Carolina Theater

Thank you. I have submitted a page and will add the photo once it is accepted.

I found a 1929 photo of the Majestic Theatre on Main Street, but do not see a page for it yet. Did it have another name at any point? And does anyone know the correct address? If so I will create the page. It has Majestic on the marquee, and Broadway on a blade sign.

This opened on June 29th, 1925. Grand opening ad in photo section.

My father told me once that the Carolina was located next to where the Hyatt Regency is now, the hyatt is at the corner of Beattie Place/College street and North Main street where the Ottaray Hotel was originally and the theatre was next to it going down towards East North Street.

Just an update here: When I was in Greenville (1957-1970), the downtown theaters were the Carolina, the Fox, the Paris and the Center. I know the Carolina bore that name from its beginnings. The Fox Theater was once called the Rivoli, I believe. It may have had other names.

Paris and Center were second-run houses a block or so west of the Fox and across Main Street. One of them showed double-bills throughout the 60s (and I saw many films there) while the other one showed “adult” fare (not porn, by any measure)…just silly stuff, a bit suggestive at worst.

Greenville had The Plaza, as well, at Lewis Plaza. The Plaza showed MGM films and films by other studios. The Carolina was mostly 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures films. The Fox showed Disney and Universal films. In the mid-1960s, The Mall Cinema opened behind the Wade Hampton Mall on Wade Hampton Boulevard (near Bob Jones). It was a single-screen house and showed films from Warner Brothers, United Artists and American-International (Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Bomb, anyone?). And on the outskirts of town, on 291 By-pass, a bi-plex opened next door to the Star Lanes, Greenville’s bowling alley. They called the theaters Astro I and Astro II. This theater got a lot of big-ticket films, such as “Funny Girl” and “Gone With the Wind” (in its 1960s re-release).

Back to the Carolina: I never knew the manager’s name, but I knew Billy Strange was an usher there for many years. A friend named Jim Whaley also ushered at the Carolina in the early 1960s for a few months. I ushered at the Mall Cinema in 1965 shortly after it opened its doors. Worked with some terrific people — Mr. Flow was the manager; Maria Sizemore worked the candy counter. Ronnie Reese and Lenny Flow were also ushers in those first months.

The Carolina’s projectionist throughout the 1960s was a great gentleman and a true aficionado of film. I regret not remembering his name.

What a quaint looking theatre in perhaps the downtown area. Too bad it isn’t still there as downtown is quaint with its tree lined main street.

It seems from that article that all six of Greenville’s Main Street theatres were in operation from 1925 until perhaps as late as 1947, when the oldest of them, the 1905 Bijou burned. It says that the Majestic and the Casino didn’t make it past the end of the 1950’s, and that the Carolina closed in the 1960’s and the Rivoli/Fox closed in 1978. The only theatre whose closing period is not mentioned is the Rialto. So, unless the Rialto closed earlier than the Bijou, Greenville supported six movie houses for more than two decades.

The article says nothing about which theatres might have been demolished, or if any are still standing. Even the Bijou is said only to have been “gutted” by the fire, so it’s possible the building is still there, used for something else. I’ve never been to Greenville, so I don’t know if any of the buildings have survived. If there is a local historical society or a history room at the local library, the information would probably be known to someone there.

Joe: Great Feb. 8, 2006 article. Thanks for posting. It’s too bad that many of the theatres like the Carolina are not in Greenville as their Main Street is so charming and would benefit with at least one restored cinema that could offer classic movies to the older set! Are they all demolished or are some still standing and could be restored?

Film Daily Yearbooks;1941 and 1943 editions give a seating capacity of 500 (operated by Paramount-Wilby-Kincey Theatre Circuit).

However, the F.D.Y. 1950 edition lists the Carolina Theatre, 310 North Main Street, Greenville as having a seating capacity of 1,118.