Record #:

8815

Author(s):

Arthur, Billy

Abstract:

North Carolina has long been a pioneer in the movie industry. The state was the site of the first all-cartoon show, the first double feature, and showed the first “talkies” in the South. Charlotte served as a movie distribution center during the 1920s and was considered a “second Hollywood.” The first movies seen by North Carolinians were shown by George Bailey and Fox Howard in 1906. The two men showed a movie in New Bern's Masonic Theatre. The movie was a success and the men took their movie to Wilmington's Bijou Theatre on December 24, 1906. The Bijou was the state's first theatre built exclusively to show movie pictures. In 1921, North Carolina produced a film on the Lost Colony which was shown all over the state. It was America's first educational film. Today, the movie industry is still thriving in North Carolina. In 1980 the N.C. Commerce Department created the N.C. Film Office, who predicts that the film industry will boost the state's economy $75 million to $100 million annually.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 51 Issue 7, Dec 1983, p12-13, por

Subject(s):

Theaters; Motion picture industry--History