Cape Fear Museum goes to the movies
January 8, 2010By Josh Spilker
The Cape Fear Museum will explore the history of movie-going in the Cape Fear area in a new temporary exhibit. The new feature includes photos of old local movie houses, including a large map of New Hanover County with the location of theaters since the late 1800s.
“From nickelodeons to multiplexes, going to the movies is and has been an essential part of our culture,” Museum Historian Janet Davidson said in a press release. “We wanted to look at that experience and show how it’s shifted over time.”
One of the earliest movie theaters in Wilmington was the Bijou Theater on Front Street in downtown Wilmington. It opened in 1906 with a canvas screen and folding chairs before opening an 800-seat theater six years later.
Also on exhibit, according to a press release are more than a dozen oversized historic photos of area
theaters and a slideshow of more than 400 handbills from movies that played in Wilmington during the 1920s and ’30s. The handbills were discovered in a downtown dumpster and purchased by the Cape Fear Museum in 1985.
The exhibit will run through Nov. 7, 2010.
