Volume 11 , Issue 6

Star Theatre & Other Theatre Memories

Roy says, "I probably have more information about the Star Theatre in Minco, Oklahoma than ANY other living person because I'm the one who bought the theatre equipment from Noah Standifer and operated that theatre until the day it closed (after I'd bought the Perry Theatre and moved to Perry, Oklahoma).

I won't go back to my very beginning, but will say that I was first introduced to 'screenings' by my boss and his wife at the Ritz Theatre at Britton, Homer "Pug" Hawkins, back in the late '40s. Those first screenings were at the 20th Century-Fox screening room at 10 North Lee (while I was still in high school) and I think that the first movie premier I attended (also with Pug and Mary) was at the Center Theatre in OKC -- Saturday's Hero which introduced the new young stars John Derek and Donna Reed and they appeared in person after the movie. The boss had taken me to these 'special' movies because I was a projectionist at both the Britton Theatre (the "B" house) and the Ritz (which was the "A" house across the street).

After I'd graduated, I went to work in the daytime at John A. Brown Company where my grandfather, Orville Lewis, was in charge of maintaining all the display equipment and the remodeling of a part of the store. I continued to work also at the theatres at night. My brothers and I attended screenings when possible and also (probably) made a nuisance of ourselves at the theatre supply houses where we'd go by and check out every projector and other pieces of equipment that we were allowed to touch.

Oklahoma Theatre Supply had displays of Brenkert (RCA) equipment like we were accustomed to at the Ritz. National Theatre Supply was showing all the latest Simplex equipment which included the new model XL (which I later found at the Star Theatre in Minco), and W. R. Howell's Motiograph displays also held our attention.

The little 'Britton Theatre' had Motiograph Model K projectors and Mr. Howell even showed us how the projectors were constructed. He and the 'mechanic' working there were fascinating and took the time to teach us much about the inner workings of the equipment.

A 'side' note: A few years later, the RCA service engineer, Byron Savage, who took care of the theatre equipment there at Britton also taught me some things about the sound system, and then he was FIRED by RCA because he had invented a miniature radio that could fit into a 'pop' bottle and he sold his invention to a rival company, Philco, who used the idea to create the Pepsi-Cola Bottle radio. He then started his own projector service company and still later bought out the Motiograph Supply Company from W. R. Howell.

When CinemaScope was first introduced, he again made the RCA Company angry by creating his own Stereophonic Sound heads that could be used with any and all theatre equipment without having to pay the license fees from RCA, 20th Century-Fox, and other "licensed" manufacturers (I have a pair of his magnetic 'penthouses').

I decided not to go to college after high school and joined the Airforce. My basic training was at Lackland Air Force Base and one evening while attending a movie at a base theatre, I was so caught up in the plot that when I saw a "cue mark" (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) I jumped up from my seat thinking that I needed to make a "change-over" (from one projector to the other) and my buddy sitting next to me asked what was wrong. So ... I had to explain a little bit about what I'd done in civilian life.

After basic, most servicemen are transferred to a school to train for the job they'll be doing for most of the rest of their tour of duty but about eight of us were sent to train some new guys on the stuff we'd learned in basic. My 'job' at this point was to 'run' 16mm projectors to screen training films until I was transferred to my next base at Alexandria, Louisiana where I was assigned to an aircraft control and warning squadron (ground radio and RADAR), but since they really had no place for an (as yet) untrained radio operator and technician, I was re-assigned to base supply!

I had been at the base only a day and a half when the projectionist I had known in OKC, Jim Stemen, contacted me and said he needed me to work nights at the base theatre as a projectionist.

Wow! I walked into that booth and saw that I'd be running Simplex XLs, the same new projectors that were being used in America's greatest theatre, the Radio City Music Hall!!! Back in high school I had checked out a book in the library that had described the projection booth at the Music Hall and it's every projectionist's dream to be able to walk into that booth and work at least one night there, but only the top-ranked guys in the New York division of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatre and Stage Employees) union are even allowed into that booth. I was thrilled beyond understanding at being allowed to operate projectors in this booth.

At the base theatre in Louisiana, it was required to have a projectionist for each of the two projectors at all times (however, each of us would sneak out the upstairs exit door at times to go get snacks from a nearby NCO club to bring back to consume during the movie).

There was no snack bar in the theatre. Only a single vending machine with candy bars and snack crackers. No soft drinks were allowed in the auditorium, and all trash had to be removed after each performance.

