Shannon McMillan adjusts the projector at Whiteville’s Cinema Three. One of the last independent hometown movie houses, the Cinema has been a fixture in Whiteville since opening its doors in 1928.

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: Today’s “Living” page – the fifth and final chapter of a five-week tourism series – is “What to Do in a Day: Whiteville.”

Shannon McMillan hopes Whiteville’s last theater will go back in time next year.

Cinema Three opened in 1928, and is the last of three movie theaters in Whiteville. For the movie house’s 80th birthday, McMillan hopes to have a live piano player and a showing of the theater’s first picture.

“Right now it’s just something we’re talking about,” the theater manager said. “We’ve been a part of downtown for so long, I thought it would be a neat way to observe the anniversary.”

Cinema Three is one of the oldest operating theaters in North Carolina, McMillan said. It’s a small independent theater in a market filled with conglomerates featuring 10 to 20 screens in a single building, along with coffee bars and short-order grills.

Cinema Three offers cold drinks, nachos, and a variety of classic theater candy – along with its signature theater popcorn. The three screening halls seat a total of 273 people.
McMillan said the movie house is open 365 days a year, and it stays busy.

“The only time we close is when the power goes out,” McMillan said.

Flexibility

Adapting to modern moviegoers is key to the theater’s continued success, McMillan said.

During the summer, when school is out, the theaters stay busy all day long. In September, the theater opens at 4:30 p.m., after students have gotten out of school.

Families are also a big part of the theater’s clientele, he said, a tradition stretching back to the early days of the movie house.

“We have people who’ve been coming here since they were children,” he said. “We have grandparents, parents and children all in the theater at the same time, and they’ve been coming here for years.”

The convenience of a local theater is also a big attraction, McMillan said.

Church and school groups, clubs, and even nursing homes sometimes bring multiple customers to the theater at one time. Others are business people or others on breaks downtown.

“We have a lot of doctors come in here between shifts,” he said, laughing. “You’ll see them in their hospital clothes, carrying their beepers, and then they’ll have to run out halfway through the show because they’ve been called.”
Traditions live on.

As a patron enters the theater’s front doors off Madison Street, there’s no question this is a movie theater from another era.

Black and white checkerboard tiles cover the floor; large display cases hold posters from current features and those to come. A silent air conditioning system works overtime, countering both the heat of the day and the 30-plus year old projection equipment.

But the biggest indicator is the smell of popcorn.
“You can make popcorn at home,” McMillan said, “but it won’t be the same as theater popcorn.”

He said the vintage popcorn popper used at the Cinema Three turns out the treat as effectively as some of the newer machines.

The secret to movie popcorn, McMillan said, is in the oil.
“It’s nothing but a special oil and butter,” he said, smiling. “We have to keep it a secret.”

Maintaining an almost-antique theater in a modern world isn’t easy, McMillan said.

The projectors came from the now-defunct Fair Bluff movie theater, and were built in the 1960s. Each has been converted to use the new infrared sound technology, but the film itself hasn’t changed in decades.

McMillan said modern Xenon bulbs cause less stress and heat on the film than the carbon arc lights used for most of the 20th century, but little else has changed, McMillan said.

“You can take a film from the1930s and put it in a modern projector,” he said. “It’s all 35-millimeter. We use platters (large film holders) instead of reel to reel, but it’s still basically the same.

“In a few years, everything will be digital, but for now, we’re doing it the same way we always have, and I think it works pretty well.”

Whiteville’s Cinema Three is a destination for many in the area, McMillan said, because it is less expensive and closer than theaters in Lumberton, Wilmington and Shallotte.

For some folks, though, sentimentality is a big part of it.

One reason McMillan said he loves the theater is because “the Whiteville Cinema was my first movie experience.”

Later he started working at the movie house, and eventually became the manager. Even if he didn’t work in a theater, McMillan said, he’d come to the Whiteville Cinema.

“I came here when I was little, “ he said, “and I see people now whose kids and grandkids are doing the same way. It makes you feel good that people still love it – downtown wouldn’t be the same without a theater.”