been used most recently as a church.
This theatre, formerly located on Albemarle Avenue(on the opposite side of the street from the Roxy Theatre), was demolished over forty years ago.
I have corrected the Google picture to show the correct location of the former 264 Playhouse Theatre. The theatre building is in the center of the picture (the building which is furthest from the highway). The address listed by Google is 5427 US 264 Alternate West (also known as US 13 South), which is between Bell Arthur Road and Nash-Joyner Road.
I remember seeing an ad for a “Carmike Ultravision” four-screen theatre in the Charleston newspaper in the early 1990s. Could this be the same theatre?
This theatre was actually located in the Carolina East Center next to Carolina East Mall, not in the mall itself. The Mall was demolished a couple of years ago, but the theatre still stands,including the Carmike Cinemas sign on the marquee.
Was the Broadway Drive-Inn the same theatre as the North 11 Drive-In? That is the only drive-in I know of on Highway 11 that has any remnants still standing (in North 11’s case the marquee is all that remains). The North 11 played XXX movies until around 1980. The other drive-in I know of being on Highway 11 North was the Bright Leaf,closer to town near the Highland Avenue intersection and run by Stewart & Everett. Bright Leaf was demolished about 1975.
Stewart & Everett Theatres closed this theatre when they opened the Havelock Cinema 4 (later expanded to 6 screens)on McCotter Boulevard at US 70 around 1985. The Cherry Theatre, which was twinned in the early 1980s, burned down in the mid-1990s.
This theatre was definitely built by Stewart & Everett, as it appears to be identical to a 4-screen theatre S&E built in Havelock about the same time as this one (the Havelock Cinema 4 was expanded to 6 screens by Carmike in 1987). To the best of my knowledge, the Cinema 4 in Aberdeen and the Havelock Cinema 4/6 were the last theatres built by Stewart & Everett Theatres.
This theatre was originally operated by Cineplex Odeon, who also owned the Cardinal 3 theatres at Crossroads Plaza (formerly Kmart Plaza) located at the intersection of US 301 and Sunset Avenue. The Golden East 4/Cinema Grill is now a Books-a-Million bookstore.
Carmike Cinemas did not exist until 1982, when they bought Martin Theatres; they used the Martin name until 1985. Was the Louisburg Theatre sold to Martin in 1980 or to Carmike at a later date?
Nealb1992 is correct about the closing date of the Colonial. It was replaced by the Parkhill Cinema 3 located at Parkhill Mall (now Riverside Plaza) in 1982. Progress is slowly but surely being made on the restoration of the Colonial Theatre. It now looks better than it did when it was a storefront church.
Carmike Cinemas took over this theatre in 1990 when they bought most of Cineplex Odeon’s North Carolina theatres. They were the last chain to operate this theatre.
After this theatre closed it became a gentlemen’s club known as Silver Bullet, later Silver Bullet Dolls. About three years ago it became a music venue (I forgot the name of this incarnation) after Pitt County essentially banned strip clubs.
The map shows the wrong address for the 264 Playhouse theatre. This theatre was actually on the west side of Greenville, on OLD Highway 264 West (now US 13 South) between Greenville and Farmville, about 2 miles west of Frog Level. This was the only theatre in Pitt County to show X-rated films. It closed in 1986 when the Reagan Administration began cracking down on pornography. I turned 18 right after this theatre closed, thus denying me the chance to see adult films in a theatre.
This theatre was built in the early 1970’s as the Southgate Cinema 1 & 2, possibly Eastern North Carolina’s first twin indoor cinema. The owner was Gordon Parrott of the Gordon’s Foodland supermarket chain. One of the Foodlands was next door to the Southgate Cinema (last time I was in New Bern it was a Piggly Wiggly), and Mr. Parrott also owned the Midway Drive-In on Old Cherry Point Road near another one of his Foodland stores. The Southgate was expanded to six screens about 1988-1989. I lived in New Bern from 1990 to 1995 and the Southgate was the larger of New Bern’s two cinemas (the Neuse Boulevard Cinema, then operated by Carmike Cinemas, had only three screens). I spent many hours watching movies at both theatres when I lived there. The Southgate was one of only two theatres in eastern North Carolina to show the NC-17 rated film “Showgirls” (the other was the UA Litchfield 4 in Goldsboro). I am surprised to learn that this theatre has been closed and reopened, as it was the best cinema in town.
I was working for TJMaxx back in 1996 when they asked me to help with the remodeling of their store in Cross Pointe Center (my home store was Greenville, NC). The first week I went to Fayetteville was the same week that the Carmike 12 at Westwood had its grand opening. The night before they officially opened the 12-plex, Carmike had a 10-cent preview night featuring second-run films. (I had to work graveyard shift at TJ’s so I couldn’t go to the dime shows.) Two years later, Carmike repeated the idea when they opened their 12-plex quasi-stadium cinema in Greenville, NC (same name), except in Greenville Carmike charged a dollar for the preview night. The Fayetteville Carmike 12 was on the back side of Westwood Shopping Center, facing the All-American Freeway. I have corrected the Google photo so that the Carmike 12 is visible.
This theatre opened in 1977 as the Buccaneer Movies 1 & 2, a twin theatre with a lobby divided by the concession stand. A third auditorium was added a year later in order to compete with the newly expanded Plaza Cinema (which went from twin to triple shortly after the Buccaneer opened). Carmike bought the Buccaneer in 1989and slowly ran it into the ground. In 1998 the Buccaneer became the dollar theatre in Greenville after the downtown Park Theatre was closed. The Buccaneer closed around 2000 due to Carmike’s bankruptcy,along with all other Carmike “dollar grindhouses” east of Raleigh.