"Sabina Theatre"

WrWritten by Joy Dun Shoemaker

In 1902, the first motion picture theater opened in Los Angeles. It was a silent movie, as talking pictures had not as yet been invented. In 1907, when the movie "The Great Train Robbery" was released, with the accompaniment of piano music and the admission price of 5 cents, the silent movies became known as nickelodeons.

Milner and Myrtle Mann DeVore, living on a farm in 1920, learned that the Sabina Theatre was for sale. They moved to Sabina from their farm and bought the movie house. Myrtle sold tickets and popcorn and Milner ran the projectors. Their two sons, Carl and Earl, at two and a half, and one, respectively, were too young to help, but as they grew older they, too, would be part of the business. A third son, baby Milner, was born in 1922. There were 240 seats in the theater and admission price was 15 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. The silent productions of "The Ten Commandments," "Ben Hur," and "Lost Horizon" were percentage movies and the prices were increased to 25 cents for both adults and children. Before "talkies" came out, music to accompany the movie was provided by the theater owner. When Carl was about ten years old, he was in charge of operating the two turntables that provided music, called Phototone, for the movie that was playing on screen. Sometimes Helen Mathew (Montgomery) played the piano for the silent movies. When the horses on screen were running, she played chords that sounded like the pounding of horses hoofs on a hard-surfaced path. When the actors seemed to be arguing, she played loudly, and when they were having pleasant conversations, she played softly. The music never stopped, as it reflected the action on the screen. If the film broke, Helen would continue to play, although her musical choices were more like a concert than background for a silent movie. Helen's niece, Marian Rhonemus (Gray), would go to the picture show with her Aunt Helen and sit beside her while she played the piano. Marian was so small that her little legs stuck straight out in front of her on the piano bench, but she felt quite grown up being there with mostly adults watching the silent movie. It was exciting because the audience cheered when the hero triumphed and they booed and hissed when the villain pursued his evil ways. Donna Pumphrey Gaskins also played piano for silent movies. She was a well-known musician of Sabina, the wife of Ralph Gaskins and the mother of Rebecca, Donna Lou, Esther, Ruth Ann and J. Richard Gaskins, a family of musicians. "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson, was the first feature-length talking film to make an appearance in the movie business. This was in 1927, but it was two or three years before small movie houses were converted from silent to talking pictures. Just as the Great Depression got underway in 1930, Milner DeVore, at great expense, began installing new equipment so that he could show talkies. Because jobs were scarce and money in short supply, many families stopped going to the movies. Milner was unable to recoup the money he had spent on the renovation and had to close his movie theater. In 1932 he opened a restaurant on North Howard Street where Brandenburg Chevrolet dealership had been located (the Sabina Bank parking lot today). The restaurant was successful but in 1936, the DeVores sold out to Kirtley Rankin and moved to Dearborn, Michigan. Carl DeVore graduated from Sabina High School in 1934 and after the family moved to Dearborn, he went to work for Ford Motor Company. Darrol and Carrol Brakefield bought the Sabina Theatre in the 1930s and Darrol, his wife Eva and son Don, successfully ran it for several years. (Carrol was a silent partner). Because the inside of the theater was fairly dark after the film started rolling, ushers with flashlights were needed to show latecomers to their seats. Earpley Shadley was an usher for the Brakefield family in the late 1930s, until he left for military service in 1943. Earpley also sold tickets on the off nights ªMondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Eva Brakefield sat in the ticket booth on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The theater was closed on Tuesdays.   (Carl Devore lives in Mesa, Arizona and Marian Rhonemus Gray lives in Fairfax, Virginia.)