For Trish Grady, the historic Rodgers Theatre brings back memories of how grown-up she felt the first time she got to go see a movie without an adult.
It was 1967 and an older cousin took the then-9-year-old and her sister to the theatre.
“We saw “The Jungle Book”, and got to sit in the BALCONY!” Grady shared recently. “The movie was so exciting... When the movie was over, we used a dime to call home from the pay phone in the lobby, then went outside and waited for our ride.”
Emmett Morgan’s memories are of working at the Rodgers as a teen.
Now a resident of Neelyville, he lived on Poplar Bluff’s east side at the time and walked to work.
“Working at the Rodgers was one of the best jobs of my life,” said Morgan, who started there in the early 1960s, when his grandfather worked as a janitor for the movie house.
His grandfather started at the theatre in 1949, the same year it opened.
The younger Morgan did a little bit of everything, from manning the ticket booth, to ushering and working in the concession stand. He also helped reupholster and paint every seat in the theatre and change out the bulbs inside and at the top of the Rodgers tower.
“You had to go up a big tall ladder in the back and go across the boardwalk up there,” he recalled. “I’ve changed the light bulbs on the Rodgers sign outside, mainly because I was the smallest kid working there at that time.
“There was just quarter-inch rods that held the lettering up.”
This is third in a series of stories called “Remembering the Rodgers” running in the Daily American Republic between now and the Oct. 21 premiere of a locally filmed movie, directed by a Poplar Bluff native.
Those who share their memories with us are also entered to win a pair of tickets to one of two events: the premiere of “Herd,” a movie about a family overcoming hardship during a zombie apocalypse, or the Restore the Rodgers banquet Oct. 19.
Drawings will be held at noon Monday, live on the DAR Facebook page.
The banquet will be held at the Black River Coliseum and will start at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door. A table sponsorship is eight tickets, at a total of $500.
On Oct. 21, events will begin at 1 p.m. with a street festival, food trucks, children’s activities and more. A zombie 5K will also be held.
The evening event starts with a red carpet kickoff at 5 p.m. with filmmakers and members of the cast, who will join a question and answer session after the screening.
The screening of the movie will begin at 6:30 p.m. “Herd” is an R-rated movie. Tickets for the screening went on sale Friday via Eventbrite on the website herd.film.
Proceeds from these events will also help benefit the Rodgers restoration efforts.
This is the first time a movie of such local significance has been shown at the theatre, organizers believe. The director and co-writer, Steven Pierce, is a Poplar Bluff native.
To share your memories, and enter to win tickets to one of these events, either comment on a Remembering the Rodgers post on the Daily American Republic Facebook page, or email dailyamericanrepublic@darnews.com.
More memories will be shared in the coming weeks.
Members of the Rodgers board also hope photographs will be shared, especially of the interior of the drug store previously inside the theatre.
Reporting by staff writer B. Kay Richter contributed to this article.
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