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tom1956
tom1956 commented about Commonwealth Amusement Company/Corporation on Jun 12, 2015 at 1:11 pm

Hello Everyone. I’m Tom Gunn and my father George Gunn worked for Commonwealth. The earliest info I have on him (before 1956 when I was born) he started with CAC in 1951 and was in Great Bend Ks. at the Strand theater until late 1952 when they moved him to Ellinwood Ks. The theater there was sold and in 1954 and he was moved back to Great Bend to run the Plaza theater. He stayed with CAC until the end of 1954. From 1955 thru 1958 my father was a policeman in Great Bend. He rejoined CAC in 1959 and we were moved to Sedalia Mo (I believe the theater n there was the Starzz but not 100% sure) until mid 1960. We then moved to Washington Mo.( I believe the theater was the Sunset) but was there only about 6 months before CAC moved us to the Woodland theater in Waynesville Mo. in 1961. This was a great place to live as our house was on top of the snack bar. A very small 2 bedroom house that we could open the front door and sit on the couch and watch the movies. Yes we had a speaker wired in the house. In the summer of 1963 we were moved to Monett Mo. where he managed both Ozark drive-in theater and the Gillioz indoor theater. In the summer of 1965 we moved to Springfield Mo. where he managed the Sunset, Hi-M and the Springfield drive in. I believe that Bert English was the district manager at that time and was also in Springfield. In the summer of 1967 we were then moved to Hickman Mills Mo.(suburb of Kansas City) to the Crest drive in and the Ruskin indoor theater. In late 1968 we moved to Casper Wy. to the Mile-high drive-in and were there into 1969. My father had a heart attack while we were in Casper and Commonwealth at that time let my father go saying he could no longer do his job. Until this time we felt CAC was a very good company but when this happened it showed how little the company stood by it’s employees. We then move to Broomfield Co. where my father started working for another theater company managing the Nor-West drive-in in Broomfield. This was the last theater my father managed. We moved backed to Missouri and then Texas where dad past away in 1988. It would be nice to here from anyone who knew my father or any of us as we were always at the drive-ins. My brothers are Doug and Michael Gunn and sisters Sharon and Della Gunn. Any info or any pictures would be great as I am collecting pictures of the drive-ins that my father managed. I don’t check this blog to often so a fasted way of getting in touch with me would be