Thompson Theatre
237 Commerce Street,
Hawkinsville,
GA
31036
237 Commerce Street,
Hawkinsville,
GA
31036
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The Thompson Theatre, located on Commerce Street, may have originally been called the Princess Theatre, which is listed in the 1945 Film Daily Yearbook as open and seating 388 (and at the time, the only theater in Hawkinsville).
Any further information on this theater would be appreciated.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook has the Princess Theatre, Commerce Street (525 seats) and the Thompson Theatre, no address or seating capacity which usually means it’s a new theatre and full details haven’t been forwarded on to F.D.Y. editors.
The Film Daily Yearbook of 1957 only lists the Princess. Same with the 1942 edition. Next step would be the check the local newspaper files, microfilm in the library, hopefully. Or the telephone directory for those years, again hopefully in the local library.
I found this information on the Hawkinsville Old Opera House, which briefly mentions the opera house “even acting as a movie theater in the early 1950s when the Thompson Theatre burned”. Apparently the Thompson was rebuilt because I found a painting of it on pg. 30 of Davis Cone’s book “Popcorn Palaces”, which features his hyper-realist paintings of art deco/art moderne movie houses. The painting of the Thompson, with its faded but still awesome-looking Moderne vertical sign and marquee, is dated 1980, and appears to have still been open at the time because the poster case features a couple of different B-grade movies and there are handwritten prices for the tickets in the box office window.
Maybe the fire was around 1950, and it was rebuilt around the same time, thus the reason for the differences in seating. The Film Daily’s probably just keep listing it with it’s old name.
My father worked for many years as the builder, architect, remodeler for Mr. Tommy Thompson. Hawkinsville was Thompson’s home, and the home office of Thompson Theaters. The office was located on the second floor next to the only theater in Hawkinsville. Thompson was originally Martin-Thompson Theaters before they split as partners. Many of the old downtown theaters in small town Georgia belonged to one or the other of this chain. At the height of his career, he owned almost 200 theaters in Georgia and North Florida. Many of the old drive-in movies also belonged to this chain. I can remember watching my fathers' crew build and scale those tall screens and the exciement of a new opening. I never paid to see a movie growing up, needless to say, I was a “cheap date.”
This website claims that, “A small printing museum was set up in 1995 by Chuck Southerland after the company acquired the old Thompson Theater building and tripled their square footage”.
1980 photo of the Thompson Theatre.
View link
1986 Photo
Here is another 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/r59qst