Comments about Gila Theatre in Silver City, NM

MichaelKilgore on September 8, 2022 at 9:24 am

While researching the Sky-Vue Drive-In, I happened upon the Gila’s transition to Dollison.

Boxoffice, August 24, 1967: “Lowell Cain, Silco Theatres, Silver City, N.M., was re-elected for another term as mayor of Silver City.”

Boxoffice, April 15, 1968: “About 80 high school and college students picketed the Gila Theatre in downtown Silver City after it was announced that the hardtop film house was closing down. Silver City theatreman Lowell Cain, who manages the house as well as serves as mayor of this city of 6,900 persons … said that henceforth all first-run pictures normally run at the Gila will be shown at the Skyview (sic) Drive-In, which Cain also manages.”

Boxoffice, May 13, 1968: “Lester Dollison will reopen the Gila Theatre in Silver City, N.M. The house had been operated by Lowell Cain who closed it about a month ago. The reopening will be set after the installation of new seating and projection equipment. Dollison also operates the Starlighter Drive-In in Silver City, in addition to theaters in Espanola, Santa Rosa and Socorro, N.M.”

MichaelKilgore on December 5, 2019 at 10:25 am

The Feb. 4, 1950 Boxoffice wrote that several visitors from Denver attended “the opening of the Gila, Ed Ward’s new theatre in Silver City, N. M.”