According to the Evansville Courier of 10/25/2020: “Several months after it was placed on the market, the Showplace South has a new owner. Showplace management says the building will not reopen as a theatre and the location is closed. We’re told the location had been losing money, and with the pandemic, it was closed. All other Showplace locations will remain open – although Showplace East is the only operating theatre right now during the pandemic.”
It opened 5/6/49 and closed 10/20/85 – per the area newspaper ads. A nice long run. Only saw one movie there, and remember the place as a very plain and basic operation – no frills at all.
It actually opened on 3/8/55 and closed in February 1976. At least that’s when the ads stopped. I visited the site the other day, on 2/2/2020, and it’s behind the Autozone on Highway 192, just east of the Mall. Take the side road that runs north by the autoparts store, and you’ll find…condos! What else? Nothing remains that I could see.
One gray day in 1988, I asked the operator of the 66 “Auto Graveyard” in Carthage, MO, if I could walk around and take pictures. He agreed, and those pictures show a pre-restoration 66. It was a thrill to revisit the 66 many years later and actually see a movie with throngs of other happy drive-in fans, just like the old days.
I was there that night in 1974 to see “Gold,” and three weeks ago in 2018 I was there to see “Coco.” The place has just kept chugging along as a bargain cinema for many years now. It had a major renovation a couple years ago – new sound, projection, screens, seats, a new sign, removed the individual small letterboards on the front of the building, etc.
In 2022.
Evansville Sunday Courier and Press, 9/25/55.
The last ad: 3/1/79.
According to the Evansville Courier of 10/25/2020: “Several months after it was placed on the market, the Showplace South has a new owner. Showplace management says the building will not reopen as a theatre and the location is closed. We’re told the location had been losing money, and with the pandemic, it was closed. All other Showplace locations will remain open – although Showplace East is the only operating theatre right now during the pandemic.”
January 8, 1988.
It opened 5/6/49 and closed 10/20/85 – per the area newspaper ads. A nice long run. Only saw one movie there, and remember the place as a very plain and basic operation – no frills at all.
It opened in 1949 as the Highway 41, then became the Princeton, and finally to the end was the Starlite.
August 3, 1950.
July 27, 1950.
“The Pearl of Death” is showing.
It actually opened on 3/8/55 and closed in February 1976. At least that’s when the ads stopped. I visited the site the other day, on 2/2/2020, and it’s behind the Autozone on Highway 192, just east of the Mall. Take the side road that runs north by the autoparts store, and you’ll find…condos! What else? Nothing remains that I could see.
Saw “The Robe,” my first in CinemaScope, at the Logan in 1953.
Grand opening, 1948.
A picture of the Woodlawn with a vertical sign.
Closed 10/2/83.
October 4, 1950.
Closed 3/1/79. Nobody wanted to go downtown to see movies anymore.
A better address for the Silver is 225 E. 3rd Street.
One gray day in 1988, I asked the operator of the 66 “Auto Graveyard” in Carthage, MO, if I could walk around and take pictures. He agreed, and those pictures show a pre-restoration 66. It was a thrill to revisit the 66 many years later and actually see a movie with throngs of other happy drive-in fans, just like the old days.
After the “adult” policy failed in October 1956, the place went back to third-run double features and closed for good on 11/26/56.
In 1991.
The original street sign in 1985.
I was there that night in 1974 to see “Gold,” and three weeks ago in 2018 I was there to see “Coco.” The place has just kept chugging along as a bargain cinema for many years now. It had a major renovation a couple years ago – new sound, projection, screens, seats, a new sign, removed the individual small letterboards on the front of the building, etc.
From 1953.
A better address for the Princess/Kickapoo/4 Star is 307 E. Commercial.