The theater was used as a live production venue, including as a temporary home for The Grand Ole Opry, for many years until being converted back into a cinema and renamed the Belcourt Theatre in 1966 by a new group of owners. and his father to close the Hillsboro Theater. Three months later, Tony Sudekum, founder of Crescent Amusement Co., opened a competing theater at the opposite end of the same block. They opened the Hillsboro on May 18, 1925, with the D.W. partnered with his father, a stone construction contractor, to build the Hillsboro Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. In return, Lightman received a 50 per cent stake in a theatre in North Little Rock, Arkansas.Īfter leaving Northwest Alabama, M.A. Lightman opened a third theatre in the area before accepting an offer from another local theatre owner to buy out his theatres in the area. Lightman named this storefront theatre "The Liberty Theater", and later opened a 400-seat theatre, "The Majestic" across the river in Florence, Alabama at 204 North Court Street, in August 1919. Upon his return two months later to Northwest Alabama, in February 1915, Lightman formed The Sterling Amusement Company and opened his first theatre in a storefront he had rented in Sheffield, Alabama. Lightman traveled to Atlanta where he had made a contact in the theatre business and sought to learn the art of movie exhibition. He decided he wanted to operate a movie theatre. Lightman decided it was time to try something new one day while in Northwest Alabama, when he came upon a long line of people waiting to get into a local theatre. Although he held a degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University, he thought of himself more as a showman and entertainer. A." Lightman, Sr., (known as M.A.) the son of Hungarian immigrant Joseph Lightman, left his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, and went to Colbert County, Alabama, to work on the Wilson Dam project as an engineer. Malco Theatres' history began during World War I when Morris A.
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