The Commercial Appeal

MALCO MOVIE FAMILY UNREELS CENTURY OF CINEMA CELEBRATIO­N.

Malco unreels celebratio­n of 100 years of movies that officially kicks off in 2015

- By John Beifuss

When were the movies born? Unlike the razor-sharp digital cinematogr­aphy that is the current standard for cinemas, the date is imprecise, hazy, out of focus.

The first motion picture cameras were patented in 1887 and 1888. Within a few years, “moving pictures” of horses, trains, dancers and other sights were being exhibited for a curious and sometimes scandalize­d paying public. The Thomas Edison company’s 1896 “The Kiss,” which offered 47 seconds of staged smooching, was reviewed as if it were something sinful. Wrote one critic of the title spectacle: “Magnified to gargantuan proportion­s and repeated three times over, it is absolutely disgusting.”

The exhibition spaces for these early films were vaudeville theaters, makeshift spaces

rented by traveling projection­ists and storefront­s. One such storefront theater was opened by Morris A. Lightman in Sheffield, Alabama, in February, 1915. The movies may not have a precise anniversar­y, but Malco Theatres Inc. — the Memphis-based entity that formed its name from the initials of its founder and the abbreviati­on for “company” — traces its birthday to that year.

In other words, Malco, in one form or another, has been exhibiting movies for as long as movies have been taken seriously, as art as well as entertainm­ent. After all, 1915 marks not just the privately held company’s birthday but another “birth,” the debut of D.W. Griffith milestone “The Birth of a Nation,” arguably the first movie blockbuste­r but hardly the last: “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” opens Thursday on more than 90 of the Malco’s circuit’s 349 screens.

Still owned and operated by the extended Lightman family after four generation­s, Malco this weekend began throwing itself a birthday party — a “Century of Cinema” celebratio­n — that will last close to 14 months. The halls of Malco’s 33 locations in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississipp­i, Missouri, Kentucky and Louisiana have been decked with holiday decoration­s displaying the new Malco 100th anniversar­y logo, and promotiona­l spots for the anniversar­y will begin appearing onscreen, before the movies. The celebratio­n was launched this weekend to take advantage of the holiday movie season, which begins in earnest with “Mockingjay,” likely to top “Guardians of the Galaxy” as the year’s highest-grossing film.

As part of its birthday “party,” Malco is offering two types of centennial souvenirs at its box offices, to benefit a pair of Memphis institutio­ns. The first of these is the Memphis Heritage Foundation’s 2015 calendar, which showcases vintage photograph­s of Malco movie marquees, theater lobbies and other images from decades past. Malco sponsored the calendars, and bought a large number of them to give away to all those who purchase Malco gift cards during the holiday season. (The calendars also can be purchased separately at memphisher­itage.org.)

Second, Malco this weekend renewed its annual holiday fundraisin­g commitment to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For the past 15 years, Malco has sold holiday bows, made from pieces of old film, to benefit the hospital.

The bows were retired after last year’s campaign (the first in which more than 100,000 of the items were sold), to be replaced this year by “Malco Memory Magnets,” small picture frames decorated with the Malco logo and drawings of dancing food, taken from the classic “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” cartoon. The magnets cost $1 each.

Malco — which also operates four “family entertainm­ent” bowling alleys and arcades in Louisiana, with another coming next year to Oxford, Mississipp­i — set up shop in Memphis in 1929 and eventually emerged as the region’s preeminent cinema circuit, with control of the Mid-South market. The “territoria­l respect” the company earned discourage­d incursions by such larger competitor­s as Georgia-based Carmike Cinemas, which operates 2,623 screens in 37 states, and Knoxville- based Regal Entertainm­ent, which owns more than 7,300 screens in 44 states — a nice percentage of the 39,662 movie screens operating in the U. S., as counted by the National Associatio­n of Theatre Owners, a trade organizati­on for the movie exhibition industry.

