Some of my most fondest memories growing up in Logan County are of the great times spent at the Drive-Ins and Theaters. If you have any special Logan County Drive-In or Theater memories or photos you’d like to share with us here, please do so. We are especially looking for some old photos and information about the Drive-In Theaters that were in the area.
Logan County Drive-Ins and Theaters Gallery
Dodie;
I don’t know of any Gem theatre. The theatre with the toll booth was the old Midelburg theatre. For a quarter, one could get popcorn, and enjoy a double feature, back then (not quite old as dirt, but gettin’ there). The Monitor theatre was located between Deskins addition, and Monitor. Les Avis was the proprietor. The Logan theatre brings back memories. Tex Ritter, the cowboy movie star, did a show there. There were other notables who did shows there.
Shelby, The GEM Theater was built about 1946 at Deskins Addition (Black Bottom). To the best of my knowledge it was the only theater in Logan County that was owned and operated by black people. I used to go every time the “show” changed for half fare (10 cents). Shelby, if you look closely, the theater with the “toll both” is the Logan Theater. Half fare at the theaters in town was 15 cents. I sold the Logan Banner on the streets of Logan to earn “show fare” and went to all of them when the “show” changed. I always went for half fare, even after I started dating, but if I had a date, the poor little boys had to pay full fare for themselves and for me. I grew up roaming the hills and streets about town. I wasn’t real crazy about the westerns at the Middleburg Theater. The Middleburg had a double feature (western) every Friday and Sat. My dad won $400.00 in a drawing they had one time.
I remember 3 theaters in town -Logan, Capitol, and Middleburg. As a young lad during the late 40′s and early 50′s every Saturday I went to the Middleburg theater to watch a double feature western, the lastest chapter of a serial and a cartoon. Many parents dropped their kids off there and went about their shopping. Those are enjoyable memories and to this day when I watch an old western with Johnny Mack Brown, Ken Maynard, Tex Ritter, etc. I wax nastalgia and see myself back in the theater cheering on the heroes. Those were the days. And times. Too bad we cannot return to how it was.
Does anyone remember the Gem Theater at Black Bottom? It was built about 1946, across the street from the old Tom Browning Grocery Store.