Rebel Theatre
116 W. Pine Street,
Hattiesburg,
MS
39401
116 W. Pine Street,
Hattiesburg,
MS
39401
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Previously operated by Lomo Theatre Circuit.
October 20th, 1915 grand reopening article
Lomo theatre reopening 20 Oct 1915, Wed Hattiesburg Daily News (Hattiesburg, Mississippi) Newspapers.com
The city stopped the Rebel from showing “Et Dieu… créa la femme” in 1958. Here’s the movie.
Lohmann and Mollere fused their name together to launch their Lomo Theater on September 7, 1910 on a 5-year lease. The establishment went bankrupt in 1914 and sold for just $670 at auction. After reopening, the winning bidders created a new-build venue launching as the New Lomo Theatre on West Pine on October 21, 1915 with its first feature Francis X. Bushman in “Second in Command.” The Gulf Arm & Creosoting Company – later Gulf Amusement Circuit – built the theater along with the Southern Metro Picture Corporation. It was located next to the office of the town’s streetcar operator, the Hattiesburg Traction Company. The theater remained silent closing in 1929.
Paramount-Gulf later decided to breathe new life in the venue equipping it for sound and a grand opening relaunch in 1933. It closed the Lomo there on July 14, 1950 likely at the end of lease with Roy Rogers in “Jeepers Creepers” supported by “Trail of the Hawk,” a Popeye cartoon and Chapter Five of “Invisible Monster.” (Give the Dome Theatre credit for continuing the serial from that point and getting the town’s moviegoers to the 12th and culminating episode.)
Lloyd Royal’s Royal Circuit - which had the original Royal in town back in 1914 - took on the venue and - after a significant refresh - reopened it as the Rebel Theatre on April 12, 1952 with Alan Young and Dinah Shore in “Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick.” The Rebel lived up to its name booking the racy Brigette Bardot film, “And God Created Woman.” As showtime neared, the city stepped in forbidding the show until an agreed upon, “sharply edited” version finally played there in November 1958. That turned out to be one of the last movies for the Rebel as it was sold by Royal Circuit under the agreement that no further pictures would play there for five years.
The venue would be renamed as the McGinnis Building used for a newsstand, a realtor office, and a jeweler thereafter. It was torn down without returning to cinematic greatness. Royal would move the Rebel name to the Ritz Theatre, and after a refresh, the Rebel continued there using the same exterior “R"s that dated to the Rose in the 1930s and the Ritz, previously. The Rebel would go full-time adult / foreign film exhibition in its final days as the Rebel Art Cinema under its purchase by Gulf States The Rose/Ritz/Rebel/Rebel Art closed when the the Cinema Theatre was opened by the circuit elsewhere in town.
To locals, however, the building housing the Lomo for decades and the Rebel for just a few was generally referred to as the former Lomo Theatre upon its demolition.
The Rebel theater that I recall was located on Pine Street next to Sackler’s Furniture Store which is a block west down from the U.S. Post Office. There is a possibilty that the LOMO occupied the lot adjacent to the Sackler Store lot after moving from the Magnolia Building that was directly across the street (south) from the U. S. Post Office. In the early 1940s, there was a Belk’s Deparmtent Store across from the U.S. Post Office.
The Lomo’s listed stopped in 1951 and the Rebel theatre opened across from the post office on April 12th, 1952. Is this the same theatre?