Home Area Movie Theaters
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When I was a kid in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, I got to go to the movies maybe once every two weeks and the quality of the picture was not always great. Today, the kids may watch three or four movies per day in high definition on Net Flicks and/or Amazon Prime sitting at home. When we went to the movies it was somewhat of an adventure. Here’s a little about our home area movie theater choices we had and how we enjoyed them.
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Home Area Movie Theaters
In 1948, I was five years old and we moved to 3rd Street in Phillips, Texas. On Saturday mornings, they had movies at the Phillips Movie Theater on the Main Street across from the school. My sister JerrylDine and I had an adventure on some Saturday mornings as out parents would give us 20 cents each and let us walk to the theater and watch a movie. It was usually something like Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, or Superman. What fun we had. It cost 10 cents to get in and we spent the other 10 cents on junk.
This is the Theater in Phillips, Texas, my sister JerrylDine and I walked to occasional on Saturday morning.
In the 1950s, we started going to the indoor theaters in Borger, Texas. We had three to choose from which were the Morley Theater, the Rex Theater, and the Rig Theater. Our parents would drop us off at the movies and come back and pick us up when the movie was over during our younger years.
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The Morley Theater was the newest theater built in 1947 and was by far the nicest. It was located at the corner of Main Street and 7th Street in Borger. We went to see movies like “Bambi”, “Snow White”, and “The Ten Commandments” at the Morley. When we got older and were driving, we went to a lot of the midnight Preview movies with our friends which were usually scary.
This is the Morley Theater in Borger, Texas, not too long after it opened in the late 1940s
The Rex Theater was usually the second choice unless it happened to have the best movie when we got an opportunity to go. It was located on the west side of Main Street between 5th and 6th Street close to Zales Jewelry Store. In the early 1950s, the churches in Phillips sponsored a summer program for kids where they provided a school bus to haul kids from the Phillips Park to the Rex Theater to see a movie for a cost of 10 cents per kid. We participated in many of these movie trips which were also somewhat of an adventure.
There’s the Rex Theater with all the late 1940s and early 1950s cars on Main Street in Borger, Texas.
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The Rig Theater was the third choice theater as they usually had B grade or R rated equivalent movies that weren’t fit for children. I can only remember going to the Rig one time in my life. The Rig Theater was located on the east side of Main Street between 6th and 7th Streets.
The Drive In theaters were the place to go when you got old enough to drive. We had two in Borger which were the Plains Drive In Theater and the Buenavista Drive In Theater.
The Buenavista Drive In Theater was a lot newer and thus a lot nicer than the Plains. Thus, we went to the Buenavista Drive In almost exclusively. The theater was located west of Borger on the Amarillo highway. At the Drive In Theater, they had the rows laid out in very large arcs so all could get a good viewing angle at the screen. They also had a hill built up for each row so you could drive up or back until the people in the back seat could see best. Between each two cars was two speakers on a pole so each car could remove a speaker and put it in their window for adjustable sound. I can remember taking six guys to the drive in theater and putting four guys in the trunk before we got to the theater. It was a dollar a head, so six of us got in for $2. Inside, I would drive to the back row and let the four guys out. They would walk to the concession stand while I went to park closer and then come and get in the car. It was also fun to take a date to the drive in and do a lot of smootching while watching the movie occasionally.
The Drive In Theater was a fun place to go see a movie. This kind of fun has been left behind primarily because of advances in technology. Too bad today’s kids will never get to experience this fun part of our lives.
The Plains Drive In Theater was located in Borger off of South Florida Street. I remember when I was maybe six years old, I was over at my Grandmother Kendrick’s and I was outside on her front lawn about dark with my cousins Ricky and Scott. We had set up my Uncle Harold’s Binoculars that came off of an anti aircraft weapon of some kind. They were extremely powerful binoculars so we pointed them towards the Plains Drive In Theater and we could see the movie that was showing quite well. We took turns watching the movie for a while with no sound. I can’t remember ever going to the Plains Drive Inn Theater after that, so it may have shutdown soon thereafter.
Come on Scott, it’s my turn now, your five minutes are up.
Thanks for reading Home Area Movie Theaters,
Bill