Sunrise Theater
250 NW Broad Street,
Southern Pines,
NC
28387
250 NW Broad Street,
Southern Pines,
NC
28387
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Sunrise Theater (Official)
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Stewart and Everett
Functions: Movies (Independent), Performing Arts
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The historic Sunrise Theater is situated on Broad Street in Southern Pines, NC. Having already served the community in various capacities, the theater now functions as a cultural center for the community, featuring concerts, plays, movies, and other events. The building, built in 1898, began as a S.S. Thomas Hardware store. On September 23, 1941, with a screening of Joel McCrea in “Reaching for the Sun”, the building became a movie theater which remained a staple of downtown Southern Pines for over 40 years. On December 3, 1944 it was taken over by the Stewart & Everett Theatres chain.
When the movie house closed its doors permanently in the early-1980’s, the Arts Council of Moore County (ACMC) and the Sandhills Little Theater rallied enough community support to restore the building and give it a third life as the Performing Arts Center, owned and operated by ACMC.
In 1998, ACMC transferred the theater’s operation to the Sunrise Preservation Group (SPG), citizens concerned with keeping the theater alive for the community.
The theater shows nightly features, primarily dedicated to recently-released independent films.
Contributed by
Neil Morris
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Here is another view of the Sunrise:
http://tinyurl.com/62bc69
Try this one:
http://tinyurl.com/6yf2z4
Here is a 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yzv7u3h
A newspaper article appeared in “The Sandhill Citizen” (Aberdeen, NC) on Wednesday, July 23, 1980 (page 3). Headline: Bob Dutton, Theater Man of the Sandhills. Per the article, Dutton had been with the theatre for 40 years, “…started to work with the Sunrise in 1940 has been the theater’s only manager since the theater was built, and is also manager of the Town & Country Cinema in Aberdeen.” So this indicates the Sunrise opened in 1940. Dutton remembered how the cost of a ticket was 9 cents during WWII because of the war tax on tickets over a dime, so most operators kept their admissions at 9 cents.
Boxoffice of September 27, 1941, said the new Sunrise Theatre at Southern Pines had been opened the previous week. This item says the first operator of the house was W. P. Benner, who had theaters at Carthage and Hemp. Everett and Stewart are first mentioned in connection with the Sunrise in Boxoffice of December 2, 1944, in an item saying they would take over the house on Decmeber 3.
Functions Update: Classics films and foreign films are also presented.
The name of the hardware store was the S.S. Thomas Hardware store. the theater now seats 361 with the adaptations and updates.