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“As I was riding to the store, I heard a helicopter. And back then, you didn’t see helicopters in Edna very often, still don’t,” the Edna native said. “So I followed it.”
The year was 1949, and the helicopter landed on a then vacant corner adjacent to the downtown square. Several men unloaded.
Chase, who did not recognize any of the men, went on his way.
But his mom told him later that J.G. Long had come with some others to do a groundbreaking ceremony for the Edna Theater.
For Chase, the theater came to mean more to him than entertainment alone, he said. He had family that worked there, which provided him with glimpses into the theater’s inner workings, such as the projection room.
His uncle, Eddie Arnold Chase, was the head projectionist and his aunt, Emily Chase, collected tickets and sold concessions. Eddie Arnold worked at the theater from the time it opened in 1950 until it closed in 1977.
The theater then faced demolition in 1986, but six local residents saved the now historic building by pooling enough money together to buy it, hoping to eventually restore it, the theater’s co-owner and Edna Mayor Joe D. Hermes said.
Some of those hopes will come true Monday night.
A lighting ceremony kicks off at 7 p.m., celebrating the restoration of the tile and more than a mile of lights that now cover the theater tower and marquee.
“Just seeing those lights will bring back memories,” Chase said. “It lit up the whole downtown.”
Picture Show Partnership, the group of men who own the theater today, the city of Edna, the Historical Commission and the Robinson Foundation funded the roughly $30,000 project.
Chase, now 68, kept a copy of the first pamphlet from the theater’s opening night, March 14, 1950.
A new pamphlet will be given away at the lighting Monday to commemorate the event.
“Those were some of my best childhood memories,” Chase said. “I’ve been wishing for years they would do something with it.”
Chase told childhood stories of collecting bottles so that he could cash them in for money to go see a “picture show. That’s what we used to call them,” he said. A ticket cost nine cents when the theater opened.
Fast forward to 2008, and the theater has been unused for nearly 30 years.
The lighting of the tower and marquee is the first of many steps to restore the building.
In order to continue with the repairs, the owners agreed to sign over the theater to the Historical Commission so that the remaining restoration can be funded by grants and bonds rather than private funds.
City officials hope the relighting will do more than renovate a downtown eye-sore.
“They’re hoping the lighting of the theater will bring some activity back downtown,” said Roy Ortolon, head of the committee to restore the theater’s lights. “They’re hoping the lights will revive the city of Edna.”
Brandon L. Leonard is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-574-1286 or bleonard@vicad.com.