"The Oak Theater"

“The Oak Theater”

by John B. Anderson

The Oak Theater provided a place to take a date in Manistique. The only other option in town was to go parking, and, on a perfect date night, we could do both. The theater schedule was: Sunday and Monday – an academy award, blockbuster movie, such as “High Noon” with Gary Cooper, “To Hell and Back” with Audie Murphy, “Shane” with Alan Ladd, “South Pacific” and “Dancing in the Rain; Tuesday through Thursday – Class B movies; then on Friday and Saturday – Cowboy and Jungle Movies. My first movie experiences were limited to Saturday afternoon matinées. First movie favorites included Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, with Gabby Hayes, (not to mention Trigger), Gene Autry and his horse Champion, with Pat Butrum, Rocky Allen Lane, Lash LeRue, Tim Holt with Chito Rafferty, Hopalong Cassidy, and Johnny Mack Brown, (toward the end, we called him, “Fatty Mack Brown.”) Rocky Allen Lane was my favorite, because he didn't sing. Tim Holt and Gene Autry movies were shot in Ektrachrome, a kind of purple. The rest were black and white, except for Roy and Dale. They were shot in Technicolor.

Except for the Saturday matinées, the movies were preceded by Movietone News , when we were given an update on the war effort. (It seems as if we're always at war.) There were ads as well, “Curran Chevrolet – Let us serve your car and truck needs.”

Many times there was a serial movie in between the first and second shows. Superman vs. Luthor was a good one. (Later, they changed his name to “Lex Luthor.” The second movie could be Bomba or Jungle Jim. Jungle Jim was played by the former Tarzan, who had since gotten too fat to play Tarzan anymore. Jungle Jim was forever falling into quicksand, but Cheeta would throw him a log to rescue him. Jungle Jim couldn't seem to remember where that quicksand pond was, as he kept falling into it.

The three scheduled program changes at the movies provided Buster Lanier an opportunity for three adventures each week. Buster had missed no movies that had come to Manistique. One Tuesday evening, Buster couldn't find anyone to go with him so he asked me. My mom was reluctant to let me go, week night and all, but she caved in. Before we got to the theater, Buster showed me his latest invention. He had cut a metal coat hanger into a one foot length. He had bent it twice, to form three sides of a square, each side 4 inches long. Across the fourth side, had had strung two rubber bands with a 1 inch washer in the middle. A FART MACHINE! After the movie had started, Buster wound up the machine, and sat on it. Buster waited for a quiet scene in the movie, then lifted up slowly. Brrrrrrrrt! I let out a, “Geeze!!” People from four rows around us found other seats. I seemed to remember that, after we had constructed our own version of the machine, Ron, a friend, worked this bit of magic about a week later.

The theater warden was Rose. She had a big flashlight, and we were pretty sure that she would use it on us, if we were too rowdy. There seemed to be assigned seating at the Oak. Lovers sat in the back of the orchestra level, the kids sat in front of the posts, and the high school and adults sat in the balcony. When the Oak showed “The Miracle at Fatima,” all the nuns from St. Francis sat in one row in the balcony. I can't tell you what that looked like with all those habits in a row.

Other entertainment features came to the Oak Theater. Once a year, the price of admission was a can of food. Every movie for that can of food was a cartoon or the Three Stooges. My dad tells me that every time the theater showed the Three Stooges, parents would bring their kids to the drugstore to get something for the bloody noses. The kids had practiced what they had seen in the cartoons.

A couple of times, a hypnotist would come to town. Ron attended the Friday night performance, and, on Saturday, he met with Bill and me to plan for Saturday's performance. Ron had been hypnotized on Friday, and someone had told him that he sang a song while under the spell. On the way to the theater on Saturday night, we sang the same song over and over again, so Ron would have it in his head, when he went under the spell again. Sure enough, Ron went under, and he was led to the stage. When it came time for a song, Ron started, “Oh, she jumped in bed, and she covered up her head, and she said that I couldn't find her....” The hypnotist stopped Ron right there. Apparently, he had heard that song once before.

I was always grateful to Duke and Maggie, the owners, for providing a great community service with the Oak Theater.