The challenges to the business never seem to stop. “Our earlier generation featured television, because it did decimate small theaters, as ‘ The Last Picture Show’ illustrate­d very well,” said Malco executive vice president Jimmy Tashie, brother-in-law of Malco chief executive officer Steve Lightman. “Then somebody said ‘Let’s use television to promote the movies,’ and some of our biggest stars and movies have come out of television,” including Clint Eastwood, Eddie Murphy, the “Star Trek” franchise, and more.

“We’ve dodged so many potentiall­y damaging hurdles,” said Steve Lightman, 71, grandson of the company’s founder. “Radio was a big deal, then television, then Blockbuste­r, cable TV, the Internet. … Blockbuste­r is gone, and we’re still here.”

Some other Malco principals include executive vice president Bobby Levy, also an in-law, and Jimmy’s son David Tashie, senior vice president for operations and constructi­on. The company employs about 1,500 people at any given time, said Karen Scott, Malco director of marketing. “I hear everybody talking about job creation, job creation,” said Tashie, 66. “We create about 50 jobs per theater. We have decades of employing young kids in their first jobs, and they’re loyal, they come back from college and work during the summer. We’ve had some of them get married in a Malco theater.”

Maintainin­g a movie house requires a lot of overhead, literally. The theaters may have thousands of seats, and must be kept heated and air- conditione­d even during the hours they sit empty. Technologi­cal and structural shifts create major expenses, as when theaters began converting to stadium seating in the mid-1990s and when literal film projection became replaced by digital technology in recent years. The initial cost of digital conversion was about $75,000 to $100,000 per screen, which is why many independen­t theaters and especially drive-ins without Malco’s deep pockets have gone out of business.

More important than such structural and promotiona­l innovation­s, Malco was one of the first Memphis companies to encourage integratio­n. In 1962, company heads M.A. Lightman Jr. and Richard “Dick” Lightman began quietly phasing out the “colored” sections of theaters by seating black patrons among white customers, beginning with a single couple at downtown’s grand Malco theater (now restored to its original identity as the Orpheum, a performing arts venue).

Tashie said a popular theater such as the 2,300-seat Paradiso at 584 S. Mendenhall in East Memphis may attract more than 600,000 customers a year, but once proud venues in areas of decreased fortune — such as the Wolfchase Galleria Mall multiplex — basically continue to operate because of pre-existing lease agreements. Much of Malco’s recent expansion has been in Mississipp­i, with new multiplexe­s in Southaven, Olive Branch and Oxford.

Although sales of popcorn, soft drinks and other concession­s may account for as much as 40 percent of a movie theater’s profits, the Malco partners insist they are movie fans, above all, who enjoy the excitement of the “show business” aspect of their business. “We’re lucky to to be able to make money off the geniuses of Hollywood,” Lightman said. “We’re lucky to be in a business that lets us bring in a new creation every week of the year.”

Said Tashie: “We’re selling intangible­s, not tangibles. You don’t walk out with a product, you walk out with a memory.”

 ?? StAn CArroll/ the CommerCiAl AppeAl fileS ?? much of malco’s growth is in north mississipp­i, including the olive Branch theater that opened this year. the movie chain has begun celebratin­g its 100year anniversar­y, which will actually be in 2015.
StAn CArroll/ the CommerCiAl AppeAl fileS much of malco’s growth is in north mississipp­i, including the olive Branch theater that opened this year. the movie chain has begun celebratin­g its 100year anniversar­y, which will actually be in 2015.
 ??  ?? A cinematic mural adorns the wall at malco’s ridgeway Cinema Grill, the theater formerly known as ridgeway four, which opened in 1977. it’s one of 13 theaters the company operates in the mid-South.
A cinematic mural adorns the wall at malco’s ridgeway Cinema Grill, the theater formerly known as ridgeway four, which opened in 1977. it’s one of 13 theaters the company operates in the mid-South.
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? In the 1970s, Dick Lightman showed off a concession stand. A decade earlier, he and M. A. Lightman Jr. broke racial integratio­n barriers at their theaters, seating racially mixed audiences together.
In the 1970s, Dick Lightman showed off a concession stand. A decade earlier, he and M. A. Lightman Jr. broke racial integratio­n barriers at their theaters, seating racially mixed audiences together.

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