Star Theatre

Just to fill in some details of this entry that is completely blank other than name and theater size (which wasn’t anywhere near 570, btw)… The Star was opened in 1928 by Hardesty Brothers with Wesley Hardesty opening as manager. The 200-seat house was equipped with sound to be viable in a town with just 850 residents. To get sound films, the Brothers signed a deal to be franchisees of Tiffany Pictures assuring them of abundant shorts and B pictures in the early advent of sound period. Tiffany exited the deal in 1932 when Tiffany-Stahl ceased operations.

In March of 1936, the Star began a tradition of free screenings - a Depression-era strategy of having local merchants buy out the house and offer customers of the stores free tickets with or without purchase. With a ten-year lease likely coming due, a replacement venue with a few more seats was found. Contractor Homer Rantz figured out how to carve a new theater, the Rita, into the existing Overton Building which had previously been used for retail.

The Rita opened in 1937 ending the Star’s run. However, the tradition of the trade-out merchant screening deals were so popular that they were moved to the Rita and then to the largest venue in town, the Nu-Vue when it opened. The Nu-Vue ended the series following the 20th Anniversary, 1956 free screening.