Pike Theatre
E. Railroad Avenue and E. Bay Street,
Magnolia,
MS
39652
E. Railroad Avenue and E. Bay Street,
Magnolia,
MS
39652
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The answer may have to be the Magnolia if any history was correct, since the Strand in McComb opened its doors on March 21, 1921 which would later become the Palace Theatre on October 20, 1939. Otherwise it was definitely overlooked. Besides, McComb had another silent picture house called the Lomo Theatre which closed in the late 1910s as latest (but the Lomo Theatre may had operated until about 1920 since it was not listed at the time the Strand opened).
The 1926 Yearbook was published right before the State Theatre had opened in McComb. The Jacob’s Theatre did not wired for sound right after dropping two-thirds of its pie pieces in 1929, and the Strand remains as the city’s movie house, still in operation in both 1932 and 1933, with that, yes the Strand was wired with sound. Maybe the yearbook was listed as “wrong info” but if you look in Page 1 of the October 19, 1939 edition of the McComb Enterprise-Journal, you get the bet on what came after the Strand.
The Dixie Theatre first appears in the Film Daily Yearbook in 1927. No seating capacity is noted, but the house was open four days a week. The Dixie continues to be listed through 1929. Magnolia does not appear in the 1930 Yearbook, but in 1931 a house called the Strand is listed, with an asterisk, denoting that it is not wired for sound. The Strand is listed again in 1932 and 1933, but with the notation that it is closed.
In the 1926 Yearbook, Magnolia has two theaters listed, called the Magnolia and the Palace. It could be that one or the other became the Dixie the next year. Earlier mentions of Magnolia in the trade journals are sparse. In 1916, the October 7 issue of Moving Picture World says that Xavier A. Kramer of Magnolia had plans to build a theater called the Dixie, but the house was to be in McComb, not Magnolia. Perhaps of interest, in the late 1920s Xavier Kramer became the operator of Jacob’s Theatre in McComb.
In 1920, a Miss Bella Harris of the Liberty Theatre in Magnolia submitted two capsule movie reviews to the October 2 issue of Exhibitors Herald. I’ve found no other mentions of either Miss Harris or a Liberty Theatre at Magnolia. It could be that the Liberty became either the Magnolia Theatre or the Palace Theatre listed in 1926. Magnolia does not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Maybe it had no theaters then, or perhaps it was just overlooked when the directory was compiled.
I cannot find at least information back when the building was known as the Dixie. But my best guess is that since the building was built in 1908, it may had a chance that it may had opened in 1908. It continued into World War I and died before the talking era rolled along.