Lyric Theatre
Honea Path , SC

Gerald Bratcher, June, 2003

I lived out in the country and we didn’t see many movies. Movies around here in Anderson and Belton and Honea Path were charging a dime to get in at one time. Then they passed a law that you had to charge a seat tax on anything over a dime so they cut the price to nine cents. Up to twelve years old you could get in on a child’s ticket. I remember walking up and squatting down. People didn’t have much money and they’d rather have our dime than nothing.

In Anderson at the old Criterion Theater that had a stage they would have some live shows. I can remember seeing Johnnie and Jack when they were first starting.

The first movie I saw was in Newport News, Virginia in 1943. I had gone with the family to see my older brother go off to World War II. After the he left, my parents took me to a movie. Song of the South was the most memorable movie I saw. To me it was much better than Gone With The Wind.

I do remember watching one movie over and over. There was a scene where some women were going swimming. Just as they were getting undressed, a train came by on the screen. When the train passed, the women were already in the water. We watched the movie three times. My friend said he’d never known a train yet that was always on time.”

The Lyric Theater in Honea Path was diagonally across the street from John’s Place. The Lyric is gone now, but if you want to see a picture of it get a copy of the 1957 class yearbook for Honea Path High School.