State Theater
320 South Salisbury Street,
Raleigh,
NC
27601
320 South Salisbury Street,
Raleigh,
NC
27601
1 person
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The State Theater dates back to 1925. In the 1940’s it was operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. through their subsidiary H.F. Kincey. It was still operating in 1950.
In 1954, it was remodeled by architect E.H. Geisler. The State Theatre then boasted a 46 feet wide CinemaScope screen. The State Theater was closed in 1975.
Contributed by
Patsy, Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
For some reason the previous link still works for me. The photo might be cached on my computer. Here is the page with a photo of this theater and other Raleigh theaters.
I was present when the State Theatre was torn down for the Wake County Jail in the summer of 1987 on Salisbury St. The theatre was in ruins. The building in front of the State Theatre facing Salisbury St. is called the Lawyers Building and it is still there.
The main entrance for the State Theatre was a foyer through the Lawyers Building. Surely someone in Raleigh remembers this and can reminisce on the long foyer you had to pass through to reach the State.
The State Theatre opened in 1925 with the last movie being shown in 1975. Martin Theatres operated the state Theastre for a while.
The State Theatre closed for a period in the early 1950s and underwent an intensive interior renovation that included new seats, carpets and stage curtains. They made a big deal out of the reopening (I was there) and soon after started a series of talent shows.
They had an extra wide seat in the back row that was installed for a rather “hefty” assistant coach at a local college who loved going to movies. Anybody sitting in that seat when he came in would be asked to move.
The State once had a Style 49 Robert Morton 2/3 organ.
The State Theatre in Downtown Raleigh had also a lot of exclusive enagement films that played here:
Sam Peckinpah’s classic 1969 violent western THE WILD BUNCH opened here as a roadshow enagement on July 1, 1969 and it played here for weeks.
The Wild Bunch actually played as a hard ticket showing or just as an exclusive engagement?
THE WILD BUNCH was one of the exclusive roadshow enagements that were in selected North Carolina cities among them Raleigh and Greensboro. It wouldn’t come to other cities in the state until late July or August of 1969 or even later on within the year when it was re-released.
definition of the term “roadshow"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow
Questions? E-Mail me at
I know the definition of a “Roadshow” or “Hard Ticket” engagement, but I find it hard to believe that “The Wild Bunch” would have played a reserved seat engagement for such a short period when no other theatre played it as a “RoadShow” engagement.
Boxoffice of October 23, 1954, had a few before-and-after photos of the front and lobby of the State Theatre, which had been remodeled that year. Plans for the remodeling were by E.H. Geissler. Geissler was later one of the co-developers of the Ultra-Vision projection system that was installed in a number of Wilby-Kincey theaters starting in 1969.