It was just 2.6 seconds, but it was a marvel of the age in 1888 when Louis Le Prince produced “Roundhay Garden Scene,” in Paris, considered to be the world’s first motion picture. Since that day 136 years ago, there have been over half a million commercial films produced worldwide.
The first American indoor movie theater opened in New Orleans on July 26, 1896, bringing capacity crowds to the Vitascope Hall.
Natrona County often claims they have the oldest movie theater in Wyoming in the Rialto, which opened in 1921 as the “New Lyric Theater” (it took the name “Rialto” a year later), but that’s not correct.
The Acme Theater in Riverton has the honor of being the longest continuously operated movie theater in the state, dating back to 1920.
The movies hit Fremont County in 1913, with the opening of the Dixie Theater in Lander. In 1914, L.P. Smith opened the Acme Amusement Company on the south side of Main Street, across from the Teton Hotel.
It was a smashing success, with viewers turned away at each of the eventual two showings per week.
New technology always generates fear among the uneducated, and the movies had their initial detractors. “Experts” claimed the flickering light would irreparably damage the eyes of viewers, even leading to blindness. Smith was cognizant of the fears and rumors surrounding the new amusement and took pains to explain and guarantee that there was nothing to fear.
Hudson Miner – Oct 23, 1914
“The Ace Amusement Company have engaged the Opera House for every Tuesday night and will give a 5 reel show, charging 5 cents a reel, or 25 cents for the show, all children under 10, 15 cents. They will guarantee their pictures do not flicker or hurt the eyes.”
Films before 1920 were silent, and many had no plot, just a series of different actions played out on the big screen. The people didn’t care; it was a marvel to both urbanites and people living on isolated farms and ranches.
Smith’s Acme Theater was the name on the marquee of the business owned by the Acme Amusement Company, but it lasted just a year.
Smith’s Acme Theater began showing movies just once a week, on Tuesday nights in the Shipton Building.
In 1915, Smith left for Thermopolis and another icon of 20th-century Riverton, Mildred Belle Mote, tried to purchase the theater.
She began planning to build a theater in 1911, but her husband discouraged her. When she attempted to purchase the Acme from Smith, he refused to sell it to her.
“The movie business is no place for a woman,” Smith said.
He then rented the theater to a man who failed miserably.
Mote was undaunted. She opened her own theater in the King Building on North Federal and sold out almost every show.
In 1916, she bought the original Acme.
One of Belle’s biggest weeks came in November 1917, after the Farlow Wolf Roundup had been filmed by the Selznick Film Company of Denver.
The Selznick film was released in November with showings at the Dixie Theater in Lander, and the Acme in Riverton. It was also shown at the Rialto Theater in Casper.
The film was a bit harsh for today’s tastes, with close-up images of Mayor John Delfelder’s hounds ripping a wolf apart, and images of cornered coyotes clubbed or shot at close range.
The shows themselves were indicative of the racism of the age, with different showtimes for Native Americans and whites.
The Native Americans were entertained with two afternoon matinees at the Acme Theater, with the first beginning at 3 pm, while white audiences had the chance to see the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a second showing once the theater was cleared. Despite this, the local reviews were ecstatic.
Riverton Chronicle November 22, 1917
CAPACITY CROWDS SEE WOLF DRIVE PICTURES AND ARE DELIGHTED
“The Acme Theater–was crowded to capacity at both performances on Monday and Tuesday nights when the pictures of the Farlow Wolf Drive of last summer was shown for the first time to the public in Riverton. They proved interesting from start to finish and will be a great advertisement for Fremont County. Aside from the lesson they teach with regard to the destruction of stock by predatory wild animals, they show to advantage the scenic beauty of the county. One of the features of this picture was the killing of rattlesnakes by the Delfelder hounds, giving a battle royal between the reptile and the hound; another was when J.A. Delfelder, who has a grievance of many years standing against the coyotes, got busy in a comer of the corral with a club and rapped the coyotes on the head with a club with sufficient force to lay them out with a single stroke.”
Mote had big plans for moviegoers in Riverton and began construction of the present Acme on Main Street in 1919.
There was brief competition in 1915, with the opening of the Cain Theater by Riverton mayor William Cain. In 1917, the Cain Theater closed. Cain sold the building to Farmers State Bank, one of three independent banks in Riverton.
Belle took charge of construction and built a theater on par with any in the nation in the early post World War I years.
Belle moved the Acme across Main Street to its present location on the same block as Riverton’s premier hotel, the Teton. In 1927, Burleson Drug moved next door and had an inside entrance into the Acme. Pioneer Drug, a Rexall Franchise, moved into the original Acme building. The new Acme opened on July 14, 1920.
Riverton Review July 14, 1920 –
“The Acme Theatre is a most imposing structure, two stories in height, with a seventy-five-foot front. It is of the latest architecture and is well constructed throughout. Besides the new home of the playhouse, it has three excellent storerooms on the ground floor and a high class pool hall in the basement. The top floor is divided into modern apartments. No theater in any city is more modern than the Acme. It has every convenience, artistically decorated and fireproof. The seat capacity is 800. A magnificent pipe organ has been ordered and will be installed immediately.”
The Broderick Pool Hall opened the same day in the basement of the Acme.
