Movie Magic: The Princess Theatre, Hopkinsville, Kentucky

In 1911, a new, two-story brick building went up on East 9th Street – home to a movie theater named “Photoplay Place. ” Described as “one of the handsomest theatres in this part of the State,” the theater could seat around 600 people. Disaster struck, however, when the theater burned in 1918, during a showing of “My Four Years in Germany.” The silent movie was an American war drama based on the real-life adventures of U. S. Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard, adapted from his book of the same name. (For you movie buffs, the film was the first major production by Warner Brothers, and was directed by William Nigh. The United States had joined World War I in the spring of 1917, and this could be considered a propaganda piece.)

The theater was rebuilt, but another fire in 1942 led to a more complete overhaul and renovation, turning the building into a pared down example of the Art Moderne style.

The facade is restrained – some might even call it severe – but the boisterous, gorgeous full-width marquee more than makes up for any lack of decorative embellishment on the walls!

I like the vertical bands of brick (pilasters) on the facade, dividing the bays. I’m not sure what the ground level entryway looked like after 1942, but it looks like there were ticket booths at either end of the facade, and two sets of double doors in the middle.

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan (a new achievement in motion picture entertainment and in Technicolor) played at the Princess Theatre in 1953, and a local shoe store, McWhirter’s, offered to buy the kiddies a ticket to the movie if they bough a pair of Weather-Bird Shoes.

Like so many downtown movie theaters, the Princess closed in 1973. It most recently served as a restaurant and bar. Another historic theater in Hopkinsville, the Alhambra Theatre, which opened in 1928, has been in use as a live performance venue since 1983.