At the Movies

There were three movies theatres in downtown Concord when I was young. The largest was the Cabarrus Theatre, which was located in the building between Central Methodist Church and the Hotel Concord. It had a large auditorium with a balcony, and was similar to the Gem Theatre in Kannapolis. I guess it seated about a thousand people. Another theatre was located across the street from the Cabarrus, and it was originally named the Paramount, but that name was later changed to the Center Theatre. It was smaller than the Cabarrus, but it had a balcony, and it had an ornate plaster ceiling which you can still see today if you go upstairs into what has been a series of restaurants since the building was remodeled in the seventies. The other theatre was the Pastime, which had a much smaller venue. I'll come back to it in a moment. There was also a fourth theatre, The State, which was right beside the Center, but I don't think it was in operation during my childhood.

The Cabarrus and the Center Theatres both carried first run "A" movies. They ran a lot of double features. (For the uninitiated, two back to back for the price of one.) There was always at least one cartoon, often a short (A short movie, only a few minutes long.), and sometimes a newsreel. The movies cost a quarter or less, depending on how old I was at the time, and there were often Saturday matinees where you could get in for a collection of coat hangers or six Sun Drop bottle caps. I got into a fight with a kid named "Lucky" at one of these matinees. These shows were very popular. First Charter, then Concord National, now Fifth Third, had a big photograph of a matinee in its lobby at the old headquarters. (After the Cabarrus went out of business, First Charter converted the building to its headquarters.) The show was packed with kids I grew up with. In both theatres, whites were only allowed to sit downstairs: the balconies were reserved for blacks. I don't know why the theatres discriminated against the whites this way. A lot of the movies were in black and white. Of course there had been color movies since the thirties, but I guess they were more expensive to make, so if color was not important to the look or feel of a movie, it was left out. I remember going to a Godzilla type movie that was in black and white except for the climax which showed a colorful electrocution of the monster as he became entangled in high voltage lines.

The other movie theatre in town was the Pastime. It was very small, and was located where Audry's boutique is now located. Notice, that the building is very narrow. The ticket booth and concession stand were both out on the street. The only aisle was located on the right hand side of the theatre. The Pastime mostly only showed "B" movies. I remember going to see a movie called "It" in the Pastime. Another movie I saw there was about this monstrous version of fear that could grip and brake your spine if you became afraid. Fear was rampant in the Pastime because there was always a chance that a rat might run up your leg. I learned later that the father of a teacher I had in high school owned the Pastime. The disregard this teacher and I held for each other was legendary. It made me happy to know that the pompous ass's fortune came from such a lowly source. Anyone that knows me knows to whom I refer.