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The show goes on at the Majestic in Wills Point
posted by
CSWalczak
on
July 6, 2010 at 7:40 am
WILLS POINT, TX — The Lybrand family has been showing films in this little Texas town, about fifty miles east of Dallas, since well before World War I. Though the teenagers prefer the multiplexes, their 1926 Majestic Theater still has a loyal, if shrinking, following. The current owner, Karl Lybrand III, wants to keep the marquee lit, but acknowledges that it is getting harder to keep going.
Still, he hopes to keep it open. Its history means as much to him as it does to the scores of multigenerational moviegoers in this Van Zandt County town (pop., 3,804), 50 miles east of Dallas on U.S. Highway 80. Many here say the Majestic can’t close, but as Lybrand says with a wry chuckle, “Well, yes, they say that, but they’re not the ones paying the bills.”
Although no official agency or institution can verify the claim, the Majestic could be the oldest family-owned, continuously operating movie theater in the United States.
The full story is in the Dallas News.