The original Acme had steps leading up to the entrance from Main Street. Five steps brought moviegoers from the dirt street below to the ticket booth. Over the years, Main Street had additional layers of gravel added with asphalt pavement as the final improvement. In the process, the street level was raised, and a gradual slope into the theater replaced the earlier steps.
Riverton Review – July 14, 1920
“BRODERICK POOL HALL. – J.L Broderick is proprietor of the new pool hall located in the basement of the Acme theatre building. Cool and convenient where billiards and pool are played and candies. tobacco and soft drinks are sold.”
It was the Prohibition Era, the Broderick gained a reputation for serving more than “soft drinks” late in the evening, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The pool hall later changed owners and became known as Pastimes.
Pavillion was booming in the 1920s with the construction of the Riverton Reclamation Project, and Belle rode the wave of prosperity, opening the Rex Theater in 1925. It was a popular silent film venue, but when the higher costs of production came with new sound equipment, she sold it. The renamed Lloyd Theater closed the following year.
Silent films were anything but silent. The dialogue had to be read by the audience, but sound filled theaters during the black and white, silent film era.
Sheet music arrived with each major production for local musicians to play as accompaniment to the films. Pianos and drums were the primary instruments, but some theaters offered pit orchestras as found in Broadway plays, and at the Acme, the pipe organ resounded throughout the theater.
Belle kept up with the fast-changing technology as films began arriving with 78 RPM records to accompany the show. A sound system was installed to play the phonograph records through speakers around the theater.
The first records weren’t records at all, but cylinders produced by the Edison Company. A microphone was placed next to the Edison player, with workers quickly swapping cylinders on cue with the script that arrived with each film. The 78’s were easier to switch, and eventually Belle wired an electric phonograph to replace the hand-cranked original version.
On October 6, 1927, the game changed forever. Warner Bros. premiered Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer,” the world’s first full-length talking motion picture.
On August 11, 1928, the Rialto finished installing Wyoming’s first sound system to play the new “talkies.”
Belle, a self-described “Emancipated Woman,” would not be left behind. She ordered a sound system for the Acme and began showing talking films in 1929.
By 1930, a few silent films remained, but the talking motion picture had arrived.
If you walk into the Acme today, you’ll notice the stage at the front of the theater. This is a vestige of the original multi-functional nature of movie theaters built in the early part of the 20th century. You won’t see a stage at the Gem, since the original theater was built in 1949, and remodeled into a multi-plex in 2002, but it is still there at the Acme.
Belle was very civic-minded. She held fundraisers for local charities, with concert and film proceeds going to the charity. High school graduations were held on the stage of the theater, as well as large public meetings and even political debates.
Belle cancelled Sunday matinees and evening shows each year at the end of May for Riverton High School graduation ceremonies. Sunday matinees were often her most lucrative show times.
Belle and Mr. Fish, owner of the Grand, traveled together to Denver each year to preview films.
The story of mid-20th century Riverton isn’t complete without the story of Tom Knight.
Knight was born in Kansas in 1905. He came to Riverton as an electrician when he was 19 and went to work for Mote at the Acme in 1924. He maintained the building and was the projectionist, a position he held for 20 years until he purchased the theater on January 1, 1946.
Knight was a showman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist all rolled into one. He knew how to attract crowds, draw interest to films, and always took care of children. The Acme was the most successful theater in Fremont County and arguably the best in Wyoming in the late 1940s and early 50s.
Knight expanded his business, building both the Gem Theater and the Knight Drive In Theater in 1949. In 1955, Knight helped Harold and Mayme Brown expand their indoor Regent Theater in Shoshoni with another drive-in theater, “The Cactus” on the west end of the little town.
Mayme and Winifred Knight were sisters. The Counselor sisters grew up in Illinois, and married men who would bring entertainment to a distant land at the foothills of the Rockies.
Harold and Tom would often cover for each other if one was short a projectionist, was out of town or needed help repairing equipment.
“Dad and Tom always helped each other, whatever was needed,” Steve Brown said.
Tom Knight suffered his third heart attack in the lobby of the Acme after the late show in March 1970 and died at the age of 65.
Winifred didn’t want to continue the business alone and sold the Knight, the Gem, and the Acme to Commonwealth Theaters on January 18, 1971.
The era of Tom and Winifred Knight had come to an end, but the Knight Drive-In and the two walk-in theaters remained.
Commonwealth was a national theater chain, contracting with major Hollywood studios to get first-run movies delivered to over 400 theaters in 14 states in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states.
In 1988, the Knight Drive-In was closed by Commonwealth.
Darrell and Robynn Gabel purchased the Acme and Gem in 1990, running the business as Gabel Theaters. They ran both Riverton theaters, the Grand Theater in Lander, and the Diane Drive-In.
In 1991, they closed the Diane Drive-In, ending the 42-year run of drive-in movie theaters in Fremont County.
In 2012, the Gabels began selling the three remaining theaters to their projectionist, Adam Barry.
Adam lived in an apartment above the Acme for a while. He changed the name to Barry Cinemas and continues to offer first-run films on the four screens of the Gem, and the big screens at the Grand and Acme.
The fervor isn’t at the level when the movies were the “only show in town,” but the smell of popcorn, the excitement of the projector illuminating the darkness surrounding you in your seat and the thrill of watching Hollywood’s best efforts on the big screen remain one of the joys of modern existence.