Holly Theatre

Located on the north side of College Square. The Holly Theatre was opened by 1942. An early promotion involved the filming of local beauty pageant contestants; the film was shown in color at the theatre and patrons got to decide the winner. By 1944, the Holly Theatre had gotten into the habit of showing movies that were banned in nearby Memphis and it was advertising the screenings in the Memphis newspapers. The films included Jane Russell in “The Outlaw” & Jennifer Jones in “Duel in the Sun”.

The series of banned films was interrupted in late summer of 1949 by an explosion that rocked the theatre 30 minutes after the last nights film had ended and the theatre was empty. The film being screened that evening had been “Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff”. A broken gas line caused the blast, which killed a doctor and his wife and their young son, whose home was upstairs from an adjacent store. J.J. Miller based in Brinkley, Arkansas got the contract to rebuild the theatre in 1951.

From 1953 the series of films that were banned in Memphis continued to be screened at the Holly Theatre; William Holden in “The Moon is Blue” (advertisements included the phrase “Adult Comedy Discussion on Sex”), Marlon Brando in “The Wild One”, Karl Malden in “Baby Doll” & Jayne Mansfield in “Promises, Promises”.

Holly Springs is the home of Rust College, a historically African American College whose students boycotted the segregated movie theatre in 1962; a Freedom Trail marker on campus commemorates the boycott, which led to the founding of the local chapter of the NAACP. Theatre proprietor Leon Rowntree subsequently found a novel way to keep the African American citizens from patronizing the theatre; he closed it to the public and inaugurated the Recreational Club, Inc. whose members had exclusive use of the Holly Theatre and other recreational facilities. A membership cost $3 for an individual and $5 for a family; current members voted on whether an applicant would be accepted, and it only took one vote to deny someone membership. Member John Farese, an attorney, claimed the club was not formed for the purpose of excluding African Americans: “I don’t see where civil rights has anything to do with the Club” he said. “We do not feel we are violating any law”. Rowntree’s creative racism was rewarded the following year when he was elected president of the Tri-State Theater Owners Association-and eventually became the first person to be elected to the seat three times. The Memphis Commercial Appeal bluntly stated that the Recreational Club “took over the Holly Theatre after African Americans tried to buy tickets for the theatre”. It has not been discovered when the eventual desegregation of the Holly Theatre took place.

The Holly Theatre was gutted by fire on September 18, 1973. Days later, newspapers reported that the cause of the conflagration was still unknown. The Holly Theatre was apparently revived one more time, however, because it was listed as the headquarters for the Holly Springs Pilgrimage tour of local mansions in April 1974. For many years it has been in use as offices for a real estate agent.

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