GWTW Hazard Premier

Gone With The Wind was first shown in Hazard at the Family Theater from April 28th - May 1st 1940. Because most small town theaters could not afford first run movies, they usually were not seen until a year or two after their original release. Hazard managed to get Gone With The Wind just four months after its World Premier in Atlanta, Georgia in December of 1939 thanks to theater owner, L. O. Davis. But because it was so expensive, the Family Theater had to up their ticket price of 35 cents to $1.20, a lot of money for the price of admission in 1940. A matinee viewing of Gone With The Wind in Hazard was 75 cents. P. B. Huff, owner of Huff's Barber Shop in Hazard, offered Gone With The Wind hairdos in 1940.

I probably went to the movies at the Family & Virginia as much as anybody, especially the Horse Operas and Serials on Saturday. I was nine when Gone With The Wind hit the Hazard screen. I remember adults complaining about the price of the tickets. Back then you could buy a ticket and go into the movie at anytime, you did not have to be there at the very beginning. Gone With The Wind was the first movie in Hazard where the public was asked to come in and be seated at the beginning. Also, back then, the kids would come in from the coal camps all around and they only had coal company script, no money. Both theaters accepted that but I think it cost them an extra nickel.I remember a very unusual thing that happened when I went to see the movie. Near the end, when Rhett Butler grabbed Scarlett and carried her up the stairs, two at a time, to the bedroom, the entire audience gasped all at once. They had NEVER seen anything like that before. Not in Hazard, anyway.