I was cleaning and found an article from when Carolee Austin reopened the theater. According to the article from the Dayton Daily News, Randolph Haun took ownership of the theater in May 1976 and opened the County Square Cinema in Englewood in 1977. Both theaters closed in 1978. Carolee Austin took over the theater and changed the name from the Huber Heights Cinema to the Huber Heights Flicker Palace. She also raised the prices to $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for children.
I started working at the Flicker Palace the day after I turned 16— May 1978. I worked there on and off for the next 5 years. Never met anyone named Weaver. There was a Weaver cinema in Englewood and I remember briefly in Huber- but not at that time. Carol Austin is the one who renamed it the Flicker Palace after her husband foreclosed on it. She would bring a tiny dog with her every night and put it in a cage in the lower level office. She always wore a smock- and drove a Vega- despite her wealth. After the weekend movies started, she would go to a local restaurant one strip mall over and smoke and talk to people. She was there nearly every single night for a long time. (Come on guys— I was there. This isn’t a recounting from a newspaper.)
Although there were midnight movies before her, she brought them into their heyday. I remember seeing Motel Hell on New Years Eve at the party she threw us at the theater. She turned weekend midnight shows it into cult hit nights— A Boy and His Dog, Eraserhead, Tomatoes, Motel Hell, The Hills Have Eyes— and even the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But she searched everyone who came into the theater to make sure they didn’t bring anything to throw at the screen. (Screens are expensive.)
I still have a scar on my lower right inside arm from cleaning the popcorn popper (made with solid coconut fat and Savorol) and I still have the red, cap-sleeved t-shirt we were required to wear that says “Huber Heights Flicker Palace” on the left breast. I also remember that’s where I was when there was a local earthquake. It was a Sunday matinee and the large glass windows in the front of the theater wavered like paper. I can still name most the people who worked there at the same time and run into them occassionally. We were a small group and made sub-minimum wage.
Your history of the Huber Heights Flicker Palace if flawed. I worked there in the mid to late 70’s as a “popcorn jockey” and occassional usher. I was also family friends of the owner, Carolee Austin. Carol acquired the cinema when a loan her husband made the the owner defaulted. She owned the theater for at least 10 years of it’s history. She made it extrememly successful, and was the one who re-named the theater “The Huber Heights Flicker Palace” from its past name of the Huber Heights Movie Palace. During Carol’s ownership, she ran week-end midnight movies of cult favorites such as “A Boy and His Dog”, “Eraserhead”, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”,“Motel Hell” and other extreme “B” classics. She sold when her and her husband decided to leave the Dayton area and move to Arizona. I haven’t read the marquee lately to see if the name was changed back to the Huber Heights Movie Palace. I’ve never heard it referred to as just The Movie Palace as it is referenced in the title here.
I saw a place to add stories— oh my. After working there for several years, there are so many I’m sure your word count wouldn’t allow for them. The crowds at the midnight movies, Sunday matinees PACKED with kids, the large, wall-sized poster of all the old movie stars that graced the whole back of the lobby— and people came in from all over just to get the popcorn- that I still know how to make!
I was cleaning and found an article from when Carolee Austin reopened the theater. According to the article from the Dayton Daily News, Randolph Haun took ownership of the theater in May 1976 and opened the County Square Cinema in Englewood in 1977. Both theaters closed in 1978. Carolee Austin took over the theater and changed the name from the Huber Heights Cinema to the Huber Heights Flicker Palace. She also raised the prices to $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for children.
I started working at the Flicker Palace the day after I turned 16— May 1978. I worked there on and off for the next 5 years. Never met anyone named Weaver. There was a Weaver cinema in Englewood and I remember briefly in Huber- but not at that time. Carol Austin is the one who renamed it the Flicker Palace after her husband foreclosed on it. She would bring a tiny dog with her every night and put it in a cage in the lower level office. She always wore a smock- and drove a Vega- despite her wealth. After the weekend movies started, she would go to a local restaurant one strip mall over and smoke and talk to people. She was there nearly every single night for a long time. (Come on guys— I was there. This isn’t a recounting from a newspaper.)
Although there were midnight movies before her, she brought them into their heyday. I remember seeing Motel Hell on New Years Eve at the party she threw us at the theater. She turned weekend midnight shows it into cult hit nights— A Boy and His Dog, Eraserhead, Tomatoes, Motel Hell, The Hills Have Eyes— and even the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But she searched everyone who came into the theater to make sure they didn’t bring anything to throw at the screen. (Screens are expensive.)
I still have a scar on my lower right inside arm from cleaning the popcorn popper (made with solid coconut fat and Savorol) and I still have the red, cap-sleeved t-shirt we were required to wear that says “Huber Heights Flicker Palace” on the left breast. I also remember that’s where I was when there was a local earthquake. It was a Sunday matinee and the large glass windows in the front of the theater wavered like paper. I can still name most the people who worked there at the same time and run into them occassionally. We were a small group and made sub-minimum wage.
Your history of the Huber Heights Flicker Palace if flawed. I worked there in the mid to late 70’s as a “popcorn jockey” and occassional usher. I was also family friends of the owner, Carolee Austin. Carol acquired the cinema when a loan her husband made the the owner defaulted. She owned the theater for at least 10 years of it’s history. She made it extrememly successful, and was the one who re-named the theater “The Huber Heights Flicker Palace” from its past name of the Huber Heights Movie Palace. During Carol’s ownership, she ran week-end midnight movies of cult favorites such as “A Boy and His Dog”, “Eraserhead”, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”,“Motel Hell” and other extreme “B” classics. She sold when her and her husband decided to leave the Dayton area and move to Arizona. I haven’t read the marquee lately to see if the name was changed back to the Huber Heights Movie Palace. I’ve never heard it referred to as just The Movie Palace as it is referenced in the title here.
I saw a place to add stories— oh my. After working there for several years, there are so many I’m sure your word count wouldn’t allow for them. The crowds at the midnight movies, Sunday matinees PACKED with kids, the large, wall-sized poster of all the old movie stars that graced the whole back of the lobby— and people came in from all over just to get the popcorn- that I still know how to make!