Friday, January 08, 2010

Vacation, Day 5, 10/25/2009, Part 2

Across Duling from Fondren Place--Tangle Hair, a beauty salon, and Dream Beads, "Make It, Wear It, Love It!"
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Next to Dream Beads, Fondren Art Gallery, with a Grand Opening sign--see more about the gallery's owner, Richard McKey tomorrow. On the corner, well actually from thos two windows to the right of the door and then around the corner, is the Orange Peel, a truly fun and fabulous used, consignment, and vintage store. I used to go there before we moved to Portland.
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The front of the Orange Peel, facing North State Street.
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Just south of the Orange Peel stands Walker's Drive In. Talk about a great place to eat a fantastic supper! Walker's is it because chef Derek Emerson makes it so!
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The Pix Theater which I knew as the Capri. I have fond memories of seeing "Irma La Douce" and "Tom Jones" at the Capri. I couldn't believe movies so up front about the subject of sex were playing in Jackson, Mississippi, the heart of the Bible Belt. I loved both of them!
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Found on the World Wide Web:Pix/Capri Theare is a former movie theatre in Jackson, Mississippi. Built in 1939 as the Pix Theatre, on the historic US Highway 51, known as North State Street in Jackson. While many Jackson movie theatres were going strong through the 1940s and into the 1950s, the Pix had winded down and ceased operations by 1957.

By 1965, however, the theatre was sold to Cinema Guild Inc and had reopened as the Capri Theatre. The Capri was highly successful and had a longer run than its predecessor, the Pix. The Capri, feeling the effects of the onslaught of the multiplex theatres, had switched to second run/bargain films by the late 1970s. By the early 1980s, viewed by many as a tool to survive the Capri had become a porn theatre showcasing X rated films. By 1985, the Capri was closed, although daily ads in the Clarion Ledger Newspaper had appeared two months after closing.

By 2005, after twenty years of sitting vacant, the Capri was used once again. It had reopened for live music, indie films and theatre performances. Various groups had surfaced trying to raise money for restoration, but that has never came to fruition.

By October 2008, Jackson lawyer and developer David Watkins announced plans to develop mixed use development behind the Capri Theatre and announced his intentions to restore the Capri as a music venue, specifically blues and jazz.

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