Motion Pictures
My grandfather said that when he was a
teenager in the late 1890’s he went to a sideshow at the
county fair where they were exhibiting a “moving picture.”
This was something that he had read about but had never had
the chance to see. He said the film which was very short
showed a group of soldiers from the Spanish-American War
marching from left to right on the screen. He had no
problem with that, but out of the blue came an officer
marching in the opposite direction. He could not understand
how a picture could move in two directions at the same
time. When he got home he told his father about seeing the
“moving picture” and about the officer moving in the
opposite direction from the group of soldiers.
His father said, “Son it’s all right to go to those
sideshows, but there’s no use lying about what you see.”
Dr. Seawright had an office and drugstore in the building
where Charles Ballard has his office today. He used to show
movies once a week in front of this building in the middle
of Highway 85. A huge screen was placed at the intersection
of Highways 85 and 54. Some people came in cars and parked
in a drive-in fashion, few had chairs, but most just stood
in the road and watched. No fee was charged. Dr. Seawright
just enjoyed showing off this technology. He was always on
the cutting edge of new things. He had the first neon sign
in Fayetteville which was displayed in the window of
Seawright’s Drug Store.
One of my first experiences with motion pictures was with
the tent shows that came to town several times a year. One
tent show in order to entice people to come to their shows
used a movie camera to take everyday activities of people
in the community and to show them each night in addition to
the feature film. We all wanted to see ourselves in the
movies and their idea worked quite well. During World War
II when most of the young men were away, this same tent
show came to town. They had kept those old films made when
things were peaceful and those away at war were still at
home. They showed one each night and the tent would be
overflowing with those of us wishing to get a glimpse of
our loved ones away from home. My daddy had run a store on
the courthouse square. I remember seeing a short clip of
him in front of the store.
Mr. James Jones (who later became Fayette’s sheriff) had an
indoor theater in the building just west of where the A
& T Grocery used to be. It was small and used folding
chairs for seats.
Later when I was about fourteen, Mr. Duffy had a theater on
the South Courthouse Square with a balcony where “blacks
only” were allowed. Mr. Duffy also ran the Fayette Drive-In
Theater located just north of Fayetteville on Highway 85.
It was many years before we had a first class
theater.