The days of the small-town movie theaters are a thing of the past. I am sure most of you have some fond memories of attending the old Cinderella Theater on Third Avenue in downtown Williamson.

Many of you who grew up in or near another small town in the 1950s through the 1970s also had a unique movie theater in your communities.

Those old buildings had a cool multi-lighted marquee on the front of the building that advertised the newest movies and the coming attractions that many were waiting for to be released.

They were architectural masterpieces with unique designs and huge screens. The slanted floors helped those seated in the middle or rear of the theater have a wonderful view of the movie.

Many of them, like the old Cinderella Theater, also had a balcony.

Of course there was always a concession stand. (I can almost smell the freshly made buttered popcorn. The aroma was awesome—and there is something about the taste of popcorn from an old movie house.)

One of my earliest memories is going to the Cinderella Theater with my family to see a movie when I was very young.

As I got a little older I went to the Saturday matinees. Usually it was a double feature, for which I’m sure the cost, compared to today’s prices, was much cheaper at only 50 cents. Sometimes I would meet some classmates from school. Those are some great memories.

It was a special treat to get to go to “town” and go to the movies. Money was usually tight for our family and many others, so saving enough to attend and even get a ride to Williamson was a big deal back in the day.

I recall seeing movies like Godzilla, Hercules, Disney movies, the old Batman movie with the 1960s TV actors, and many others on Saturday afternoons.

The only negative about the old theater was the men’s bathroom. It was like going down into a dungeon. You went down a long set of stairs, took a couple of turns in a long hallway, and the bathroom was deep in the basement. That was sort of scary when you were really young, especially if you were watching a horror movie. Heck, I did not like it even when I was older.

Years later, in high school and into the mid-1970s, I saw movies like Jaws, Star Wars and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the old theater.

I can remember certain popular movies had long lines of viewers up and down the sidewalk waiting to purchase a ticket to get in. So you had to get there early – especially on a Friday or Saturday night.

I’m sure many of you went on your first dates to the old theaters and then afterwards maybe to the local hangout. For many in the Williamson area it was the Walnut Room that had the best pizzas around, or Justice Drive Inn and Trailblazers, which were on the Kentucky side of Williamson.

I am not old enough to remember them, but I have seen old pictures of movie theaters in smaller towns like Nolan, Kermit, Delbarton and others.

I can barely recall going to the old drive-in movie theater located in South Williamson, where the Appalachian Plaza is now located. I was very young when that was still around. There was also a drive-in at East Kermit, which was still around into the 1970s.

For the younger folks, a drive-in theater is where you sit in your car and have a speaker that hangs from your rolled-down window for the sound. The huge screen is at one end of the lot and there are parking spaces for those who pay their money to go in and watch the movie.

These were more popular in warmer months.

You may have seen some of these in movies with the time span from the 1950s-60s. It was a popular date location for teens.

But there is still something special about those old theaters like the Cinderella. They were marvelous buildings, beautifully constructed with gorgeous decorations and a certain unique atmosphere.

Like many other things from our childhoods and teenage years, these old movie palaces are pretty much a thing of the past. With the building of shopping malls came the advent of cinemas, where you had several movies to choose from.

The local South Side Mall Theater, which struggled during the COVID pandemic and lock-down like most movie cinemas, is now closed. There were the twin cinemas at Kermit in the 1980s and 90s that are now gone. Even the big multi-cinemas have suffered over the past few years.

The invention of the VCR, DVD player and being able to rent movies also hurt the industry. Now you can rent a new movie “on demand” through most cable television companies. Pay-per-view channels like Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax and Showtime have certainly made it easier for people to watch movies from the comfort of their living rooms.

Now, streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have expounded on that. Many people have a satellite dish outside their homes and can pick up hundreds of channels.

Still there was something special about going to the old theater with your friends on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, sharing some popcorn and a soft drink and maybe even some candy.

There was a certain magic about those old theaters. Those days will likely never return, but we will always have cherished memories.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)