Tilghman Nickelodeon

West Oklahoma Avenue,
Guthrie, OK 73044

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Around 1905 Bill Tilghman opened his first nickelodeon in Guthrie, OK. An Oklahoma lawman who had become a legend in his own time (Tilghman was far better looking and lived a more adventurous life than any celluloid cowboy) found that as a showman it was difficult to book quality motion pictures. He soon decided to form Eagle Film Company and began producing and directing realistic western movies at the vast Bison 101 Studios in nearby Ponca City.

Tilghman continued to produce and direct sucessful movies, and opened several other nickelodeons in both Oklahoma and Kansas, but his first love remained ranching. By the time the Roaring 20’s had rolled around Tilghman’s theatre chain and production unit had been sold to Oklahoma City based Lowenstien Theatres.

Contributed by Okie Medley

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

raybradley
raybradley on March 14, 2007 at 3:27 pm

After reading this post I researched William “Bill” Tilghman. What an extraordinary live. More exciting than any movie ever made.
I had no idea that during the teen years Ponca City had an extensive motion picture studio where Tom Mix and Lon Chaney made their movie debuts.
Sadly, in 1924 Bill Tilghman was gunned down. Here is one bio of many found on the net,
http://imdb.com/name/nm0863237/bio

missmelbatoast
missmelbatoast on April 3, 2011 at 11:22 am

A picture of this nickelodeon can be seen by entering “TILGHMAN OPENING HIS MOTION PICTURE"
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