Eureka Theater

Jim on May 3, 2023 at 10:15 am

This photo was given to me by my late father, Otis Bolinger. He managed the Eureka back in 1951 and my mom ran the concession stand. Don’t know if I mentioned it in previous posts for other theaters he’d run, that he was big on “ballyhoo” to promote an upcoming film. Of course, I loved it, especially when he dressed the ushers and usherettes in pirate costumes for Blackbeard the Pirate.

It was at the Eureka that my brother and I experienced our first earth tremor. And, the memory is still quite vivid.

The memorable day began with my dad sternly warning that he’d send us home if we ran around the lobby. We were to watch the movie and not move from our seats.

It was during a matinee of Bird of Paradise, starring Jeff Chandler and Debra Paget. The film’s setting was a tropical isle in the Pacific. Ms.Paget portrayed the island’s princess and Chandler, played her brother. Near the end of the film, the island’s dormant volcano erupts and the some of inhabitants want to sacrifice the princess. Here’s why I still recall watching the film….

At the very same moment that the on-screen volcano erupted, the Eureka Theater began to sway back and forth!

My brother and I remained in our seats as the audience ran for the exits. Though I was quite young, I understood the reason the aforementioned ballyhoo, but still naive enough to wonder, during the tremor “Did my daddy make the theater move like that?”