The Gem Theater: January 2018

Introduction

Downtown Wichita Falls, Texas, in the mid 1940’s was a bustling metropolis for a boy of 7 just away from the farm and ranch community where he was born. My father, a cook and cowboy by trade, had just started as one of the first cooks for the Casa Manana restaurant in 1947. He moved us to an apartment on Ohio Street, right across from the Gem Theater, between 7^th and 8^th Streets. It’s here that we would stay for the next three years. The Gem Theater became a magic palace for a young mind. But it had to share that distinction with the rest of the magic that was Wichita Falls. I attended San Jacinto and Carrigan elementary schools, as well as Reagan Junior High, and belonged to the Boys Club on 6th Street. Please join, and share your stories and pictures through a Guest Blog, of early Wichita Falls - or your home town. Contact me at fadingshadows40@gmail.com or leave a comment. We could use old pictures of movie houses, drive-in theaters, and other nostalgic pictures related to our youths.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Golden Age Doc Savage

Here is the Golden Age Doc Savage comic book from 1943. Doc Savage started in the Street & Smith pulp magazines in 1933 as a prose adventure, and added to their comic book line around 1940. Doc Savage was revised in the Bantam paperback series in 1964, and all the prose stories were reprinted. A fanzine reprinted most, if not all, of the Doc Savage comic book stories beginning in the 1990s. Doc Savage has a long history of popularity.

Friday, January 19, 2018

The Ranch of Riddles

The Ranch of Riddles: Cowgirl Romance #12. I mean us cowboys even picked up these comic books when we were kids. Great Golden Age Comics.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Francis Reid

Another popular actress from Wichita Falls is Francis Reid, best known for her portrayal of Alice Horton on Days of Our Lives. She was born in Wichita Falls in December 1914.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Phyllis Coates

Phyllis Coates (born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell) was born in Wichita Falls, Texas on January 15, 1927. She went to California to attend college, and was discovered by Hollywood. She appeared in several movies, along with a number of chapter films. She is probably best remembered as one of the actresses to portray Lois Lane in The Adventures of Superman on television. I remember watching her in Superman And The Mole Men at the State Theater in Wichita Falls in 1951. I have most of her serials, and every January watch one of them in celebration of her birthday, or enjoy Superman And The Mole Men again. Grab some popcorn, folks.

The Gem Theater