Frances Theatre
114 E. Court Street,
Dyersburg,
TN
38024
114 E. Court Street,
Dyersburg,
TN
38024
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My mother worked in the Frances Theatre between 1956 and 1958. She worked with a man named Charles Rice. I believe the Frances and the Ritz belonged to the same company. I worked for Martun Triple Theatre during the 70s for a man named Billy Winn. Fun times.
The movie 7th Heaven was released in 1927, so that photo’s caption is off by several years. As the article I cited in my previous comment was dated January 7, 1927, I think we can safely assume that the Palace was in operation by 1926.
The Frances Theatre keeps getting older, though. If it was named for the 1923 high school valedictorian, it got the name even before she started high school. This is from the August 25, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The use of the name “New Frances” suggests that there might have been an earlier Frances Theatre. Perhaps Frances Shepard Fowlkes' parents owned the theater.This item also reveals that the Vaudette Theatre was in operation as early as 1917, and that it was large enough to have supported an orchestra. As we don’t yet have any overlap between the operating years of the Palace and the Vaudette, perhaps they were the same theater?
Here is information about Dyersburg from the January 7, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News:
So the Frances and Palace Theatres were in operation by early 1927. It’s unfortunate that he other two houses bought by Crescent were not named in the item.Ripshin: If you are referring to the Capitol Theatre, we had the wrong address for it. The Capitol was actually south of Market Street, at modern address 202 S. Main. Check the photo in my comment of 6:39 pm yesterday. A thumbnail link to a photo showing the Capitol is at the bottom of the third page of thumbnails. The photo shows the front of the building at the northeast corner of Main and Market as well. I think that building is actually still there, but has had its second floor removed. It looks much too narrow to have had a theater in it.
You might as well add the Palace. It must have been in the building on the north side of the square at 120 Court Street (street view) now occupied by an attorney’s office. Mill between Court and Market would have been the west side of the square, so the Pastime would not have become the Palace. It’s possible that it became the Ritz, but the Ritz is still a puzzle so I’m not at all sure.
There was a theater at the NE corner of Main & Market – it was leveled at some point prior to 1974, when my family moved to Dyersburg. There is a one-story building there now, obviously not matching the surrounding structures.
To correct a person today, the rating system began in 1968. There were technically no “R-rated” films in the 50s.
It would be worth the trouble of getting good grades to have a theater named after you.
I think the Palace must have been at the northeast corner of Court Street and Mill Avenue, opposite the town’s “skyscraper.” The building there has the same pedimented parapet on the front, although the whole structure has been plastered over, losing all its nice brick and stone details.
The photos of the Ritz don’t give enough context to tell where it was, though they show that it had buildings on both sides.
The last photo on page three of the “Street Scenes” collection shows the Capitol Theatre.
The “Theater Gossip” column of the September 26, 1932 issue of the St. Petersburg, Florida, Evening Independent said that, on October 3, the “Francis” Theatre in Dyersburg, Tennessee would be the site of the world premier of the movie The Cabin in the Cotton, which was based on a novel of the same name by Dyersburg native Henry Harrison Kroll (scan at Google News.)
I’ve seen this theater referred to as the Francis as often as it is the Frances, including by angelamatlock, whose father once operated the theater, in an earlier comment here. Does anyone have a photo of the marquee, or a scan of an advertisement for the house?
The Savoy theater ran R rated movies in the 50s. Most patrons were colored. My father Ewell Tucker bought the building at the time it was used as Dyersburg machine works. MY mother Margaret Ruth Tucker used it as a antique store now is storage for Tucker properties.
My father ran the Francis Theatre from December 1961 to the fall of 1962, I was 4-½ yo. His name is Leonard L. Cook,Sr. He also ran the drive in theatre. He was with Martin theaters for four years. He transferred from Greenville, AL where he ran the theatre which was owned by the Cresent Amusement Company which sold to the Martin Theatre Co. I remember the Francis as a wonderful place. My father has stories I love to hear about the other theatres he ran. BAck to the Francis……it had such character. I remember the stage, oh the stage. To a 4-½ yo child it was huge. I remember he had a large picture of Shirley Temple hanging in his office; the debut of Blue Hawaii; the balcony. I love the Francis; it represents a time for me of wonder……….I have pictures of the Francis. Memories………….
Thanks, Ken. I see that the Savoy is listed at CinemaTour, but with no details other than the address, and the Ritz is listed with no address.
Although the 1971 Boxoffice article listed the Martin as a conventional theater, I now think it might have actually been a drive-in. A 1961 article said that the former Funland Drive-In in Dyersburg had been renamed the Martin and was being renovated.
In 1940, only the Francis Theatre is operating in Dyersburg. By 1943, the Francis Theatre has been joined by the Capitol Theatre and Ritz Theatre. In the 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook, the Francis Theatre is one of four movie theatre operating in Dyersburg, the other three are the 550-seat Capitol Theatre, S. Main Street, the 400-seat Ritz Theatre (no address given) and the 195-seat Savoy Theatre, 715 Cedar Street.
I’ve only found Dyersburg mentioned only a few times in Boxoffice, and none of them mention the Frances Theatre. A Ritz Theatre was mentioned in the issue of May 15, 1954. The manager was named R.E. Gillett. Could Ritz be an aka for the Frances, or was it a different theater?
The January 4, 1971, issue of Boxoffice mentioned a theater called the Martin in Dyersburg. As the Martin Twin opened in 1972, it must have been some other theater. That’s the only time it’s mentioned.
Dyersburg once had a theater called the Georgia Opera House, listed in the 1898 edition of Julius Chan’s Theatrical Guide. It was a second-floor house seating 1,050. It was also mentioned in “Richardson’s Standard Southern Guide,” published in 1905, though that book gave the seating capacity as 1,500. I’ve been unable to discover what became of it.
The address is 114 East Court Street. The building still exists as the DeLoach Shoe Store. When my family lived in Dyersburg from 74 – 83, it had already been closed for a few years. The Martin Twin went up in the early 70s, and resulted in the Frances being closed.