Checotah family's theater hopes turn sour with economy
By Sonya Colberg
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Published: October 31, 2009
CHECOTAH — The single stoplight in Carrie Underwood's song is just steps away from where the Coleman family found its little movie theater.
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The Gentry Theater began as the W. Morgan Hardware, Furniture store in the late 1890s or early 1900s, according to the wood facade that new owner Richard Coleman uncovered. Sometime around 1940, the building was converted to a theater and became a stage for vaudeville acts and local talent shows.
“I'm sure in the ‘40s it was a rocking joint. There was nothing else to do,” Coleman said. “It could be successful again.”
The building reopened briefly as a clothing and alterations store but was mostly vacant until 2007, the year the Coleman family bought it.
Townspeople stopped by during renovations to reminisce about the theater.
Rick Smith said he was 11 when he began working in the 1960s as Gentry's theater projectionist for $2.50 per night; he sometimes worked in concessions and sold tickets. His brother worked there, too, and they sold tickets in the early 1960s for 35 cents for adults and 25 cents for 12 and under, as he remembers. Ticket prices have risen over the years and are now $7.50 for adults and $6 for children and seniors.
One visitor told the Colemans about how, when the town was segregated, Checotah's black residents would wait in the alley to sit in the balcony because they were forbidden from walking in the white moviegoers' entrance. So they figured out how to make movie-going more equal. When they wanted popcorn, they paid the alley ticket taker to get some bags from the concession stand, Coleman said. While the ticket taker was gone, they'd run upstairs and settle into their balcony seats.
Then there was the marsupial incident. A boy named Jerry caught a possum, smuggled the critter into the theater ... and quickly emptied the place, Coleman said.
More recent stories surround the theater, renamed Gentry Cinema after the renovations.
Coleman said on a weekday shortly after the theater opened, a woman who looked like singer Carrie Underwood visited the theater and had a look around as he talked to someone he thought was Underwood's mother.
A couple of months ago, Smith, owner of Western Auto next door to the theater, said he noticed a couple of cameramen walking backward in front of his store, the theater and down the street. They were taping Carrie Underwood with ABC network anchor Robin Roberts, focusing on Underwood donating $117,000 worth of band instruments to her hometown school.
“I was kind of shocked,” Smith said.
Underwood is part of a Roberts primetime special on country music stars airing at 9 p.m. Nov. 10 on ABC.
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And those instruments for the school she didn't pay for either - some Nashville music foundation approached her and they donated it - it's not from Carrie Underwood, really.
She is not a giver, Carrie likes to receive.
This is a hail Mary - don't get your hopes up on it. But based on the story here, it seems as if it's not a bad final card to play.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I'm the owner if the theater.
This theater is not a failed business. Even in this recession, it supports itself. As a new business, it has a much better beginning than most other new businesses (that usually lose money the first few years). The problem is that I personally have no more resources to support my family while the theater is supporting itself. The building remodel cost us a lot more than we anticipated.
I did my research before I purchased this historic building. Checotah (along with the rest of McIntosh County) has a population of about 20,000. This is the only Cinema in the county and the closest one for nearly all of the residents of the county. When you consider that the average American attends movies right around 5 times per year, you can see that McIntosh County is not too small to support a theater. A new Walmart Super Center just came to town.
The cinema has 2 screens that seat 32 and 132. I do believe it would be much harder to function as a single screen theater, since film distributors usually require at least a two week engagement for new releases. That's why so many small town theaters are gone.
We play first run films.
I hope Checotah will still have a movie theater, because we will soon be moving out of state.
It's a wonderful opportunity for someone who is social and values community. If you wish to give it a try, or submit an offer - here is our site: http://www.GentryCinema.com
As for Carrie Underwood: it would be great if she made it her own or gave it to the town, but she has other interests now.
Thanks
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