Movie theaters once small-town cultural centers
JERRY AULDS

The restoration expert articulated and gave form to the El Campo Community Theatre group's vision, ambition, and blossoming hope to turn El Campo's old Normana Theatre into a dynamic and active cultural center.

Gregory Free passionately explained to the small audience of community theater group members, the mayor, the school superintendent, chamber of commerce executive director, city officials and other interested parties, that the once-proud building donated by the Bishkin-Meyers families to the El Campo Community Theatre organization could once-again throb with the pulse of concerts and plays and thrive with art come-alive and memories rekindled.

But, of course, movie houses have always been cultural centers. Since the early beginnings, newsreels and the feature film attractions have brought the outside world to Main Street, Small Town, USA, which includes Our Town.

Awhile back when Free raved to a young colleague in Austin about the fine old theatre he had discovered in El Campo, she responded, "That's the Normana! I saw my first movie there, "E.T," making Free feel suddenly ancient.

Television, DVDs, computers, and rock band concerts hog center stage these days, but to my mind, nothing equals early movie memories. The movies once drew us like moths to a lamp. But we weren't burned, just entranced with what we saw on the big screen.

In small towns like El Campo, the movies gave us snapshots of the world outside our boundaries - things like disasters, wars, World Series winners, giant gorillas climbing skyscrapers, and handsome leading men and their beautiful ladies.

We learned manners and style from the silver screen. Virtue was mostly triumphant, and for kids, Roy and Dale, Gene and Hopalong were perfect role models. They chased the bad guys, wrestled them to the ground, and when necessary, winged them in the shoulder. Justice was done, and they would then ride off into the sunset.

My personal memories recall the serials - how would Boston Blackie or Flash Gordon escape from sure death from one week to the next?

Growing older, I heard Tex Ritter sing, "Gonna Be My Life or Hissen" from the classic Western film "High Noon," starring Randolph Scott.

My bride, Dayle Bebee Aulds, still recalls with childlike pleasure the first movie she and her family went to see. "My family of six was on vacation in Colorado when we stopped in at our first ever movie theatre. It was showing '101 Dalmatians,' and neither I nor any of my three siblings has ever forgotten it," she recounted to me.

Bringing back that old-time flavor has current real-time value. "Some of the restored theatres around the country bring thousands of people to town just to watch movie classics on a big screen, with the memory-evoking aroma of just-popped popcorn wafting through the air," Free told us at our Thursday meeting.

Our neighbor, Dr. Walter Presley, has a special recollection of The Normana Theatre. As he told the story, it was 1935, and the young ladies in the high school home economics classes were modeling the clothes they had designed and sewn in a fashion show at The Normana.

He was the emcee, and I can tell by the way he told me the story that he charmed every girl there with his rendition of "'A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody." His wife, Roberta, was not one of the models, but even she relishes the story as he tells it again and again.

Maureen Bishkin Staller, whose family donated the old Normana Theatre building to the El Campo Community Theatre group, still remembers with precise clarity how The Normana looked and felt, where families routinely sat, which boys and girls paired off and held hands, sometimes sneaking a kiss with each other, and what she did before and after she watched each newsreel, cartoon, and feature film.

The late Camp Leech once told me, with a degree of chagrin, about his night out at The Normana, escorting the late Esther Carrico. He told me he took Esther to The Normana and bought their tickets to the movie. That night, after the movie, there was a drawing from the theatre tickets, and, "Esther won a new car, but even though I had paid for the tickets, all I got was my popcorn and the pleasure of her company!" he exclaimed. He did go on to tell me that he got a few jaunts around town with her showing off her new car.

The lobbies, the balconies, and the nooks and crannies of old movie theatres are filled with the memories of "The Way We Were" and would hope to be again.

I'll see you at the movies!

This classic Jerry Aulds column first appeared in the El Campo Leader- News on May 17, 2003.