Brownie Theatre
Cumberland Avenue,
Middlesboro,
KY
40965
Cumberland Avenue,
Middlesboro,
KY
40965
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The Brownie Theatre was in operation from at least the 1930’s. It was owned by Schine Theaters out of Gloversville, NY. The Brownie Theatre joined the other Schine theatre in town, the Manring Theatre, which got all the best movies.
The Brownie Theatre played many B movie westerns, serials and shorts, and continued to operate until at least 1950.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Mike Rogers
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Listed as closed in 1935 with 340 seats.
The September 23, 1950, issue of Boxoffice mentioned the Brownie Theatre. It said that Bob Dean had taken over management of the Manring and Brownie theater from Vic Wintle.
A March 22, 1941, item says “Phoenix Amusement Company, which has long been operating Schine’s Manring and Brownie theatres here under lease arrangements, has acquired the buildings housing the theatres from Charles Otto Brown.”
Phoenix was probably the local operating company set up by Schine.
My guess would be that C.O. Brown had named the Brownie Theatre after himself. The Middlesboro Cemetery has Brown, Charles Otto listed, 02/06/1889-10/21/1942. Assuming it’s the same Charles Otto Brown, given his age there’s no telling how long he was in the theater business at Middlesboro. The Brownie might have been a very old theater.
This is probably nothing to do with the Brownie, but at the far left in this photo of Middlesboro, which looks to be from the early 1960s, could that be a fragment of a theater marquee, or is it just a rather theatrical shop marquee?
The marquee referenced in your picture belongs to the Manring Theater. It is now gone as of the middle 70’s.
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