Center Theater
138 Sunset Avenue,
Rocky Mount,
NC
27804
138 Sunset Avenue,
Rocky Mount,
NC
27804
3 people
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The Center Theater opened its doors on June 12, 1937 with George Brent in “The Go-Getter” along with Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony “The Country Cousin” and the musical novelty “The Circus Comes To Town”, with opening ceremonies delivered on the air from radio station WEED-AM. It was first managed by Hal Orr and was built with an estimate $100,000.
The Center Theatre closed on October 25, 1979 with “Black Magic”.
To Bevo: I worked at the Center Theatre from 1965 through college until 1971. It was a great place to work. I cannot get the picture of the Center you posted from the late 80’s to come open. Could you please send it to my email address . Thank you.
To Ed Solero
I worked at the Center thru high school (1956-60) and HF Kincey also owned a drive-in there name Tower. Your photo may be the Tower or the other local drive-in, Skyvue. To the best of my knowledge, those were the only drive-ins in town.
This theatre was an atmospheric and opened 12 June 1937.The architect was Erle G. Stillwell and the address was 138 Sunset Avenue.
I don’t see a listing for a drive-in theater in Rocky Mount, but I did find this haunting image of some long gone and derilect drive-in screen and speaker stand overtaken by weeds and the ravages of time. Anyone know what this might have been?
This theatre sounded very quaint in a quaint NC community. It being art deco made it very special, imo, and now it is gone forever like so many others.