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and audio equipment, the first of its
kind in the area. Like most establishments
at the time, the movie house
was segregated; white patrons entered
through doors that led to the theater’s
orchestra seats, black patrons entered
through a separate door that led to the
balcony.
“The big thing for us,” says Sandy
Powell, who grew up in downtown
Wrightsville Beach, “was that the
popcorn machine was outside and we
could smell the popcorn popping as
we walked by.”
For the Boltons, the Crest Theater
was a family affair. “Jack Thompson
was a family friend,” recalls Lynn
Hartwick, from her Marion, South
Carolina, home. “My grandfather,
James Brunson Bolton, was the
janitor, and I’d go with him every
morning to clean the theater up from
the night before. My Mom, the late
Helen Bolton Nettles, worked there
at night as a ticket cashier. Before I
was old enough to help,” Hartwick
says, “my grandfather would stroll me
down to Newell’s for ice cream, and I
would wave at my Mom at the cashier
window.”
Like the aroma of freshly popped
corn, some movie memories also
linger.
“I do remember old films, such as
The Alamo (1960),” Hartwick says,
“and all the Frankie and Annette
(Avalon and Funicello) beach classics.”
There were four, beginning with the
1963 Beach Party and ending with
Beach Blanket Bingo in 1965.
It was about that time that the
Crest started to show foreign films
by such notable directors as Federico
Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and
Ingmar Bergman. Showing too, were
nefarious flicks not considered suitable
to a family beach, though it’s hard to
know at exactly what point and over
which movie the Crest began to test
the limits of community acceptance.
But, it was clear from the outset that
X-rated films were not going to fly on
Wrightsville.