COUNTY LIFE
Now showing: Texas Theater returns
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
The Texas Theater was established on the Saint Jo town square in the 1920s during an era of the first “talkies” led by “The Jazz Singer” and popular Saturday serials like “Rin Tin Tin.”
John Wayne surely ran many a head of cattle through the theater, while Greta Garbo’s sultry style filled the screen. Bugs Bunny followed Flash Gordon, not to mention all the gangster and monster movies filled the square.
Today the former dry goods store, theater and Masonic Lodge has been given life again as a theater bringing Hollywood to small town Texas.
The history
The theater is the creation of Craig Olden and Tom Weger, plus Weger’s daughter, Kate Clark and a team of creative craftsmen. Weger operates Coppell Construction in Saint Jo and has been active on the local business scene as the former owner of King’s Hotel on the town square
The theater building is on the west side of the square a few doors north of the Saint Jo Tribune. It operated as The New York Store, a dry goods store. Built in 1879 it was composed of two long, narrow buildings. Later it was modified into a theater in the 1920s,and in 1956 it was purchased by the Masonic lodge.
Used by the group for many years it was sold to Craig Olden around 2015. Weger says Olden bought it with the intention of doing something like the theater. The Masons had decided to downsize as far as a building was concerned, so the group purchased another building a few blocks way Weger assisted with renovating the new lodge building.
Olden and Weger began talking about the theater project as they both wanted to put it back into public use whether it be with movies which Olden liked or live theater which Weger liked.
Read the full feature in the weekend Bowie News.
When we were going through my grandmother’s house in Nocona after it sold, I found a few neat keepsakes, but the biggest treasure I thought I had found was her biscuit cutter. I was so excited to show my mother (her daughter) and just knew she would be happy it was found and would still be used after all this time.
My mother, however, had a different thought about my precious biscuit cutter. She said, “Suzanne, you know that biscuit cutter is just an old tomato paste can that has both ends cut out.”
I was still no less delighted with my cutter. I continue to use it today. My husband has bought me vintage, new and fancier cutters, but this cutter is something I go back to time and again.
My Memaw was recruited to be a lunch lady from 1952 to 1958 at Nocona Elementary, back when lunches were cooked, not “fixed.” Lenora Brown Burnett was an excellent cook and everyone knew it. She went on to work at the Nocona Major Clinic kitchen from 1958 to 1969.
You could only use shortcuts if you knew how to do it the long way. That is how I still approach cooking. You can only use a cake mix if you know how to make a cake with lots of ingredients, time and effort.
Read Suzanne’s Love & Luck column in the Thursday Bowie News on the On the Table page.
Top photo – Grandmother’s biscuit cutter and hand written recipes. (Photo by Suzanne Storey)
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
It’s a bitter cold January week, so it must be time for the Montague County Youth Fair, which opens Wednesday running through Saturday.
More than 330 students from across the county will compete in everything from golf ball art work to top dairy goat in this annual event where there are 1,160 entries. Almost every contest saw an increase in entries from the prior year.
Scheduling was still in flux at presstime due to pending weather. Watch the fair’s Facebook page for any late changes.
The All Together Show was moved to 5 p.m. on Jan. 8 in the show barn. It had been set for Thursday.
There were no changes for leadership day on Wednesday at presstime.
Read the full story on the fair in the Thursday Bowie News.
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