Doug Clark - On the Hollywood Theater (clip)
Interviewed by Bob Gilgor on March 5, 2001
Doug Clark: Friday and Saturday all Black kids on Friday and Saturday- you couldn’t go to the movies when you were young in the middle of the week- Friday and Saturday, Friday mainly, you could go to the movies. You didn’t want to get a punishment because a punishment meant you can’t go to the movies. They had chapter pictures at the movies on Fridays and Saturdays, all the kids wanted to go because they had chapter pictures--
Bob Gilgor: Serials?
DC: Yeah, uh-huh, with Chambell and Tarzan, or it used to be way back.
BG: What was the name of the movies?
DC: Hollywood Theater.
BG: All Black?
DC: It was all Black, owned by whites. Ok, and next to it though, they had a place- Mr. Jeff Rashee and his wife, I can’t think of her name- they had a place next to it, it was like a soda bar. You know, they sold soda and candies and all that. That’s where all the kids communicated after basketball practices and all, that’s where you went- at night- because Hollywood Grill and M&M Grill, that was more for the older guys because they were selling beer, but this place didn’t sell beer. That’s where everyone would congregate after basketball games, after football games, and all, at the theater which was right next door to Rashee’s. Okay, but later on, Ben Baldwin’s- the Baldwins- they ran this place, and this is our place, with our soda shop for hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, and stuff like this- right on Franklin Street, right on the Carrboro line. This was your social life. Your parents preferred for you to go to the movies on Friday night because on Sunday they wanted you to go to church.
