Mars Theatre

Nat and Grace Fitzjarrald decided that downtown Martinsville needed a modern movie theatre. They took on the long-standing WF Wood commercial building - known previously as the Implement Store where W.F. Wood sold agricultural equipment. In its transition to theatre, the Fitzs went to St. Louis to secure their RCA sound and projection equipment. The Mars Theatre opened with Jane Withers in “Keep Smiling” supported by a comedy short and cartoon on April 15, 1939.

Nestled between the IOOF building and Stanfield Grocery, the downtown traffic was high for the Mars Theatre in its early days. A 1941 booking of “Gone with the Wind” was said to be its highest grossing film. During the War, you could buy War Bonds at the theatre and the Fitzjarralds did their part by offering lower than the standard admission prices. But the 306-seat venue struggled after the War.

An audience of 150 - an oddity - was seen as newsworthy and among its very largest post-War attendances despite the Mars Theatre auditorium being half-empty. The combination of television and the proximity to Terre Haute, Indiana - about 30 miles away - did not allow seven day a week operation. Regular shows were basically discontinued at the 10-year mark in 1949 - a likely opt out of a 20-year leasing obligation. Its commercial viability over, the Mars Theatre soldiered on with live stage shows and merchant screenings into the mid-1950’s.

A charity screening of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” with Doris Day on April 19, 1955 appears to be the end of the line for the Mars Theatre. Harold and Grace Ross turned it into a department store opening in 1958. The WF Wood Building had a long run as a commercial building and still appeared to be standing stout in the 2020’s as Outdoor Obsessions an outdoors sports shop.

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