History with ‘Hud’: Remembering a time when movie theaters dotted downtown Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As the weather continues to heat up heading into summer, more people will be looking for indoor activities to escape the hot temperatures outside. A popular way to pass the time indoors is going to see a movie. While there are several modern options across the area, there was a time when flashy downtown Wilmington theaters ruled the scene.

One of the first theaters to open in Wilmington was the Bijou Theater on North Front Street. The site began as a tent show, with a permanent theater building opening on May 30, 1912 at a cost of $40,000. The theater presented citizens with Wild West movies and sometimes had actors appear on stage. Admission was five cents, with a sawdust covered floor being lines with folding chairs for a capacity of 600 people.

The second floor balcony provided seating for 200 African Americans (the first theater in Wilmington to allow African Americans inside). While the theater succeeded for years, it was closed in 1956 and torn down in 1963. All that remained  for decades was a portion of the entrance floor tile. But a city park opened on the grounds in February of 2023 and continues to draw people to the historical site.

The Victoria Theater opened a couple of years after the Bijou began serving customers, popping up on Market Street on January 12, 1914. It was renamed the Carolina Theater ten years later and eventually had a final name change to the Colony Theater. It lasted for six decades before closing on Halloween 1974 and being demolished in 1975. The former site remains an empty lot next to Slice of Life Pizza in downtown.

A fellow century-old theater location is the Royal Theater, opening in 1915 with movies, musical comedies, and the city’s first animated electric sign. It was built by the owners of the Bijou Theater, who sold it to George Bailey in 1924. It thrived for decades until a large fire engulfed the building and the Orton Hotel next door on January 21, 1949. The façade and front section of the theatre survived and remains in use as a bar and lounge.

The next theater to pop up in downtown was the Bailey Theater, which began welcoming patrons two days before Christmas in 1940. A five-story hotel building from the late 1800s was torn down to make room for the new structure, which opened mere months after its namesake, George Bailey, died. The theater was one of the biggest in town, being able to hold as many as 1,250 people when a popular movie was playing. It thrived for decades until closing down in 1980 and being torn down in 1983 to make room for a parking lot.

Its façade and pieces of its tiled mosaic floor remain, but the overhang was completely torn down in 2002 following a storm which caused part of it to fall onto the sidewalk below. Despite being at risk of demolition over the years, the original front of the building still catches the eye of passerbyers each day.

The Manor Theater on Market Street came to be nearly a year after the Bailey Theater, with its first show on December 4, 1941. The theater had one screen and held up to 600 people. It advertised air conditioning as a selling point, being a popular place to cool down from the outdoor summer heat. The theater closed in 1985 as the last dedicated movie theater in downtown. It became a series of music venues and dance clubs, but closed for good in 2017. It was fully torn down in January of this year.

While a theater on nearly every corner is a thing of the past, the ground they once stood on will forever hold the history of a time when people gathered to enjoy the newest shows.

Meteorologist Matthew Huddleston (‘Hud’) has always had two major loves – weather and history. While you can watch him talk about weather each evening on WWAY, he looks forward to bringing you a little piece of history each Thursday on WWAY’s website.

To read other History with ‘Hud’ segments, click HERE.