An entertaining trip into Midland's theatre-going past (4 photos)

Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by René Hackstetter.

Every popcorn consuming kid from Midland lived for an afternoon or evening at the Roxy.

No one even minded Mrs. Cio coming down the aisle with her plastic baseball bat to whack those dumb enough to put their feet up on the seat ahead of them. Her concerns, being a devout Catholic, were for those wayward sinners, expressing their libidinal impulses too publicly and too vigorously.

Generations were nurtured on Tinseltown’s best productions while devouring everything sugary available. This isn’t about dietary restrictions though, it is about delicious excess on a Saturday afternoon.

There was a long tradition of entertaining in Midland from the days of the Model Theatre to the MCC today.

Before there was Art Bugg’s Theatorium on King, we had an Opera House, now remembered only in photos. In those days it was performed by actors, then came silent movies and the action was at The Model Theatre on King. Twelve reels for 25 cents.

Talking pictures, competition, a changing market and a new movie house further south down King with the opening of the Roxy had all the devotees moving  'uptown' in the late thirties.

For a time, the Arthur Rank organization in Britain consolidated many of the smaller movie chains and they all became part of the ODEON group. The Art Moderne buildings were very distinctive with their smooth geometric designs from the late thirties.

(Small aside: ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation,’ was the purported meaning of the acronym. His brother, Arnold Deutsch, interestingly, was the agent that recruited Kim Philby at Cambridge.)

Until the early seventies, small towns contained movie theatres within their boundaries. As suburban malls developed and many industries became consolidated, the movie business was no different with independent operators being pushed out. 

Art Bugg is gone, so are the Babcocks, who recently put up the drive-in property for sale.

The façade of the ODEON was a recognized landmark, but mould and deterioration prevented the sale of the property several times until an angel bought it and gifted it along with a new Cultural Centre to a grateful town. Thank you Reinhard Weber for realizing what a treasure was there.

Copyright, René Hackstetter, May 21, 2020.