95. Lyric Theater Closes Doors After 33 Years

Winchester Journal, May 1959, 60 years ago.


  Attempts by the Lyric theater in Winchester to bring better movies to the community to increase patronage came too late today.
  The theater closed its doors Thursday night and ironically the last engagement on film at the theater was an academy award motion picture starring Susan Hayward entitled "I Want To Live."
  The Lyric theater had been in continuous operation in Winchester since 1926.
  At one time the city had three movie houses and recently there remained two, the Cozy and Lyric. Six years ago in 1953, the Cozy, which had by then limited itself to the showing of westerns, closed.
  Under its recent operation, the Lyric was owned by the Young and Wolf theater chain. The theater owners for the past year had hinted they would close the Lyric, since they claimed it was a financial flop.
  Winchester businessmen tried several times through promotional programs to keep the theater in business. But their time and money was not enough. Movie fans wanted the first-run films, but the theater could not offer them. And instead people traveled to nearby cities to see them or stayed home and watched television.


 The following Lyric/Cozy article is by Mike Oakes for The News-Gazette, May 21, 1977.

  For residents of Winchester, somewhat of an era came to an end in May of 1959. The lights in front of the Lyric theatre on South Main street were shut off, never to advertise another Lon Chaney picture again.
  After 33 years of continuous operation the Lyric left all of Winchester without an indoor theater. On North Main street, the Cozy, another feature of this era, had closed a little more than six years before this. The Lyric was forced to die alone.
  It was an era of movie entertainment that the people of Winchester built. They packed the theaters every Saturday afternoon to catch an hour or two of their favorite stars. They entered in pairs in the evening with teenage boys paying for their dates. And they lined the walls, just like the rest of the country when "Gone With The Wind" flashed on the screen.
  Of course, Hollywood was doing it's share. Some of the greatest films of all time were introduced during this period. But they could hardly have matured to that greatness without the thousands of tickets sold for them, and in turn, without the thousands of individuals who bought those tickets.
  Like riding into town for the weekend haircut and shoeshine, the Lyric and Cozy became a way of life.
  There are many memories to re-capture here. First of all, the movies and the stars; Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were favorites of patrons of the Cozy, along with Lash Larue, Red Ryder, Gene Autry, and The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Their flashy cowboy-cowgirl scenes were typical of the western productions and even more typical of the Cozy, which had later restricted itself to westerns. The mushy love scenes always brought boo's and howls from the young boys in the audience.
  The "horror" films with Bella Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney as the Wolfman, and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein were also popular along with the famous "Road" shows starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.
  In the 1930s, during the waves of the Great Depression, gangster movies drew in the audiences. The Lyric, even in the midst of a collapsed economy, remained in business. Tarzan became another big seller starring Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller.
  The list goes on and on. Betty Grable and Dan Daily were always smash hits. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn are another pair who people routinely paid to see as well as Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers. Deanna Durbin, June Allison, June Haden, Sunset Carson, Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Hop-Along Cassidy were all brought to fame in this era by the projectors at the Lyric and Cozy.
  There were other small features as well. The "Movie Tone News Reels" which began with the old style movie camera cranking off a reel of film. Time magazine's "Time Marches On", and a classical comedy act of "The Three Stooges" or "Abbott & Costello." "Superman" became famous when the Cozy presented it as a serial, showing 15 minute segments at a time.
  Although the Hollywood attractions were the highlight of an evening or afternoon showing, the theaters themselves put on quite an act. At the Lyric, for example, door-prize drawings on Wednesdays and Saturdays gave customers an opportunity to take home a bicycle or a pair of roller skates. The Cozy sponsored a "Lucky Name" contest and both theaters held special shows during the County and Sectional tournaments such as daily showings of James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause" in the mid 1950s.
  Also at the Lyric was the annual Winchester Beauty Contest, of which previous winners still reign in the community. (Later the Pumpkin Festival's Pumpkin Queen took over.) And who could ever forget the specially flavored pop-corn sold by Pat Davis at his little stand in front of the theater.
  In the years between 1949 and 1952, a device known as the television made its debut in the homes of the community. The following year, 1953, the Cozy shut down operations. A few years later, there were signs that the Lyric was also on its way out: the last owners, the Young and Wolf theater chain had been hinting around that they might have it closed. As a 1959 article phrased it: "they claimed it was a total financial flop.
  Television's popularity grew and grew until it even began to replace an institution like the radio. TV shows such as "Howdy Dowdy" and "I Love Lucy" became the day's entertainment instead of "The Shadow", Fibber McGee and Molly" and "The Fanny Brice Show."
  There were several attempts to improve upon the Lyric's business in those last years. Here in town, businessmen tried to better its publicity through promotional programs but it came to no avail. Their time and money were not enough.
  Movie fans, at this point in time, could now afford to start being more particular about what they paid to see. Television made it possible for them to stay at home on the weekends if they didn't happen to like what was playing at the time.
  They began to demand first-run movies and the Young and Wolf chain could not provide them. Thus, staying home is exactly what they did. And if the evening at home was not quite entertaining enough, a nearby city was easily accessible.
  So the tale goes on and on. Television never stopped growing and improvements made it more irresistible than ever. Transportation changed too. Longer distances were travelled in shorter times and in modes designed for comfort.
  Just as fast as the Lyric and Cozy became a way of life, they choked, sputtered and died. They fell quietly into the ranks of "the good old days" and will continue to remain there, being revived only on memorable occasions when someone utters that inevitable phrase: "Remember when..."

______________________

Want to learn more?
Visit The Museum.
     Hours vary with volunteer availability. Check the website or Facebook for current open to the public hours or call/message/email to arrange an appointment.
Facebook group: Randolph County Indiana Historical and Genealogical Society

Visit the website.
     Here is a link to the cemetery database.  https://rchsmuseum.org/cemeteries-database

Follow the blog.
     Scroll to the right or below the article to click "FOLLOW" to get email updates as soon as a blog is uploaded.  This is a great feature to share with family and friends who are not active on social media.