Odeum Theatre

50sSNIPES on July 20, 2022 at 5:44 pm

Actually, the Palace Theatre name was left attached after being sold Mr. and Mrs. George Hite in 1947.

The Palace Theatre in the third week of February 1953 began operating under receivership ordering by the 15th District Court, which ended their three-week run when the Palace Theatre closed for more than three months beginning on March 2, 1953. Robert Doss was appointed receiver by the court in connection with its property settlement agreement upon the divorce suit of Carl and Jewel Moses who were owners of the property. Doss told the court that their operation was not getting enough paying customers to pay operating expenses. Despite being a first-run theater, people in Whitewright had to travel to either the Ritz in Sherman or the Ritz in McKinney to see first-runs such as “Peter Pan” or “Bear Country” among others. Otherwise the closest theater out of Whitewright being the New Theatre in neighboring Trenton pretty much had a push on mixed-formatted films (which both the New Theatre and the silent-era Queen Theatre would have their own pages on CinemaTreasures soon).

After being taken over by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gillespie three-and-a-half months later, an announcement to rename the theater was introduced. David Layman (Rt. 4), L.A. Watkins Sr., Richard Dean Cook, Mrs. W.K. Alexander, and Shirley Brown suggested the Linda name (or a variation). With the theater becoming the Linda Theatre being remodeled including seats and updates on a cry room, smoke room, bathrooms for both genders, new screen, a larger lobby, and an updated sound system, the theater reopened as the Linda Theatre on June 25, 1953 with Ann Sheridan in “Take Me To Town” (unknown if any short subjects were added due to The Whitewright Sun not demonstrating extras beneath its showing schedule). Five days later, the theater introduced a frequent schedule. They first introduced Cash Night, which picked up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, similar to a Darto game. And later on September 24, 1953, the Gillespies updated the schedule and introduced “Family Night” on Thursdays and Fridays with a 50 cent admit.

Sad to say that the “newly installed” screen that was used since the Linda Theatre reopening only lasted for a year-and-a-half. CinemaScope was introduced and installed on November 11, 1954, with “Brigadoon” as the first CinemaScope film two days later, taking over as a Saturday prevue and a Sunday matinee.