The Princess Theater

Memorabilia such as the old ticket window, movie reels and advertisements for upcoming shows can all be seen on display at the Fleming County Covered Bridge Museum.
 

The Princess Theater in 1942.

Years ago, one of Fleming County’s most beloved places of entertainment was the Princess Theater and is still the subject of many conversations to this day.

Kenneth Jones shared his memories of the movie house in an article he wrote in 1974 and reads as follows.

The picture show began when Mrs. G. Nelson Foxworthy bought half interest in the local movie house from Mr. Breeze in 1922.

Mr. Breeze was a brother to Nelson Breeze who owned a well-known carnival that played in Flemingsburg many times in past years.

At that time the theatre was in a building that for years housed Noah Timmons’ furniture and appliance business.

The only films shown in the early days were the silent variety.

Mrs. Foxworthy sold tickets for Mr. Breeze at one time and was also the piano players following Lolie Lee Lane. And was paid 50 cents per night.

By 1936 Mrs. Foxworthy had leased the building on Main Cross from C. L. Dudley and moved the operation of the theater there in June 1937.

Mrs. Foxworthy said the largest crowd ever drawn by a silent movie was “The Covered Wagon”.

The first sound movie shown in Flemingsburg was Seventh Heaven, starring Janet Gaylor and Charles Farrell.

Admission was 10 or 15 cents for children and 25 cents for adults.

Mrs. Foxworthy recalled that when they showed Gone with The Wind, it ran for an entire week and the lines were tremendous”.

The movies shown were said to be the most excellent and people that drove to Lexington would see picture shows there that had already been shown in Flemingsburg a year earlier.

A poplar stage play Roberta, that introduced a promising young comedian named Bob Hope, and later made into a movie musical, played in Flemingsburg even before it showed in Maysville and the Mason County citizens traveled to Flemingsburg to see it.

Sometimes the electricity would fail, and the lights would go out and Mrs. Foxworthy would refund the patrons money.

This was an era of great stars such as Gable, Taylor, Power, Grant, Crawford, Davis, Shearer, Bogart.

Mrs. William Colgan and her brother Bruce Whitton, worked at the Princess Theater for many years said it was not unusual for a thousand people to attend the movies over the weekend.

Westerns starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Hop Along Cassidy and the singing cowboy, Dick Foran, were shown on Saturdays and tremendous crowds would be lined up to view the next feature as soon as people emerged from the theater from the previous showing.

On the night of Jan. 4, 1942, the movie Sergeant York was in the Princess vault and scheduled to be shown.

Instead, a disastrous fire devastated the structure as well as three other buildings on that block.

The film burned, and Mrs. Foxworthy had to pay for it.

Side note-According to the news report the fire broke out as the town lay blanketed under a heavy snowfall. The fire was discovered by Thomas Hall. The block of businesses included the theater, a dry goods store, furniture store, clothing store and the Five and Dime store, owned by heirs of C.L Dudley.

After the fire movies were shown in the old high school auditorium until they could rebuild the theater in the former location.

The first film shown in the new movie house was “Swanee River”, starring Don Ameche. It was in color.

The new building had a popcorn machine and in the lobby you could buy candy and gum.

Some of the people who worked for the Foxworthy’s through the years were Alex Carpenter, James Cummings and Warren Talley,

Mrs. Foxworthy was known to give tickets to children and would let patrons in free of charge if they had seen the movie the night before.

In those days movies were worth seeing two or three times and many people did!

Mrs. Charles T. Clark said she loved the movies because she got many design ideas for sewing clothes. And members of the musically talented Harbeson family loved the melodies in films of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Those were the depression days but when you went to the movies you were given a brief respite from all the rest of the grim news.

Movies were magic, and Shirley Temple was the nations sweetheart.

On April 1, 1946, tiring of the seven night a week grind and the attendant responsibilities, Mr. and Mrs. Foxworthy leased the theater to W.R. Shafer.

During this time Mrs. Colgan was cashier and Mr. Whitton was manager.

However, the growing specter of television was looming large as a factor in keeping people away from the movies.

Too many of the great male stars who had served in the Armed Forces during World War II never quite regained their former popularity.

This plus new producers brought in from New York stage began to turn out slice of life pictures caused many former avid motion picture fans to stay away in droves.

O.G. Roden leased the building on July 1, 1954 from the Foxworthy’s and Kenneth Jones was installed as manager. Kenneth Russell later bought the building.

Movies at the Princess Theater came to an end in Flemingsburg on May 7, 1968 when Valley of the Dolls was presented as the last picture show.

Railroad memories

 With his gasoline lantern in hand, Bud Hunt stands along the railroad tracks in front of his home just east of Salt Lick, in Midland, Ky and remembers the days he spent working for the Licking River Railroad.

This week the subject of my story is the late Samuel Rudolph Hunt, who lived, worked and reared a family in a small village that still exist in the minds of those who once lived there.

