Lynwood
Theatre History
Edna & Emmanuel Olson, a hard-working couple who lived in the tudor-style house on the hill overlooking Lynwood Theater, built the structure known as Lynwood Center and opened the Islandís first "talking picture" theatre. Silent screen houses dotted the Island, most notably was perhaps Port Blakelyís Please U Theatre. The Lynwood Theatre opened with much fanfare on July 3, 1936 with the musical comedies TIMES SQUARE PLAYBOY and SHE COULDN'T TAKE IT.
In 1950 the Olsons sold the business to nephew Glenn Nolta and his wife Lucille, who ran the theatre until 1982 when current owner Sam Granato bought the business.
1994 brought improvements to the old theater - a new surround sound system and a bigger popcorn machine*, for a start. A new concessions stand keeping the art deco style, an enlarged lobby, and brand new auditorium seats made the old Lynwood Theatre shine as proud as she was on July 3, 1936. In 1997 new projectors replaced the old Sears Motiographs which had provided solid reliability for 50 years, and our new screen now makes images cleaner and brighter than ever.
The building of a new 5-plex movie house in 1998 brought big changes to Island movie-goers, and The Lynwood was given a new title and a new role in the community. The Historic Lynwood Theatre is now an alternative movie-going experience, providing specialty movies and friendly service in an intimate single-screen setting.
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* Charlie Faddis,
an Island engineer, calculated that the old Manley popcorn machine popped
enough popcorn to fill the entire auditorium. The Manley popped corn
from 1936 to 1993 when it was retired and now holds a place of honor in
our lobby.