Miss Louise Mask (1893 - 1982)

Louise Mask, born in Hardeman County on a farm just west of Hickory Valley, TN. She worked at the War Department in Washington, DC from 1918- 1921. She taught school in Memphis and Hardeman County.

Tennessee Valley Authority brought electric services came to Bolivar in 1936 by. By Feb. 1936, Louise Mask opened a theater on East Market Street next to Bubber’s Café. The origin of the theater’s unusual name Luez Theater came as Ms. Mask wanted a name with only four letters, and when building the first theater held a naming contest for it. The name Luez, a phonic contraction the name Louise, was the winning submission.

Dr. R.L. Cobb was the first county public health officer with offices in Bolivar. Dr. Cobb’s program for dental health and corrected physical defects in children would be long remembered. He started "Blue Ribbon Day Parade." This was first held in April 1934 and ran though the 1960’s. Later, Ms. Mask working with Dr Cobb with “Blue Ribbon Day” program; had the school children march to the theater on a school day to watch a free movie, if the child had completed their health and dental requirements. This encouraged parents and children to get shots and health attention they needed. Community leaders raised funds to help with poorer children in seeing their needs were seen to as well. “Ms. Luez” became “the baby sitter of the county or “the flashlight queen,” which ever you called her… she was the well known as the owner of the Luez Theater. Ms. Mask was well known for her stern rule. Movies were kept quiet or you were out. No kissing or holding hands. Candy and popcorn were sold, but no soft drinks. She did not want to put up with sticky floors. One trip to the water fountain and bathroom were allowed. If you could not follow the rules, then just follow the flashlight on your way out the door! She would STOP the movie if necessary. You never wanted to be banned from the theater. She operated the theater from 1936 through 1968, and opened the "new" location on Main Street with a grand opening the week of March 4, 1948, with 250 opera chairs complete with air conditioning.

This old movie theater, The Luez Theater has been an entertainment focal point of this county, very typical of many movie houses in the early 20th Century. It played News Reels, Our Gang comedy shorts, and COLOR CARTOONS played before showing current Hollywood films... Amazingly, this historic building was still being used for the latest releases under Charles Wheeler's ownership until September 2012.

"Miss Louise", as she was known, is gone: she retired from the movie business in 1968, and died in 1982 at age 88. But her baby, the Luez, lives on thanks to the Bolivar Downtown Development Corporation (hopefully to be enjoyed by future generations)!

Tribute to Miss Louise Mask...

When I was a kid ... she once offered me a job (it paid $1/hour); I declined the offer but if I knew what I know now...I should have taken the job and have asked her to just pay me in the old movie posters that she threw away each week in lieu of a salary!!! We kids went to the movies every Saturday for a matinee ... 15 cents for age 12 and under and 35 cents for older kids and adults. Popcorn was 5 cents! Miss Louise was a member of the Memphis Censorship Board that met every Wednesday...we never saw a "risque movie" in Bolivar because she would not allow them to be shown in her theatre.

I am dedicating this Movie Poster Database of over 5,500 movie poster images to Miss Louise Mask as she was our main form of entertainment in Bolivar from 1936 to 1968. Many of these movie posters once graced her theater! Click on the link below:

https://imageworld.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/4hk1g0

Here are FEW simple instructions for viewing this Movie Poster Link:

You can drill down from menu by choosing Browse All or Category Pages

>>Browse ALL shows you thumbnails of movie posters and you can REFINE your search by selecting a combination of attributes, use the MORE button to see

more items in the listing or even do an Advanced Search for like Search on

Field "Stars" = John Wayne to see a view of just John Wayne movie posters

>>Category Pages view is neat because you can see Movie Genre listing with

counts, Studio listing with counts, Movie Title Listing in Alpha order with

counts, Year and Decade of Movie with Counts. This is nice because you can

quickly view what movies were popular when you were born or were young...by

Decade or by Year.

Woody Savage