The Tent Show
In the late 30’s and early 40’s, a “tent
show” was a special attraction for the community. A “tent
show” was a movie theater in a tent that came to town once
or twice each year and stayed for about a week showing a
different movie each night. If attendance were good it
might stay an additional week. It would be erected on a
vacant lot and under the tent, bench type seats were
installed which could accommodate about a hundred people.
Most of the movies were very old “cowboy” movies. Some were
even silent movies that had been enhanced with sound. This
was many years before television and any type of movie
would draw a crowd. Admission was usually ten cents and
popcorn was sold inside before the show for a nickel.
During World War II because so many young men were away in
the armed services, school would be suspended on certain
days to allow school children to help local farmers gather
their cotton crop. Organized groups of students would be
taken to a farm where they would pick cotton at a rate of
one cent per pound. A group of my classmates and I went to
Mr. Carl Graves’ farm and spent a day picking cotton. Most
of us were not too good at picking cotton and not used to
working all day in the hot sun. Each of us was given a
large basket to collect our cotton. I picked a sack full of
cotton and went to empty it in my basket. I was surprised
to see a classmate sitting in his basket under a shade tree
on the edge of the field. I asked what he was doing and he
explained that he had already picked fifteen pounds and
that was enough to go to the tent show currently in town
and to buy a box of popcorn too.
To many of us the “tent show” was our concept of theater. A
cousin and her family were invited by a neighbor to attend
a movie at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. At that time the Fox
Theater was the most elegant theater in Atlanta and even
today it’s quite special with its stars overhead. My cousin
was very young and had never attended a movie in a real
theater. As they were being seated at the Fox Theater, she
was overcome by the strangeness of this first time
experience and began bawling out loud, “I don’t like this
tent show.”
Every now and then, late at night on the late, late movie,
I see one of those real old “cowboy” movies again. I pop
some popcorn in the microwave and again in my imagination
sit under the big tent.