Small town theater offers big time fun
Small town, small theater and small prices equal a hallmark of community tradition.
The Lewiston Theater on the East side of Main Street in Lewiston has provided its small community with entertainment since 1934.
Robert Wood, the theater’s projectionist, has lived in this rural Utah town long enough to remember all of those years and the different changes the theater has been through.
One of his most vivid memories of the theater was when Snow White opened in 1937.
He said his parents dropped him off at the theater to see the show. When he went inside to buy his ticket, Wood was told all the seats were sold out.
“I lived three miles away so I left the theater and started kicking rocks as I walked home. The lady came running out after me and said they found one more empty seat for me,” he said.
Although Wood has seen a few changes on the outside of the theater such as the remodeling of the entrance and restrooms, he said the actual theater part of the building has always held close to 380 seats.
He said one of the saddest changes he has seen was when they took the marquee off the front of the building in the 1970s.
“They took it down to repair it and never put it back out,” Wood said.
Vella Durrant, the librarian at the Lewiston City Library which is located in the same building as he theater, said most everyone in Lewiston views the theater as a standard in their community.
“About 12 years ago they talked about closing the theater,” she said. “The town really came out though to stop it. Everyone really enjoys having it around.”
Theater manager Rosie Williams said she enjoys working at the theater because she gets to meet and talk with the members of the community. Even though she lives in Cornish, a town just west of Lewiston, she said she is getting to know everyone because of her job at the theater.
One of the highlights of the theater are the low prices, Williams said.
Concession prices run from 15 cents for candy to 75 cents for a large bag of popcorn. Drinks are just 50 cents from a vending machine.
“We have the lowest ticket prices in [Cache] Valley,” she said.
Tickets are $2 apiece and $10 per family Monday nights.
The theater has one show each week, usually playing at 7 p.m. The same show will run Friday, Saturday and the following Monday. With really popular movies, the same movie will carry over to the next weekend, Williams said.