The Roxy Theatre opened its doors sometime in the early 1950s and played host to movies and shows for nearly a decade. At that time, the theater was just one of many thriving businesses in the part of town known as the Tybee community. Students in the Fall 2015 Civic & Community class were able to track down some former Roxy patrons about what it was like to see a show there. These stories were originally published here.
Helen P. Smith went to Ballard Hudson Junior High School when the Roxy Theatre opened.
“Only time I really could go was on Saturday cause’ I wasn’t allowed to go on Sunday, but I would like to see Roxy artists … and all of them bad boys you know,” she said. “I really liked the cowboy movie, even today I like the old Western movies, we had a good time — and we’d all meet, like she said, we would all meet together, and that was our dating time.”
She also recalled using coins from a flour company to see movies.
“I remember being anxious for the flour to run out so I could search for the (coin) and go to the theater,” she said.
Smith said she still thinks about the old theater that later became a church.
“I remember the Roxy so well and every now and then I’ll pass over down through that way to see some of the areas that might be still standing there, but it’s still hanging on — a big old … building on Hazel Street,” she said.
