Eastwood Theatre

good grief, there’s a know it all in every crowd. Marty carr was the first owner to get approval for a 12:01 showing of star wars, abd I can assure you that it happened because I was there. He also had star wars T-shirts printed up, which his children wore when they were little as “playshirts”! I still have my Star Wars promotional book (the 20th century, long rectangular one) which they sold at the concession stand. Plus, I never said it was opening day.

torn down replace with a menards home center

The Eastwood Theatre opened Sept 11, 1968 with Prudence and the Pill" which was a short run picture till Funny Girl" opened in Oct and ran 9 months. For “Star Wars” we purchased the first Dolby unit in Indiana, I think it was a CP50, and we had an exclusive run in Indy for the first 12 weeks. We had 35-70 projectors (made in Italy), 4-track magnetic and 6-track magnetic sound, with 5 large Altec speakers behind the screen. For “Tommy” which was 35mm with 4-track stereo, we took two speakers from behind the screen and mounted them in the rear corners of the auditorium, then tied them to the surround speakers. It was pretty impressive. In the ads, just for fun, we called it “Eastaphonic Stereo”.

I stand corrected. The original contract was negotiated for 12 weeks exclusive but after the huge openings everywhere the pressure was on Fox to broaden the run, which they did. I originally agreed to put up $50,000 to Fox for the run; however, Fox bid the run in Louisville and they only got $40,000. They then came back and changed my deal to $40,000. The picture was a gamble because the deal was made more than six months prior to opening and all we really knew was it was being made in England, on a closed set, with no big name stars, directed by a fairly new guy named George Lucas. Fox wanted the Eastwood because of its 800 seats, projection, and reputation as a good theatre. There were other considerations, too. It wasn’t trade screened until just before the actual opening and … . I felt a whole lot better. It grossed about $50,000 a weekfor the first few weeks, which was capacity on most shows.

I worked at the Eastwood when Star Wars opened in May 1977. Just to add my memory to verify a few things brought up here already. There was an invitation only VIP screening 1 or 2 nights before the opening. I brought my family and a few friends. Seeing Star Wars before it’s official opening is a fact one of my guests (I was a high school senior at the time) still boasts about today. The first public screen was the standard 12:45 show on a Friday afternoon. When I showed up the typical 30 minutes early to start popping corn, there was already a line of 100 people waiting at the box office—something our concession stand wasn’t prepared for. That first weekend was an under-staffed madhouse. The concession would run out of ice every few hours, and I’d have to haul a huge cooler to the nearby Dairy Queen to bum a supply of ice to get us through the next wave of customers.

If memory serves correct, the midnight screenings began a few weeks later after it became obvious the huge crowds that were routinely turned away after the last show sold out could justify adding a 6th screening to the daily schedule. Considering Star Wars opened the last week in May, it’s likely Ronnie Clark saw his midnight show in June at the earliest. I believe the midnight screenings were only weekends, but I could be wrong about that.

I have zero memory of Marty Carr or Dave Battas; they must have been upper-management with C & W. As I lower-level employee, my only dealings were with the on-site manager, Ron Keedy, who later went on the run several repertory theatres in Indianapolis.