Since I've been waxing nostalgic about movies I attended with my parents, I might as well tell you a little something about the movie theaters in my hometown when I was a kid. The Mexia Theatre (that's the way it was usually spelled in the ads) is the one pictured on the left. It was built around 1948 and was a wonder in our little town, being air-conditioned, unlike the older theaters, which weren't. They were also about half the size of this one. Maybe less than that. Shoeboxes. Two of them, the Palace and the National were downtown, such as the downtown was, about four square blocks at best. The third theater, the Liberty, was across the tracks. I wasn't allowed to go to that one. There were some movies there I wanted to see from time to time, though probably not The Last of the Warrens with Bob Steele, which is what was playing there on this date in 1947 (year chosen at random).The Palace was the theater where all the kids went on Saturday afternoons for the double-features of B-westerns: Alan "Rocky" Lane, Don "Red" Barry, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett (the Durango Kid), Rex Allen, Jimmy Wakely, Tex Ritter, Monte Hale, and many others. This was also where we saw the Tarzan movies, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Abbott and Costello, the Bowery Boys, and lots of others. Along with the movie we got a newsreel, lots of previews, a cartoon, and a serial. Back in 1947 on this date the featured movie was Out California Way, with Monte Hale. The bottom of the double bill was Don't Gamble with Strangers, starring Warren Douglas.
The National was the theater where they showed the classier movies, like How Green Was my Valley and The Red Badge of Courage. Showing there on this date in 1947, for example, was Of Human Bondage, starring Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, and Paul Henreid. I wasn't in attendance.
The Palace closed when the Mexia opened. The National closed a year or so afterward, as did the Liberty.
I went to many, many movies in the Mexia Theatre. The photo is of the last picture show. The theater closed after the final showing of The Golden Child, which means there hasn't been an operating movie theater in town for almost 30 years. The building and the marquee are still there, though. The building is now a church, or it was the last time I was in town. Seems appropriate to me.
