Saturday, Jul. 19, 2008

Campus Theatre to be returned to former splendor

The Campus Theatre, Milledgeville's picture palace, has long lost its splendor.

A powder blue child's glove rests in a ticket-booth window, still waiting for its owner to claim it. Inside the main entrance, a sheet of plywood doubles as a welcome mat and covers a hole bored through the now-bare floor to explore underground.

In the auditorium, where crowds once cheered hometown boy-turned-movie star Oliver Hardy, chairs are piled in a metal heap in front of a tattered white screen.

The Campus Theatre is not what it used to be. But it will get back some of its grandeur when Georgia College & State University is done.

The university has begun the demolition phase of a $6.9 million renovation to turn the 1930s art deco-style movie house into a bookstore and black box-style performance theater. Workers have ripped up carpet and seating, but true construction is set to begin in December, with plans calling for it to open in December 2009.

When the theater opened in 1935, it was billed as a "big step in the progress" of downtown, Bryan Jackson, GCSU's director of media relations, told a group of media and other guests Friday.

"Now, we think it's going to be a big step in the revitalization of downtown Milledgeville," Jackson said.

One of the invited guests, Sandra Jones, paused where the concession stands once stood and recalled the theater served up some of the best popcorn anywhere. Moments later, she looked out across the gutted auditorium.

"This is a different view for me," she said.

Jones, 55, and other blacks watched from the balcony during segregation. The theater had air conditioning and was the place many folks came to escape the heat on summer days. Jones said people often watched movies over and over.

"It was the coolest place in town," she said. "You got some popcorn and made it last."

Kyle Cullars, the university's director of auxiliary services, remembered seeing the first "Superman" movie starring Christopher Reeve there.

The theater closed Sept. 8, 1983, following the 9 p.m. showing of "Space Raiders," a futuristic tale about a boy kidnapped by space pirates.

The building was sold several times over the years, and talk about it reopening surfaced occasionally. Randall Hattaway, who sold the building to the university for $817,996, has used the second floor for his accounting firm's office, and Milledgeville MainStreet also has had an office there.

The university plans to restore the facade to its original look, including the restoration of its entrance, marquee and ticket booths.

The building will be expanded to 21,000 square feet from 17,000 square feet. The area beneath the auditorium floor will house the bookstore, and the auditorium floor will be raised and converted to a black box theater - a simple performance space with black walls and a flat floor. The stage will remain, and the space could be used for musical performances and movie showings, Jackson said.

"We anticipate the community being able to rent the place," he said.

The balcony area and the rest of what will become the third floor will be converted to offices, much-needed classrooms and storage space for the theater department, dressing rooms and a control room.

Friday, Roy Davis climbed the stairs and walked across to the far end of the balcony. He recalled as a 13-year-old coming over from Wilkinson County with his father in 1965 to watch his first movie, "Lassie's Greatest Adventures."

"We sat right here," Davis said, grinning and pointing repeatedly toward the floor with both hands. "I remember because there was a broken chair there, and we made my little brother sit in it."

Jones, a volunteer for the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Convention & Visitors Bureau, gives black history tours around town. The Campus Theatre has been one of her stops.

Friday, she shared some personal history with the theater.

"I had my first date up here," she said near the balcony's overhang. "I was 14. I don't even remember the movie."

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To contact writer Rodney Manley, call 744-4623.