The Cloyd & Johnson Building and the Electrical Theatre (1908-1909)

Almost completely forgotten about today, the Cloyd and Johnson Building on East Main St. hosted a movie theater for nearly a year from October 1908 until September 1909. Like most early theaters, it was not designed or built for film exhibition; rather, it was originally intended for a general store. This large brick building had opened in 1892 (Lenoir Topic 10/26/1892, p. 3) and housed the Cloyd and Johnson general store until it was sold to Theodore Kincaid in 1908 (Lenoir News 1/7/1908, p. 3). Kincaid operated the store only briefly before moving to another location. By May of 1908, the A.V. Miller furniture store and the Lenoir Realty & Insurance Company were the new tenants (Lenoir Topic 5/13/1908, p. 2 and Lenoir News 4/17/1908, p. 3). In the fall of 1908, the film exhibitions taking place in the Opera House across the street were moved into the building:

OF LOCAL INTEREST . . . The moving picture exhibitions, which have been given in the Opera House, will hereafter be given in the Cloyd and Johnson building on first floor adjoining the office of the Lenoir Realty & Insurance Co. The Opera House will be used as a skating rink. (Lenoir Topic 10/21/1908, p. 3)

The disposition of Miller's furniture store that autumn appears to be in question; he sells the business in December to the Lenoir Hardware & Furniture Company (Lenoir Topic 12/2/1908, p. 3). So he may have already cleared out his business stock at the time the theater equipment arrived. In any case, a "theater" at this time was relatively portable: little more than a projector, screen, folding chairs, and perhaps a piano.

The buildings are shown here in a combination of several period maps, with their dates of film exhibition:

How much space the new picture show occupied on the first floor of the building is unknown, but it co-existed with the real estate and insurance office, as noted above, and seemed immediately popular:

LOCAL AND PERSONAL . . . The Moving Picture Shows have been moved into the Lenoir Realty and Insurance building, where a nice room has been fitted up for the entertainments. The shows are well patronized and seem to be increasing in popularity. They are all well worth the small price of admission. (Lenoir News 10/30/1908, p . 3)

With its own space dedicated to movies—rather than having to share space with the wide variety of uses of the Opera House such as roller skating—the show could go on more frequently, even nightly (except on Sunday, of course):

OF LOCAL INTEREST . . . The new quarters for the moving picture exhibitions in the Cloyd and Johnson building have been completed and the shows are given there every night. They now have an up-to-date equipment and the pictures are interesting and instructive. (Lenoir Topic 10/28/1908, p. 3)

Little more than general terms such as "interesting and instructive" are ever applied to films in this building. In 1909, there were still relatively few films in existence and most of these were shorts of no more than 10 minutes. It was apparently enough to advertise that "moving pictures" were being shown and the novelty itself would bring out a sizable audience in a smaller town. There are no named films advertised at the Electrical Theatre throughout its run at the old Cloyd and Johnson Building.

The shows seem to have been operated by the Opera House owners initially, but shortly afterwards exhibition is taken over by two otherwise unidentified young men by the names of Hefner and Lentz (Lenoir Topic 12/23/1908, supp. p. 1). In March of 1909 the business once again transferred hands, this time to Lee Carlton. By April of 1909 the theater acquired a tentative new name:

ADDITIONAL LOCALS. . . . Mr. T. Lee Carlton, manager of the Electric Theatre is giving some splendid moving picture shows, and we are glad to say they are well patronized. (Lenoir News 4/20/1909, p. 2)

Carlton had found a relatively unique—and cost-effective—means of advertising in the lost and found section of the paper:

BUSINESS LOCALS. . . . FOUND-The place to spend a happy hour. The moving picture show has changed their film services and have the best pictures that can be obtained. New scenes every night, also the best piano and vocal music. Come out and enjoy yourself for one hour. T.L. CARLTON, Mgr. (Lenoir News 4/13/1909, p. 3)

The next month, "Electrical" was substituted in the notices on the venue and thereafter it would be called by that name. By May, the show was successful enough to hire out a local four-piece orchestra:

The Lenoir Orchestra.

It is very gratifying to all who are interested in music and the uplifting of the town to know that an orchestra comprising the following gentlemen has been formed: H.L. Baldwin, cornetist and manager; Edwin Cloyd, violinist; N.H. McRary, bass violin, and Hardy Turner, pianist. It is pleasing to know that there has been a hearty response in support of the orchestra, being engaged to play for a certain number of nights each week at the Electrical Theatre, and the popular store of the Lenoir Drug Co. . . . (Lenoir News 5/14/1909, p. 3)

Live music was a vital part of the "silent" cinema, not only for atmosphere during the films but also in between as reels were changed and to rest the eyes of an audience little accustomed to electric entertainments.

This theater is also an early example of another component of early film exhibition: the illustrated song. Singing in front of projected slides provided the early twentieth-century audience with two elements missing in the motion picture program: sound and color. Even before Carlton took over the business, slides were being used at the Electrical: "The pictures are interesting and instructive as well as entertaining. The illustrated song slides are beautiful hand-painted and show up well. The moving picture show is worthy of your patronage." (Lenoir Topic 1/13/1909, p. 3) Many early projectors of the period had separate slide projectors that could be used for such songs, while the films were being rewound on the other half of the machine. Later that year, Carlton advertised both "the best piano and vocal music" (Lenoir News 4/13/1909, p. 3), as well as "Rumble, the Fiddler" doing unspecified stunts between films (Lenoir News 7/16/1909, p. 3). For a recreated early performance of an illustrated song from 1909, see Good-By Girlie and Remember Me from the Documenting the American South website at UNC.

By September, Carlton had secured another, larger venue for the theater, the Harshaw Building, diagonally across from the old Cloyd and Johnson storehouse:

Local and Personal. . . . Mr. T. Lee Carlton, moved his Electrical Theater to the Harshaw building yesterday. Mr. Carlton found it necessary to secure larger quarters for his picture show and has now a much better and more comfortable place. The room has recently been cleaned and remodeled to suit his business and his patrons will find the new room more satisfactory in many ways. (Lenoir News 9/7/1909, p. 3)

At first glance, this building seems to be quite a bit smaller than the old location, so obviously the new building must have had a larger space for film exhibition—possibly the entire first floor. The movements of the picture show from the Opera House to the Cloyd and Johnson Building and then to the Harshaw Building are summarized in the following map:

By 1910, the Cloyd and Johnson Building was converted to My Store On the Square, another general store, by J.H. Smith of Greenville, SC, and then the McShane Mercantile Company just a couple of years later (Lenoir Topic 11/9/1910, p. 3 and Lenoir News 1/19/1912, p. 3). In April 1917, the Boldin-Turner Wholesale Grocery Company took over the building (Lenoir News 4/20/1917, p. 1), as seen on the 1921 Sanborn map, followed by a variety of other businesses, but never again a movie theater. At the Harshaw Building, the Electrical Theatre flourished and became the first of several short-lived but important film theaters in this building.

Dr. Gary R. Boye

Music Librarian and Professor

Appalachian State University

boyegr@appstate.edu