User:Adam/sandbox

Drive Ins

Starlite - 650 car capacity, built in 1948, fire ranged through the 50ft tall screen on Oct 3, 1988, and officially closed in March 1989.. Arson with two arrests. Malco in Memphis operated this screen at closing. The first business developed on the property, and on the new street, Starlite Drive, was Heilig-Meyers Furniture Company in 1993. Goodwill purchased this building at 2916 West Parrish Ave in March 2002. Kroger moved across Parrish Ave started building in 1995, opening June 12, 1996.

Oasis - opened in the mid-1950s and was located at present-day 5747 Hwy 2830.

Parkway (later Twilite) - Sept. 25, 1952, J. Welmer Buncoe opened the new theater named The Twilite.

Cardinal - Bill Dennis owned and operated this drive in for several years. The Delbert J. Glenn Funeral Home (previously located at 104 E. 4th St) bought the property in June 1984 (deed 531-148)

Owensboro - Daviess County's first drive-in theater, opened by James Wilmer "Col. Jim" Blincoe.

Theaters

The Plaza - opened in 1967 in Wesleyan Park Plaza. A second screen was added later. It closed in 2000.

The Mall Twin Cinemas - opened in Lincoln Mall in 1971 and closed in 1997, later being bought by Owensboro Christian Church.

Owensboro Twin opened in 1980 to replace the Owensboro Drive-In, added 4 screens in 1987 as the Owensboro 6, became Maclo 8 in May 1989. It was razed in 1997 to make way for a new shopping center, and the Cinema 12 was built a little further south later that year. It became the Owensboro Cinema 16 in 2003.

Malco (in the Empress) - closed early 1989. Empress oepend on Oct. 29, 1912 and was built exclusively for movies. It was also known as the Center for a period of time. When it closed in 1989, it was the 2nd oldest movie theater in the US, according to the Theater Historical Socity of America.

In 1906, John P. Walker opened a nickelodeon on 2nd St between St. Ann and Frederica St (219 W 2nd St.). A second theater, the Tri-State Nickel-Odeon, opened a few months later, further west in the same block.

Orpheum - 111 W. 2nd St, the "Showplace of Main Street" opened in 1909 and offered vaudeville acts as well as motion pictures, free ice water, and baseball scores.

Grand - Previously the Cooke & Tompkins Stemmery. 101-105 St Ann St, later American Legion which was razed in 2016. Balcony, asbestos curtain, steam heat, electric lights.

Temple - 122-126 E 2nd St, later becoming S. W. Andersons. Seating capacity of 1000, balcony, steam heat, gas and electric lights in 1900

Airdome opened in the 300 block of Frederica in 1907 by Ben "Buddy" Nunn.

The People's Theatre, opened in 1909 and advertised "three vaudeville acts plus 2,000 feet of motion pictures."

The Peep-In at Ninth and Breckenridge streets opened in January 1916.

The Bleich, at 410 Frederica St. (just north of the Empress), began as a combination moving picture and live-action theater around 1920. It closed around 1956.

The Seville, a combination vaudeville-movie house, opened on the southeast corner of Third and St. Ann streets (118 W. Third St.) in 1931 and closed in 1955.

The Strand opened in 1939 on the northwest corner of Second and St. Ann. (201 W. Second St.) and closed in the mid-1960s.

Capri Theater, opened in 1972 as an adult movie house showing R and X-rated films, opened in an existing building at 117 W. Second St. It closed two years later.

FROM: MI 3-24-1989, 6-9-1996, 12-11-1992, 2-13-2011

Mall groundbreaking - 1977

Big E - opened Oct 1977