Editing Theatre Exhibit (section)

=== '''TWO GREATS''' ===
There have been a lot of movie theaters in Greer through the years — many more than are discussed in this exhibit. There have been at least two drive-in theaters; others along Wade Hampton; and one primarily for Black residents in the Sunnyside area. Even as others came and went, the Grand and the Greer were overwhelmingly dominant for decades.

'''ELVIS IN THE WINDOW:'''

The Elvis “poster” is promoting the movie “Jailhouse Rock,” which ran the first week of November, 1957. This might have been the last movie ever shown in the theatre, which was closed by the end of that year (it was reopened by other management later).
It might be hard to tell, but the Elvis poster is actually mounted inside a window, which actually came out of the Grand. When the Grand closed, a teenage girl who loved Elvis went to claim this poster. She found it mounted inside the window, between two panes of plexiglas, and no obvious way to get the poster out; so, somehow, she took the whole window instead. Amazing. Her daughter donated the window to the Museum.

'''THEATRES OF RACISM:'''

While segregation was evil enough, racism grew even darker after the epic Birth of a Nation was released. While this movie never actually played in Greer (it required a very large theatre with a full symphony orchestra to play the score), its impact was immense. A few years later, the Ideal Theatre (most recently Grace Hall, at 108 Trade Street) hosted the event described here, in which a former governor defended slavery and the KKK. This was not a unique event; there were numerous Memorial Day and other celebrations of Civil War veterans in which similar speeches were given.