remember when
51
“There was a lot of discussion about it,”
Rogers says. “I don’t know exactly how
we were appointed to go and see one of
these movies, but we went.” In this official
capacity as mayor, he found himself seated
between two women, watching (what was
then) a XXX-rated movie. “I had to get up
and leave,” he says. “I think three or four of
us got up and left. (The Crest) was on its
way out when we went,” he adds. “It was
closed down shortly after that.”
By the time Rogers concluded his tenure
as mayor, the building had been sold and
remodeled into an arcade—equipped with
pool tables, foosball, air hockey and a small
grill—with an upstairs lounge. The arcade
was managed by Dave West.
Born six years after the Crest opened,
West attended Wrightsville Beach School,
and until he moved away to attend junior
and senior high school and ultimately, college
in Chapel Hill in the early 60s, he had
been one of the Crest Theater’s regular
patrons.
“There were probably only around 200
year-round residents at the time,” West
recalls, “and this was a bunch of kids that
had all grown up together. I don’t remember
the movies that much,” he adds, “but I
do remember that Tuesday night was foreign
film night, and I remember Never on
Sunday (1960) showing there.”
“I don’t know exactly how we were appointed to go and see one of these
movies, but we went ... I think three or four of us got up and left.
(The Crest) was on its way out when we went.”
More than 60 years after its construction, the
cinderblock walls of the former Crest Theater
still stand. The building’s tenants and the
neighbors have changed, but downtown
Wrightsville Beach still looks much the same
as it did in this ‘50s era photo courtesy of the
Wrightsville Beach Museum of History.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM