SYKES: …big bills, so.
JOANNA: That’s right. Make more, you spend more.
SYKES: Yeah
UNIDENTIFIED: ( )
JOANNA: …she was here in person.
SYKES: Is that the old or the new?
JOANNA: The old
SYKES: How can that old? She would be seventy or eighty years old by now.
JOANNA: She is. She like eighty-one years old.
SYKES: OK
JOANNA: She came. She was in ( ) with Paul Newman. She was ( ) Stood Still, and
then that one with Gary Cooper over there. She was the romantic in the old days, and she was fabulous. She came in to The Grand Theatre and a big audience came and…SYKES: I was trying to think of the words they said to stop him, to keep him…
JOANNA: Oh! What is it?
SYKES: “Clap to something…”
JOANNA: Oh! She quoted it.
SYKES: “(..) clap to”…or something.
JOANNA: Do you know it John? Do you know that famous line?
SYKES: What they said when they stopped…whatever he was…[Laughter]
JOHN HAY: ( )
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: That’s pretty neat.
JOHN HAY: ( )
JOANNA: This wall that you would never have seen because this was the 1910
Vaudeville Wall. Originally the theatre was just a short…it went straight back into a short theatre and you can see the old stairs. When they took off the new drywall, they found this old wall here. You can see the stair steps and you can see how the floor sloped back to the old theatre. That would have been before everybody’s time…1910…SYKES: Yeah, probably.
JOANNA: Yeah, when it was just a Vaudeville house.
SYKES: OK. This is the same way that it was.
JOANNA: So you would have come in…there was a…
SYKES: There was a door here, and this was…well, there were two sides to it.
You’d get a ticket on this side, and you’d come downstairs. And you’d get a ticket on the other side and you’d go up those steps upstairs. And I think that’s going upstairs. We didn’t come down here too often. But it had a candy stand right in here.JOANNA: Oh
SYKES: Yeah, there was a candy stand. When you come around the corner there was
a candy stand right in here. I remember that. When you’d go around the corner, they had the theatre in there. Yeah, I remember that a little bit.JOANNA: Do you want to go upstairs?
SYKES: Sure. It’s been awhile.
JOANNA: So when do you think you were last in here?
SYKES: I don’t have any idea. In the fifties.
JOANNA: Fifties?
SYKES: Yeah, probably early fifties, late forties. I think this was still going
when I was in high school, so it had to be in the fifties.JOANNA: So you go on up first.
SYKES: No, ladies first.
JOANNA: Alright. [Laughter]
SYKES: I didn’t remember it being two levels, but this high. Yeah, as you went
down the hall, this is where they stored the candy and stuff. Excuse me…[Telephone Interruption]
JOANNA: There’s a room in here. Do you think you ever went in there because
there’s an unusual room in there.SYKES: Sure
JOANNA: I could never figure out what it is.
SYKES: uuuhhh
JOANNA: There’s this room. Step this way. Watch you…Can you see well enough?
SYKES: Yes. Well, they probably had to have that back in my days. I don’t
remember what they did with this.JOANNA: What would this have ever been? I’ve not been able to figure that out.
SYKES: I don’t know.JOANNA: It’s a door. And it’s got two windows with screens
on them.SYKES: I don’t know. Somebody told me that they used to play pianos with the
music when you’d have the stills…not the stills…the one that didn’t have any sound. They’d have somebody sitting around here playing the piano. But, that was just something I heard about.JOANNA: Silent Movies
SYKES: Yeah, OK I don’t remember coming back in here. But, back in this room is
where they stored the candy. Truck load of candy would come in and Jim Audobridge was the manager and he used to give me free passes to the show to come up here and help him bring the candy up the steps.JOANNA: So his name was Jim Audobridge?
SYKES: Audobridge
JOANNA: So you’d help out?
SYKES: Yeah, for free passes. Back then, if you had seventy-five cents a week,
that’s what the rich kids got. [Laughter] Alright. Was the bathroom here?JOANNA: I think so.
SYKES: I think the women’s bathroom was here. There was a candy stand right
here. And the lady…Miss uh…I did have her name…Miss uh…well, anyway, she took up the tickets and had candy and popcorn. There was a concession machine over there where we got our drinks from. ‘Course you see the water fountain. Alright, now, this is how you went in. The door in the middle was the men’s bathroom.JOANNA: You can still see the uh…I don’t have my flashlight with me…look, you
can still see the ( ) men’s bathroom. [Laughter]SYKES: Yeah, this was the men’s bathroom, and of course, this is just another
exit. I don’t know what they did in this one here. Looks like that was some kind of janitor’s room. They’ve got steps back behind here. We used to…I don’t know if I should say this or not, but, we used to come up to the show after about nine-thirty, and you’d have almost a whole movie you could watch. So we’d come up and come through the back door, after the people downstairs left. [Laughter]JOANNA: Was it unlocked? You could come right in?
SYKES: Well, this just had a pusher handle on it.
JOANNA: So somebody would just come and push it from the inside, and you’d have
a free pass.SYKES: Yeah. Free pass to get in. And I don’t know why we’d do that, because
we’d already seen the pictures. Back then they would show, I think, Sunday and Monday, they’d have two full length, a comedy and a serial. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday they’d have another of the same. And Friday and Saturday they would have…So they would have about six or eight pictures a week.JOANNA: All rotating
SYKES: Yeah, and they always had a comedy and a serial so…Well, this was the fun
part of it. It looked a whole lot bigger back then. Yeah, it looked a whole lot bigger. And it was always dark up at the top there.JOANNA: In the corners?
SYKES: Yeah, that’s where we used to take all our girlfriends. [Laughter] Those
of us that had them. The older guys. Alright. Yeah, this was divided into three sections. Section here, a section in the middle, and a section on the other side. See where these steps are? On each side of the steps they had a row of seats and in the middle. We never did sit down here. This is where the older people would sit.JOANNA: Down in front of the balcony here?
SYKES: Yeah, they didn’t want to be bothered by us making noise so they would
sit down here. But, it was something to do back then. Sort of a family thing. We spent many hours here. We’d come in, and they didn’t put you out after the movie was over.JOANNA: You just stayed…
SYKES: Just stayed. We’d come in and I think it probably opened around eleven or
twelve o’clock. Stay here until eight or nine o’clock at night.JOANNA: Were you here with friends or family?
SYKES: Yeah, with friends or family. I was just something to do. It was sort of
a social outlet. Back then there wasn’t too much for us to do. We weren’t old enough to go to the pool rooms. What else was there? Listen to the radio. I didn’t care too much about listening to the radio.JOANNA: Were there mostly the teenagers here?
SYKES: No, there were all ages here, but I wasn’t a teenager very long here.
Like I said, it was in the fifties, so I was probably about fourteen or fifteen. But, mostly I think we probably started when we were ten or eleven years old. I think the price went up about then, about twelve years old. I think it went up from a dime to twelve cents or fifteen cents or something like that. It wasn’t much. You’d take a quarter and come to a show, see two movies, buy a box of popcorn and get a candy bar.0:25:01 -0:30:31
JOANNA: So how much would that be?
SYKES: For a quarter you could get all that done.
JOANNA: You could get all that for a quarter?
SYKES: uh hum Yeah
JOANNA: Does it look like what you remember?
SYKES: Nope. [Laughter] I remember the wall. I can see the landing. I looked
bigger. I remember the back door. This was where they used to bring the actors in. I remember one time Roy Rogers rode in here, I think, on his horse. [Laughter]JOANNA: Is that right?
SYKES: Yeah, it was one of those cowboys came in. Roy Rogers or…
JOANNA: Came in here?
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: And he brought his horse in?
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: Wow
SYKES: Rode him through the back door and up on the stage. ‘Course the stage
used to be higher it seemed like, you know, didn’t come out that far. I was about that tall then, so it made it look like it was taller than what it was. But, we spent many hours up here. It was great, you know, it was something to do. We’d leave church on Sunday, saved some of our…what do you call it…what we were supposed to put in church…[Laughter]…JOANNA: Collection money?
SYKES: Our collection money and come up here and spent it on candy and…But, we’d
come in here about twelve or one o’clock after we got through with our dinner and stay out until seven or eight o’clock at night.JOANNA: That’s a lot of time spent in here.
SYKES: Yeah. We weren’t too much interested in the movies most of the time.
After you see them once, you know, they keep on playing continuously. And like I said, they didn’t put you out then.JOANNA: So would you be visiting and talking with each other? Kind of whispering
and carrying on with each other?SYKES: Yeah, socializing, talking, making noise. Sometimes getting put out. Miss
Wilson was that lady’s name. Yeah, she showed me the door a few times. [Laughter]JOANNA: For what?
SYKES: Oh, making noise and bothering people. She’d tell us to be quiet; quit.
After the second warning, you know…[Laughter] She would walk up to this corner there and look up around the corner there and everybody would, you know, act like they weren’t doing anything. But, this place seemed like it was a whole lot bigger back then. So, what are we going to do with it now? I see tables down there. They played Bingo in here for awhile didn’t they?JOANNA: That was for all the volunteers this year. A sort of an appreciation
potluck for all the people that have been doing the tickets here, and cleaning the floors, and cleaning the toilets, and…so that was the other night. Usually it’s set up with chairs like a theatre. Everything is finished for right now before the renovation starts. As you can see, there is a lot of renovation that needs to be done.SYKES: I thought that back in those days, I don’t know, after you put the
coverings on the wall, it makes it look a lot different. I think those are probably the same walls though, but it looks like this building was a whole lot more sturdy than what it is. I can see out of the back of it now. You couldn’t see it back then.JOANNA: uh hum That’s all going to be recovered and done.
SYKES: Yeah, I spent many an hour in here.
JOANNA: We can go up these stairs very carefully. I don’t know if you want to
come up or…SYKES: Well, we didn’t go up here much anyway. I mean, over in this little room,
I mean this is a…Ah! Look! I’m still reaching for that rail…[Laughter]JOANNA: Isn’t that funny?
SYKES: This is the camera room. We’d beat on the wall sometimes and bother him.
Yeah, this is our famous corner.JOANNA: Is this the famous…? Did you come on this side or the other side?
SYKES: Well, it depends. You coming through?
JOHN HAY: Yeah
SYKES: OK We’d come in on both sides. See the light is up there? When you get on
this height you could stand up on the chair and unscrew the bulb. [Laughter]JOANNA: There it is.
SYKES: Now, I’m not saying why we unscrewed the bulb. [Laughter]
JOANNA: That’s pretty smart. And, of course, you wouldn’t come in here except
for pestering the guy.SYKES: We kept pestering him. Well, he, you know, when it would get hot he’d
have to open the door. Because it would get hot back there and they didn’t have air conditioning.JOANNA: uh hum I bet it would be really hot up there.
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: All of this projection equipment was donated, so we are still using all
of the projection booths and showing big movies and…SYKES: Yeah, we never did come any further than the door there to bother him.
We’d beat on the wall. Every now and then, put something up over the screen. [Laughter]JOANNA: What do you mean?
SYKES: Oh, you know, the picture came out through this little window here, so if
you put something up over it, the screen would go black. [Laughter] Yeah, those were good times. Next thing you know, Miss Wilson would be coming in. Of course, nobody knew anything about it, and we all disappeared.JOANNA: All those innocent people sitting there. [Laughter]
SYKES: Like I said, it was just sportable way of life that we all just hung
around the theatre. A bunch of us.JOANNA: It brought everybody together, didn’t it? Sort of the place where
everybody knew they would meet up.SYKES: What else could you do around here? Back in those days? And especially on
Sunday. There was nothing to do on Sunday. After you’d get out of church, there wasn’t much to do.JOANNA: So there might be three different things circulating over that one day
like a serial…on a same Sunday let’s say…a serial, a comedy, and…SYKES: uh hum And two full length pictures.
JOANNA: And two full length pictures.
SYKES: uh hum
JOANNA: And then they’d start back over again.
SYKES: uh hum Yeah, they’d run over and over. Yeah. I think you’d do it from
around eleven or twelve and stay up until about…I think we used to call that the “nine o’clock sneak.” We’d come through the back door and sneak up there. They were probably over about eleven o’clock.JOANNA: The “nine o’clock sneak” means you came in…
SYKES: About an hour. Almost a full length
JOANNA: …you came in the middle. You missed the very beginning, like you missed
the serial and stuff.SYKES: Yeah, well we didn’t get to see both pictures. Usually it was just the
last picture was showing. It would be over about ten so we made it nine or nine-thirty…about an hour. It would last about an hour. So about ten or ten-thirty it was over.JOANNA: And nobody was paying much attention to who might sneak in at that time?
SYKES: No, heck no.
JOANNA: They were not selling anymore tickets.
SYKES: After awhile, it got so noisy up here that they came in and tried to
figure out where all these people came from. [Laughter] And they put the chain on the back door. But, I don’t think the manager cared too much.JOANNA: That’s something. Watch your step. Those cords are all over the place.
Used to that rail ( ) too.SYKES: Yeah [Laughter] Well, if you put the carpet back on, I guess, and put the
walls back in, it would probably look the same, wouldn’t it?JOANNA: uh hum And the seats? What were the seats like?
SYKES: I don’t remember if they were the velvet seats or not. Were they red?
Seems like most of the seats were red back then.JOANNA: Yeah
SYKES: We didn’t have any up here, but downstairs they had mice.
JOANNA: The mice were downstairs?
SYKES: Yeah, mice and rats ran through there.
JOANNA: Someone said that there was a wire that ran across the…some kind of an
electric wire that ran across the middle maybe up to a light or something. Do you remember anything like that?SYKES: No. Most of the time the lights were off unless we stirred up something.
Every now and then we’d have a little battle with the people downstairs too.JOANNA: What would that be like?
0:33:17 -0:22:15
SYKES: Oh, we’d look up and something would fly through the screen. They’d be
throwing popcorn boxes up, and we’d throw them back down.JOANNA: Little feud going on?
SYKES: Yeah. And then we’d go downstairs. Most of the guys we knew downstairs
anyway. They all lived down in North Frankfort. And we’d talk about it, “Oh, man, I got you good!”, you know.JOANNA: That’s funny.
SYKES: Yeah, it wasn’t any real hostile type situation.
JOANNA: So it was just mild animosity…not too…
SYKES: Yeah. Like I said, we knew all those guys. They all grew up at the
bottom…most of the guys at the bottom went to this show. All the upper class went around to The Capitol. So, we were all in here together. Besides, they had a lot of cowboys here. Gene Autry and all those used to play in here, so…Rocky Lane…I think it was the type pictures that they liked.JOANNA: Right, everybody wanted to come to the cowboy movies. So, different
group of people than were at The Capitol?SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: And, of course, African-Americans…
SYKES: Couldn’t go to The Capitol.
JOANNA: …in your era, didn’t go to The Capitol at all.
SYKES: No. They did before me, but after…you know, for awhile there they just…I
don’t know what happened.JOANNA: I heard that when this opened up, and it had the bigger balcony, they
just made the decision that there was enough room here for black people to sit up here that they didn’t have to bother to let them sit in the balcony over there. So, was this ridiculous?SYKES: That’s not the way that I heard it. I heard that they remodeled The
Capitol and cleaned it up upstairs, and they just never did let the blacks go back. They had another movie across the street that wasn’t doing very good, The Franklin. They didn’t do very good. I barely remember them being over there.JOANNA: So that closed down at some point?
SYKES: Yeah, it closed down. When I got into high school and got old enough to
ride around in cars, I didn’t spend much time in Frankfort. We got vehicles so we started going to Versialles, Mossburg, Lexington. They had a lot of things to do over there. Lot more girls. [Laughter]JOANNA: So you think up to the age of about sixteen you were most of the time here?
SYKES: Most of the time.
JOANNA: And then after you were sixteen, you were going on doing other things.
Finding other things to do.SYKES: Right. And they had drive-ins over there. We didn’t have a drive…we
couldn’t even go to the drive-in here for awhile.JOANNA: So there was a drive-in, but you couldn’t go?
SYKES: Right. Out on Louisville Road.
JOANNA: Is that the late fifties? When are we talking about?
SYKES: No, it wasn’t late fifties. Probably middle fifties. Late forties.
Sometime around there, they opened it up. They decided, you know, what the heck. I don’t really know. They integrated the school around here in ‘57. ’57 or ’58 year. So, I think they opened up a whole lot of these things after that. I didn’t think about it back then. I just thought about the good times we were having up here. It didn’t come to my mind why we were up here, but after awhile, it kind of pissed me off.JOANNA: I bet it did.
SYKES: But not to the extent where I wanted to go out and get into…you know,
just tearing up stuff, but…and it was already gone by then. They had already started letting us go to The Capitol Theatre. That’s when we were doing our little Freedom Marches. I’d come downtown, and we’d be marching, and I’d see my little friends. I’d be waving and they would say, “You’re not supposed to talk with them! Why are you marching?” And I’d say, “Well, heck, we all play together. What difference does it make?” I must have been a freshman in college then. Yeah, I must have been a freshman.JOANNA: Were you up at K State?
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: So what years was that?
SYKES: I went to K State in ’60. ’60 ‘61
JOANNA: So that’s when the Freedom Marches were going on?
SYKES: uh hum
JOANNA: Is that about the time you think they let blacks go to The Capitol again?
SYKES: Sometime during that period.
JOANNA: And then things changed here.
SYKES: I think they kind of closed this one down.
JOANNA: Sometime in the sixties.
SYKES: They must have closed it down. I don’t remember. Like I said, I didn’t
come around here too much. I got so I could drive or catch a ride…JOANNA: So they’d go
SYKES: Yeah, we’d head out. [Laughter]
JOANNA: But, those were interesting times. I mean, big changes. Big changes.
SYKES: Yeah, there were a lot of changes then, but the kids now don’t seem to understand.
JOANNA: And you were living…you came of age in it as it was going through that
big change.SYKES: Yeah, I grew up in it. They’ve still got some of that old wall down there.
JOANNA: I know. We’re hoping that when we take all that junk, we’ll see that
same wall over there. It’s cold. We’ll go down and I’ll show you the downstairs.SYKES: OK
JOANNA: But this brings back memories when you come up here?
SYKES: Yeah, fun memories. [Laughter]
JOANNA: Oops, you alright there, John?
JOHN HAY: ( )
JOANNA: All this is all the same colors and…none of this has changed since they
closed the doors. They haven’t touched it.SYKES: Well, I don’t know. It just always seemed brighter back then, but I guess
the paint made it brighter, or I don’t know.JOANNA: Or it’s covered with a layer of dirt now.
SYKES: uh hum
JOANNA: So you’d be hanging out up in the balcony watching the movies and
visiting. Would people hang out and talk out here?SYKES: uh…sometimes. Miss Wilson was sitting right over there at the candy
stand, so you didn’t hang around here. [Laughter]JOANNA: She was laying down the law.
SYKES: She was a disciplinarian, yeah. Everyone respected her. We’d laugh about
it. When we would get thrown out of the movie house, we’d laugh about it, you know.JOANNA: Just part of going to the movies.
SYKES: Yeah, unless you got an extended leave. Yeah, see, this is the old wall.
JOANNA: Yeah that would have followed the old staircase.
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: This must be a new staircase.
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: These steps are so steep right there.
SYKES: I think it might have had a level right along in there, where you would
stop off, or where the, you know, it just didn’t go straight up.JOANNA: They would have put this in for the real estate office. These windows.
None of that would have been here. That’s all changed.0:40:08 -0:15:24
SYKES: uh huh This doorway. There was a doorway over here and a doorway over there.
JOANNA: Was it a booth that came out…the ticket booth?
SYKES: The ticket booth, yeah. Well, sort of half of it was outside. Part of it
was outside.JOANNA: So, the face of the booth might be here, and the doors might be inset,
you think, a little bit?SYKES: Well, they had to have a little room for them to sit in so…most of it was
outside. It was still inside the building but it was outside of here.JOANNA: uh hum And were they double doors or single doors?
SYKES: I think, double doors down here. Probably single doors there. I don’t
remember that well.JOANNA: That would have been the front of the theatre in 1919 when it was the
Vaudeville House. See the actors, the cowboys? [Laughter] Squaw girls, or whatever I know you’re not supposed to call them that.SYKES: Squaw girls? [Laughter]
JOANNA: That’s not right at all, is it? That’s totally politically incorrect.
SYKES: That was a little bit before my time.
JOANNA: Oh yeah, you’re not kidding.
SYKES: As you’d come through the door here, like I said, they had a concession
stand. I don’t remember if the concession stand was here or around the corner. It seems like it was around the corner. None of this was in here was it?JOANNA: No
SYKES: So I don’t know much about now. I think the concession stand was probably
right in here.JOANNA: Yeah, all of this was real estate offices. This is all new.
SYKES: I don’t remember walking this far to get into the main theatre. I guess I
was young then. Smaller. Like I said, we didn’t come down here too much, every now and then. If they were having a show…if the were having some type of show where they were giving away prizes or something like that. They used to have a little Saturday morning matinee, especially in the summertime, where they would give away prizes. And if they pulled your number, you could come down and go. Otherwise we didn’t come down here.JOANNA: So they’d pull your number, but you’d be upstairs, and then you’d come
down and get your prize.SYKES: uh hum Right.
JOANNA: Well, isn’t that interesting.
SYKES: Right. I think they were mostly in the summertime though. Where they
would have these little serials on and show a movie, and give away free popcorn. I think popcorn cost a dime.JOANNA: So you remember those designs on the walls?
SYKES: Yeah. That balcony looked like…I thought we had more protection than
that. Seem like it was higher than that. [Laughter] Because we could throw down a lot better than they could throw up. [Laughter] Yeah, those guys…we’d throw at them and they would run back up under the thing. They come down and clean out this part, and part of the ones upstairs.JOANNA: So there would be popcorn going over and uh…spit balls?
SYKES: Popcorn. Yeah, mostly those cups, you know, they had those little cups
with ice in them that you get out of a machine.JOANNA: Like a snow cone?
SYKES: Yeah, sort of like a snow cone.
JOANNA: So that would go over with all the ice in it?
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: That would make a nice explosion.
SYKES: Yeah [Laughter]
JOANNA: I bet there was a gap where people weren’t even sitting in a section here.
SYKES: Right then. You know when the war broke out, they would go back up under
there. But, before then they would be all the way out in here. I thought the stage…this here was seats, and I thought the stage was higher than that, and was closer to the wall. I guess it wasn’t fun to ride a horse out here.JOANNA: Well, this is all different, so you may well be right. Actually let me
show you those double doors back in the back there. ( ) See that door they renewed. That door…SYKES: No all of this was put in here. I don’t think it had any of this in here.
I think that’s where he rode his horse in. [Laughter]JOANNA: Double doors, yeah
SYKES: Yeah, well, there’s sort of…I think there was a little area behind the
screen. There may have been a little area behind the screen. I don’t think the screen ( ). I guess it is, it’s still there.JOANNA: The screen’s new.
SYKES: It is?
JOANNA: It got donated and installed this last year, so it could have been
completely different like you described it.SYKES: That’s right, because Morris had this…this window was open when they had
this auction house in here. So maybe that wall was all built in.JOANNA: I bet it was.
SYKES: Yeah, it might have been. They tore all of this out.
JOANNA: It could have been brick all the way down or uh...
SYKES: Yeah, it looks like they’ve done something to it. So there might have
been area behind the screen.JOANNA: And the floor could have been a totally different level. This is all…
SYKES: I don’t think it could have been much higher than this because of the
street level. I don’t think it could have been much higher. I guess it just seemed.JOANNA: Could have been some steps though. But, the horse couldn’t have made the
steps though.SYKES: [Laughter]
JOANNA: See that beam? Look at that big beam there. I wonder if that had
something to do with where the screen was maybe, or…SYKES: Right
JOANNA: …or where the front of the stage was.
SYKES: Well, it might have been, but like I said, the stage looks bigger than it
used to be, to me.JOANNA: Probably stopped.
SYKES: Yeah, no the stage might have been out there, but maybe the area from
here to there with something behind the screen. I don’t know.JOANNA: Yep. There were six hundred seats in here in those days.
SYKES: Six hundred? [Ringing bells]
JOANNA: Six hundred. And when the new theatre is finished, there is only going
to be four hundred and thirty. And of course, the seats will be bigger now, and all the code, and they have to have fire exits, and there is a lot more necessary space. But when you think that there were six hundred seats in here, that’s a lot of close…SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: …close seats.
SYKES: Well, I don’t know. I don’t’ know. It had a lot of chairs down here. A
lot of benches.JOANNA: uh hum
SYKES: And then you think about upstairs. They probably had one hundred and
fifty to two hundred up there.JOANNA: I think it was about that.
SYKES: uh hum
JOANNA: I think two hundred or so upstairs, and just under four hundred
downstairs. A busy place.SYKES: Yeah [Laughter] Some good times.
JOANNA: You remember those good times.
SYKES: Yep, yeah.
JOANNA: Well, I thought we’d walk around and look at those patterns on the back
there, and then we’ll sit down for a few more minutes and tell a few more stories.SYKES: OK
JOANNA: Would that be alright?
SYKES: That would be alright. They come up. My mind is not as sharp as it used
it be.JOANNA: I don’t believe it.
SYKES: I don’t know what it takes to trigger it. I’ve got one of those 286
minds. I don’t have one of those XP’s like they’ve got today. It takes awhile for it to…JOANNA: Kick in? [Chuckle]
SYKES: Kick in and throw it back out.
JOANNA: Do you remember those patterns by any chance back there?
SYKES: No, I don’t remember those. Like I said, we never came down here that much.
JOANNA: Look at these beams.
SYKES: Well, they had it built real well, didn’t they?
JOANNA: uh hum
SYKES: All that jumping up and down we used to do, it had to be. [Laughter]
JOANNA: Good to know you were on secure flooring up there.
SYKES: So the way it looks, the chairs must have come all the way back in here.
I don’t remember what was in the back here.JOANNA: Someone said something about a rail…you’d come in maybe here, and there
was a railing maybe by this beam or something. And then the floor was sloped. If you look on that wall over there you can see the slope coming down. What they’re going to do, they’re going to start in about a month, they’re going to dig this new floor out, and find the sloped floor below it. So, the old floor will be back.SYKES: I do kind of remember it going up in the front there going down. I don’t
remember it back here. It was probably level back here and dropped off along there.JOANNA: uh hum They’re going to cut this old concrete out, and then they’ll find
it under there. So that will give them a little more idea of what…SYKES: So why are they doing all this?
JOANNA: Well, there is a demand for a performing arts center. They’ll have
dance, music, old movies, new movies. But it’s going to be more of a performing arts with dance and…SYKES: We don’t have much of that in Frankfort, do we?
JOANNA: No. Kids come and we…two thousand school children have come just in this
year. They came from the Lexington Children’s Theatre, and…SYKES: Was Russ Hatters?
JOANNA: Russ…that was another one that the kids came to. They came to Russ
Hatters thing. The Lexington Children’s Theatre came. A puppet show came from Cincinnati, oh, and they were good. The kids loved that.SYKES: Yeah, I used to bring my kids over in the summer time from the Community
Center over in South Frankfort. I had to bring them over to see Russ’s show. They would do a dress run…practice and…on us.JOANNA: You’d be in the audience for dress rehearsal?
SYKES: Yeah, for dress rehearsal.
JOANNA: Where would that be held?
SYKES: I don’t know. It was back in here somewhere.
JOANNA: Oh, I remember. They had a little theatre down St. Clair.
SYKES: I thought it was in this building. It wasn’t in…?
JOANNA: It wouldn’t have been in here because…
SYKES: Oh, that was the other building.
0:51:08 -0:04:24
JOANNA: A few doors down. I know I was in there one time and then it closed up.
SYKES: OK
JOANNA: So you’d bring your kids?
SYKES: Yeah. I was thinking this was it, but it’s not.
JOANNA: Yeah. No this was just the auction house since the sixties. Or I think
it was a dollar store in the sixties, and then the auction house, and the real estate.SYKES: I don’t remember a dollar store. Like I said, we didn’t come down here
that much. Every now and then we’d go down to The Capitol Theatre until they closed that down. That thing was closed down in the sixties wasn’t it? Seventies?JOANNA: I guess. Maybe seventies? That was open a lot longer wasn’t it?
SYKES: Yep. And the bakery is still there. I come down to the bakery every now
and again. [Laughter]JOANNA: Is that your favorite?
SYKES: Yeah
JOANNA: Was The Capitol Theatre next to the bakery?
SYKES: Right up the street it seemed like. About two or three doors up. Across
the alley.JOANNA: Yeah. Well, everybody has a different impression about The Grand
Theatre. Everybody has got a different strong feeling about it, you know.SYKES: How it was set up, or situated?
JOANNA: Yeah
SYKES: Well, I think we all came here for the same common cause, you know. For
entertainment. Of course, some of us was entertained different ways than others, but… [Laughter]…but, I think it was all the same thing.JOANNA: That’s right. And where your friends are, and where your family is…
SYKES: Well, they used to have families too. They would come after dinner on
Sunday. Parents would come in and bring the kids. The whole family would show.JOANNA: Would they walk over?
SYKES: Mostly walking then. They had busses, but I don’t think they ran on
Sunday. But, mostly people walked. There weren’t that many cars, you know.JOANNA: Did you live near enough to walk?
SYKES: I lived over by the capitol. It was about a mile. I wouldn’t walk that
far now, but back then it didn’t seem like much. [Laughter] And from down in the bottom it used to seem a long way off but it’s only a couple of blocks.JOANNA: You’d walk in.
SYKES: Yeah, we’d walk in. People off the hill would have to catch a ride down.
People up toward the campus, and out the Green Hill and out that way. Used to be a lot of people out there, but…and they had to be gone early too because if the bus was running on Saturday, the bus quit running about nine o’clock. So they had to catch that last bus out of here. [Laughter]JOANNA: So they wouldn’t miss the late night… [Laughter]
SYKES: Yeah. I think about these guys…some of the guys that we grew up with. I
don’t know where…but a few of them is left around here. What happened to them? You know, a lot of them left town, some of them not with us anymore…( ) But, it brings back a lot of memories.JOANNA: I bet. Well, lets go back out this way and…too bad we can’t turn the
heat on in here. [Laughter]SYKES: Got my coat on. Is that the same old pop machine?
JOANNA: No, somebody donated that old pop machine. I’ve got some water out here
for you. Do you want a Coke or anything?SYKES: No, thank you.
JOANNA: Will you kick this door closed when you come through?
SYKES: There’s old porcelain down there too.
JOANNA: It is. You’re right.
SYKES: So this whole wall must have been…This place was real fancy looking. Old
tile floor.JOANNA: They’re going to find all kinds of things when they finish taking all
this new stuff out. It’s kind of like an archeological dig. [Laughter] And there’s that slope of the old Vaudeville House. And I love these silver dots. See the silver dots on the walls?SYKES: I wonder what that represents?
JOANNA: I don’t know. But you can imagine when those colors were bright and
you’d walk in here in the twenties. 1919…19… [Laughter] Well, I’ve got a chair set up for you.SYKES: OK
JOANNA: We’re going to switch cameras now. We’re going to switch from John’s
camera to mine and we won’t take…you know, another twenty minutes…END OF TAPE 0:55:32 -0:00:00
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