Thanks @dallasmovietheaters for this info. Can you help me get any more information about Bessie Walker? I plan to visit Abbeville soon and would like to know more.
Birmingham, Ala., also had an Ellwest Stereo Theater. The venue was raided in July 1973, with detectives from the Birmingham Vice Squad removing either 17 projectors or 17 films — different news articles list different stats on that.
@elmorovivo Thank you so much for posting these pictures. I am trying to verify, but I believe this photo may be of the Frolic in Birmingham instead of Bessemer. Note how the marquee is different than in the other picture. Plus, I believe the theatre visible at right is the Famous Theatre in Birmingham. I will keep looking and let you know!
As @tntim says, this is not the Alabama. This is a Graven & Mayger theatre. The photo comes from the Graven & Mayger archives and has been mislabeled as a photo of the Alabama. We have seen it in a few different places and always try to catch the error.
One bit of additional information: The manager in 1949 was Charles B. Jones. This comes from Eric Ledell Smith’s book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Directory, 1900-1955.”
I haven’t verified this yet but I suspect this drive-in may have been owned by my family. They owned the Guin Drive-In, the Pastime, the Quintown & a few others in small towns west of Birmingham. At one time, the holding company was called Thornton-Horn Theatres and the logo showed TH. The mystery here is that C… Stay tuned!
Thanks @dallasmovietheaters for this info. Can you help me get any more information about Bessie Walker? I plan to visit Abbeville soon and would like to know more.
Birmingham, Ala., also had an Ellwest Stereo Theater. The venue was raided in July 1973, with detectives from the Birmingham Vice Squad removing either 17 projectors or 17 films — different news articles list different stats on that.
@elmorovivo Thank you so much for posting these pictures. I am trying to verify, but I believe this photo may be of the Frolic in Birmingham instead of Bessemer. Note how the marquee is different than in the other picture. Plus, I believe the theatre visible at right is the Famous Theatre in Birmingham. I will keep looking and let you know!
As @tntim says, this is not the Alabama. This is a Graven & Mayger theatre. The photo comes from the Graven & Mayger archives and has been mislabeled as a photo of the Alabama. We have seen it in a few different places and always try to catch the error.
One bit of additional information: The manager in 1949 was Charles B. Jones. This comes from Eric Ledell Smith’s book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Directory, 1900-1955.”
I haven’t verified this yet but I suspect this drive-in may have been owned by my family. They owned the Guin Drive-In, the Pastime, the Quintown & a few others in small towns west of Birmingham. At one time, the holding company was called Thornton-Horn Theatres and the logo showed TH. The mystery here is that C… Stay tuned!