We had only three projectionists usually and would rotate 'shifts'. When Jim Stemen was transferred out, I became in charge and when the Assistant Manager went on leave, I took over that job. It was the same as being a manager (taking care of the bookwork, etc.). Then I got orders to transfer to Shaw AFB in South Carolina. The local officer in charge of the theatre wrote me a job recommendation just like in civilian life and a copy went into my permanent '201 file'. I doubt that many airmen got papers like that.

I never set foot in another booth until my first experience as an owner a few years later. Jim Stemen and I kept in contact and when he came back from overseas, he was assigned to Tinker AFB while I was being a ground radio operator at a little hidden base called Congaree (near Sumter, South Carolina). We were there guarding the Savannah River Project (the H-bomb plant that wasn't known about).

After discharge from the service, Jim and I talked about going into partnership as theatre owners and looked around here in Oklahoma but found nothing we could afford and I remembered an ad I'd seen in a Strout Realty catalog from Rolla, Missouri. The theatre was still for sale and the price had been dropped. It was in a little railroad town 8 miles west (and down the mountain) of Rolla, called Newburg. I drove there to check it out.

The theatre was across from the Frisco Depot and was a converted vaudeville house with pre-WWI projectors that had been converted to sound in 1931 (even older than me). We borrowed money from Jim's dad for the down payment. The projectors were un-enclosed Powers model B made in 1916 and used Strong low-intensity lamps and the very first model Western Electric sound heads ever made.

The motors which drove the sound heads were mounted on the floor and used universal joints to drive vertical drive-shafts up to the sound heads which were connected with a gear to drive the formerly hand-cranked projectors. The projection booth was about 20 feet above floor level and there was a hardwood floor in the auditorium with 232 very old cushioned bottom seats and wooden backs to them. The screen was 8 ft. tall by 10 ft. wide.

The tiny concessions stand consisted of an ancient popcorn machine and an orange drink dispenser. There were no rest rooms. Folks were accustomed to walking across the street to the railroad depot when necessary.

I didn't make enough money to support the place so took a job at the Rawlings Sporting Goods Factory there and worked at an antique industrial sewing machine making footballs and baseball bases at 75 cents an hour until I started turning them out fast enough to get "piece work" wages (so much per dozen finished pieces per day).

During my 'off' days I went hunting and explored the hills and valleys there in the foothills of the Ozark mountains. It was almost like a year round vacation but eventually I decided to quit -- come back to Oklahoma and go to college.

My brothers had been working as projectionists at the Lakeside Theatre at North May and Grand Boulevard in OKC and the owner of the theatre came to Missouri to see his son stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood (just a few miles west of Newburg) and the two of them came to my theatre to meet the guy who had trained their projectionists.

When I'd decided to return to OKC for college, I first took a job with Byron Savage (the former RCA engineer I'd mentioned previously). My job was to check the miniature electronic tubes that he'd bought at surplus auctions so he could use them in his servicing operations. He had also invented what he called a pedestrilator and was gone a lot of the time trying to sell his idea to cities like Dallas, Ft. Worth, etc. He carried a miniature working model with him for demonstration purposes, and it was to use moving sidewalks with escalators so that foot traffic could easily shop in large downtown business districts utilizing two or three stories of business locations (this was before shopping malls became popular).

I worked there until I enrolled in college at Oklahoma City University (majoring in electronics engineering) at which time I got a job with my youngest brother Allan in the projection booth at the Lakeside Theatre.

The projectors at the Lakeside Theatre were Brenkert BX 60's as I recall and I worked there until a former projectionist and assistant manager told me about a job opening at KWTV as a film editor. I applied immediately and went to work there in July of 1957.

A short time later, Jim Stemen called and wondered if I'd be interested in another partnership to open a long closed theatre at Tuttle. Yes, I was interested. The theatre there had Century model C projectors with Strong Low Intensity lamps and RCA sound. There was no screen. It had been destroyed. We went to Oklahoma Theatre Supply to ask Eldon Peake if he knew of a used one that we could afford. There was a big one that had been replaced in a theatre in Miami, Oklahoma and he told us how to cut it down to use in our smaller 'house', and he even arranged for us to borrow a grommet tool from Video Theatres and sold us the grommets and tape (similar to duct tape) to re-size the huge screen.

When we finished it, it stretched from ceiling to floor and almost the entire width of the theatre. Then we bought new lenses and had the projector sprockets re-cut for CinemaScope film. We only ran two features and on weekends only. A Friday-Saturday picture and then a Saturday Prevue-Sunday matinee film. This kept our costs low and we were able to have a reasonably good crowd at each performance. I checked out the competition at Minco where George Walje was operating the Star. I considered it a major competitor."
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