In the old photo, and in the old drawing of the theater, the small cafe in the left of your computer monitor screen was owned/operated by my mom and dad from about 1949/50 until roughly 1962/63. It was called Bee Jee’s Malt Shop all that time (named after me). Mr. Wenzler was our landlord and family friend for all that time, and for the first few of those years the Oak’s ran second/third run general audience double features + cartoons + newsreels + live Keno on some weekends during some of those years. My mom and dad just ran the malt shop for bread-and-butter, but were both professional dance/drama/Music teachers and performers….as was I. For a couple of summers, we even put on a live stage show on Friday nights on the stage of the Oaks. Got to hand it to Mr. Wenzler, he tried everything possible to keep the place afloat, even running Mexican feature films for about a year, prior to going to the “art” genre'.
He was a great student of constitutional law, and fought hard for his theater.
He always dressed “To The Nines” with custom tailored suits, and great Hamburg hats. A man of great style, slightly stout, but with great posture and swag, and always the cigar….lit or not…..was with him everywhere he went. Kind of a dying breed that one saw in films of the 1940s-50s era. Loved him dearly, like an uncle, and his son Harold Jr. was a school buddy and personal friend of mine, and he lives now in Mesquite NV.
In the old photo, and in the old drawing of the theater, the small cafe in the left of your computer monitor screen was owned/operated by my mom and dad from about 1949/50 until roughly 1962/63. It was called Bee Jee’s Malt Shop all that time (named after me). Mr. Wenzler was our landlord and family friend for all that time, and for the first few of those years the Oak’s ran second/third run general audience double features + cartoons + newsreels + live Keno on some weekends during some of those years. My mom and dad just ran the malt shop for bread-and-butter, but were both professional dance/drama/Music teachers and performers….as was I. For a couple of summers, we even put on a live stage show on Friday nights on the stage of the Oaks. Got to hand it to Mr. Wenzler, he tried everything possible to keep the place afloat, even running Mexican feature films for about a year, prior to going to the “art” genre'.
He was a great student of constitutional law, and fought hard for his theater.
He always dressed “To The Nines” with custom tailored suits, and great Hamburg hats. A man of great style, slightly stout, but with great posture and swag, and always the cigar….lit or not…..was with him everywhere he went. Kind of a dying breed that one saw in films of the 1940s-50s era. Loved him dearly, like an uncle, and his son Harold Jr. was a school buddy and personal friend of mine, and he lives now in Mesquite NV.