The Last Picture Show: The Princess Theater

Memorabilia such as the old ticket window, movie reels and advertisements for upcoming shows can all be seen on display at the Fleming County Covered Bridge Museum.

The Princess Theater in 1942.

Years ago, one of Fleming County’s most beloved places of entertainment was the Princess Theater and is still the subject of many conversations to this day.

Kenneth Jones shared his memories of the movie house in an article he wrote in 1974 and reads as follows.

The picture show began when Mrs. G. Nelson Foxworthy bought half interest in the local movie house from Mr. Breeze in 1922.

Mr. Breeze was a brother to Nelson Breeze who owned a well-known carnival that played in Flemingsburg many times in past years.

At that time the theatre was in a building that for years housed Noah Timmons’ furniture and appliance business.

The only films shown in the early days were the silent variety.

Mrs. Foxworthy sold tickets for Mr. Breeze at one time and was also the piano players following Lolie Lee Lane. And was paid 50 cents per night.

By 1936 Mrs. Foxworthy had leased the building on Main Cross from C. L. Dudley and moved the operation of the theater there in June 1937.

Mrs. Foxworthy said the largest crowd ever drawn by a silent movie was “The Covered Wagon”.

The first sound movie shown in Flemingsburg was Seventh Heaven, starring Janet Gaylor and Charles Farrell.

Admission was 10 or 15 cents for children and 25 cents for adults.

Mrs. Foxworthy recalled that when they showed Gone with The Wind, it ran for an entire week and the lines were tremendous”.

The movies shown were said to be the most excellent and people that drove to Lexington would see picture shows there that had already been shown in Flemingsburg a year earlier.

A poplar stage play Roberta, that introduced a promising young comedian named Bob Hope, and later made into a movie musical, played in Flemingsburg even before it showed in Maysville and the Mason County citizens traveled to Flemingsburg to see it.

Sometimes the electricity would fail, and the lights would go out and Mrs. Foxworthy would refund the patrons money.

This was an era of great stars such as Gable, Taylor, Power, Grant, Crawford, Davis, Shearer, Bogart.

Mrs. William Colgan and her brother Bruce Whitton, worked at the Princess Theater for many years said it was not unusual for a thousand people to attend the movies over the weekend.

Westerns starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Hop Along Cassidy and the singing cowboy, Dick Foran, were shown on Saturdays and tremendous crowds would be lined up to view the next feature as soon as people emerged from the theater from the previous showing.

On the night of Jan. 4, 1942, the movie Sergeant York was in the Princess vault and scheduled to be shown.

Instead, a disastrous fire devastated the structure as well as three other buildings on that block.

The film burned, and Mrs. Foxworthy had to pay for it.

Side note-According to the news report the fire broke out as the town lay blanketed under a heavy snowfall. The fire was discovered by Thomas Hall. The block of businesses included the theater, a dry goods store, furniture store, clothing store and the Five and Dime store, owned by heirs of C.L Dudley.

After the fire movies were shown in the old high school auditorium until they could rebuild the theater in the former location.

The first film shown in the new movie house was “Swanee River”, starring Don Ameche. It was in color.

The new building had a popcorn machine and in the lobby you could buy candy and gum.

Some of the people who worked for the Foxworthy’s through the years were Alex Carpenter, James Cummings and Warren Talley,

Mrs. Foxworthy was known to give tickets to children and would let patrons in free of charge if they had seen the movie the night before.

In those days movies were worth seeing two or three times and many people did!

Mrs. Charles T. Clark said she loved the movies because she got many design ideas for sewing clothes. And members of the musically talented Harbeson family loved the melodies in films of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Those were the depression days but when you went to the movies you were given a brief respite from all the rest of the grim news.

Movies were magic, and Shirley Temple was the nations sweetheart.

On April 1, 1946, tiring of the seven night a week grind and the attendant responsibilities, Mr. and Mrs. Foxworthy leased the theater to W.R. Shafer.

During this time Mrs. Colgan was cashier and Mr. Whitton was manager.

However, the growing specter of television was looming large as a factor in keeping people away from the movies.

Too many of the great male stars who had served in the Armed Forces during World War II never quite regained their former popularity.

This plus new producers brought in from New York stage began to turn out slice of life pictures caused many former avid motion picture fans to stay away in droves.

O.G. Roden leased the building on July 1, 1954 from the Foxworthy’s and Kenneth Jones was installed as manager. Kenneth Russell later bought the building.

Movies at the Princess Theater came to an end in Flemingsburg on May 7, 1968 when Valley of the Dolls was presented as the last picture show.