About Me

My interest in early film exhibition began with research into the early history of country music surrounding Doc Watson. Movie theaters often doubled as venues for live performances and country musicians were common fare for the Northwestern North Carolina area. In my research, I compiled detailed notes of every available local paper from Caldwell and surrounding counties (primarily Watauga). Along the way, I realized that I had gathered information on theater openings and closings, as well as their exhibition histories, that would be valuable in a context outside of my work in music. So I have detailed information on all of the theaters that I will update over the coming weeks.

A word of warning: like Will Rogers, "All I know is what I read in the papers." I'm not a local (I'm originally from Atlanta, although my father's family comes from Bluff City, TN), so I don't claim to have any inside knowledge on these places. I have visited many of them--or rather, what is left of them--although I've never seen a movie in Caldwell County outside of my home there. So most of this information comes from trade periodicals and the Lenoir Topic, Lenoir News, and the Lenoir News-Topic. Some of it aligns closely to accepted knowledge in other sources, some of it doesn't. I've tried to document my sources carefully and, of course, this is a work-in-progress. I'm currently up to 1964 in the News-Topic, so I will be adding more and more information as I go.

Dr. Gary R. Boye

Music Librarian and Professor

Appalachian State University

boyegr@appstate.edu