Born Nov. 9, 1882, to Joseph Gill Hunt and Mary Ethel Williams Hunt, Samuel married Julie Mynhier and their children were Roxie, Mason, Calvin and Allie.

Some of his grandchildren’s fondest memories are the stories told to them by their grandfather.

His grandsons, Jerry,Tom, Steven and Jeffery along with his granddaughter, Debbie Hunt Cochran shared some of their favorite stories.

“Our Grandfather loved trains. Not many knew him by his given name, everyone that knew him called him Bud or uncle Bud, and his grandchildren affectionately referred to him as Poppie.

He lived at Yale and raised a tobacco crop each year on his farm. He also raised and sold watermelons. I think he sold them for about 50 cents each.

When Poppie was a young man, he worked for the Licking River Railroad, which hauled lumber from Yale to Salt Lick. He did several different jobs for the railroad. One of his jobs was brakeman. He would have to walk the length of the top of the train cars, climb down and set the brake, then climb up the end of the next car, etc. He was working as brakeman one day when the train was going down a hill and something happened that caused a "runaway train" situation. He had to run the tops of the train cars and set the brakes as quickly as possible to prevent a train wreck at the bottom of the hill.

The engineer was laughing because he scared Grandpa half to death!

Jeffrey said, “the situation was, according to Poppie, the engineer kept pouring the steam to the train going downhill. At the bottom of the downhill grade there was a curve, then an uphill grade. As the train went down the hill, Poppie realized the engineer wasn't slowing down so he started setting the brakes on the rail cars. After Poppie got the brakes set, he jumped from the train! The train slowed enough to make the turn without wrecking and drug to a stop on the uphill climb. After picking himself up and dusting himself off, Poppie caught up with the train, climbed back on the cars, loosened the brakes, and they proceeded to complete their run to Salt Lick. Poppie said before all that happened he could pinch with his toes nearly as hard as he could with his fingers. He said when he hit the ground, it knocked the pinch out of him.

Another story was when a drunk shot up the train. The sheriff took him away and the Judge left it up to Grandpa as to what to do with him. Grandpa told the judge that he was a pretty good fellow and he was sure he wouldn't do it again. The old guy told me himself back in the late sixties, "Bud Hunt didn't have to do that, but I'm glad he did".

There was a time when the railroad company wanted Poppie to move to New York to work for them. "Poppie also worked in the engine house. He was a mechanic, and he worked on the steam engines. As a result, he would always have a great love for railroads. When the LRR took up their tracks and were returning to New York, they asked Poppie to go with them, as he was the best mechanic they had. Poppie, always a homebody, couldn't bear the thought of leaving the only home he'd ever known, which was the area of Buck Creek and Yale. He turned down their offer and stayed at home, making his living from farming and logging. He also made and transported cross ties to Salt Lick for use in railroad construction."

Poppie was injured as a young man when he was working for the railroad. He was working between two of the railroad cars when a coupling flew loose and hit him in the ribs, resulting in a couple of broken ribs. The doctor who attended him bound his ribs so tightly that after they healed, he always walked stooped over, Debbie recalled.

Steve Hunt went on to add, “I remember once when a railroad rail broke in front of Poppies house. He was out there, probably with that same lantern flagging down big diesel locomotives. They were slowing down too! They were taking it serious.He was out there when they came to change the rail. Watching every move.”

Jeffrey said, “another story poppie used to tell me was, there were several people wanting to go to Blackwater one day. Sometimes if there were enough passengers they would hook to a passenger car and make a special trip to take them where they wanted to go. So this particular day after everyone paid enough money to make the run to Blackwater they set out for Morgan County. Upon arriving there the sheriff or town Marshall, or whoever, came out and informed poppie and the engineer that Mr. Hubbard, The owner of the railroad, had not paid his property taxes in Morgan County for the last year and therefore would hold the train until the taxes were paid. They had no money on the train so they were going to be forced to spend the night on the train. The sheriff brought a chain and a lock and wrapped the chain through the wheel and around the rail. Well, as darkness fell, Poppie was getting pretty anxious because he didn't want to spend the night away from home. As everyone in the community was going to bed the engineer told Poppie to fill the firebox and keep the fire hot. After it was dark and everyone had made their way back to the train, Poppie said the engineer slowly opened the valve and rocked the train forward tightening the chain in the wheel.The engineer looked at poppie and said, Bud, are you ready to go home? Poppie said before he could respond, the engineer yanked the throttle wide open in reverse, snapped the chain, and headed back down the tracks toward Yale, wide open in reverse, blowing the whistle all the way home! The next day Mr. Hubbard sent money by someone to pay the taxes in Morgan County, and all was forgiven”.

Poppie passed away on Nov. 2, 1973, but his his memories of a gentle, kind and caring man who loved trains will live on forever in the hearts of his family.

The next time you visit Cave Run Lake, stop for a minute as you look over the water, and maybe, just maybe, the echoes of an old train whistle can be heard in the wind as a reminder that the community of Yale once was a striving town in that very location.