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Transcription: [00:04:39]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
When you were, when you were in, when you left Roanoke, with your mother and you moved back to
[00:04:49]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Moved to...
[00:04:51]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
You moved to Brooklyn, that was in, -- in the '40s?
[00:04:55]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
That was in '38.
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
'38. Did you - did you go to the movies...
[00:04:59]


when you were there? Did you...

[00:05:00]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Oh Yes. I love movies.
[00:05:02]
[Everyone Laughs].
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And I'm going to - and here, I've been to two or three in the years I've been back since '65
[00:05:10]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
when someone took me, but, see they don't have any downtown.
[00:05:15]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And the transportation and the hours are not convenient for a person that's by themselves.
[00:05:21]

{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Right, when you were in New York, did you ever see any of the kinds of films that your mother was in, or was shot in the house here?
[00:05:31]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Oh no. They - I really don't remember seeing any black movies during the years I was...in '38 to '65.
[00:05:43]


{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And they may have had them, but I can't remember any. I really can't.
[00:05:48]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Now I don't say they didn't have them, and not that people - Black people weren't in movies,
[00:05:54]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
but not Black movies like they ha- you know.
{SPEAKER name="Pearl Bowser"}
Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:59]
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
When you were in Roanoke before you went to Brooklyn, did you go to the movies here in Roanoke?
[00:06:03]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Oh yes.
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Yeah?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Oh yeah.
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
What theater did you go to?

[00:06:06]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well, we had the Virginian - we had two theaters at one time, but the Virginian was a - think that was the last one.
[00:06:15]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
It was, well, High Street, where there's a vacant lot there now.
[00:06:21]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And uh, but that was the only - at one time it was another theater where is on Henr--on First street--well Henry Street, which is boarded up.
[00:06:34]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And, the second, at the Virginian, it's - well it's a parking lot. But those were the two spots where they had colored theaters.
[00:06:43]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
And they had, you know, that was our thea- and then there was a theater downtown, the Roanoke theater, which you had to climb the stairs to sit in that gallery, and it was really a climb.

[00:06:56]
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Did you go there very often, to the Roanoke?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well, yes.
[00:06:59]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
You didn't mind climbing?
[00:07:00]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
No.
[00:07:01]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[Laughter]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
[Laughter] Not if it's a movie!
[00:07:03]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[Laughter]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
I didn't mind it at all!
[00:07:05]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Um, do you remember the Straham Theater? Or you were too young then, perhaps?
[00:07:10]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Straham? Wha- what's the -
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
I think they called it the Straham the - before it was called the Virginian, the same theater

[00:07:15]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well it was - see, I was living in Brooklyn.
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
I see. this is -- the Straham theater was in the early '20s.
[00:07:24]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well if it was the early '20s then I was there.
[00:07:26]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Mm-hm.
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
I was there. Wherever they have a thea-
[00:07:30]

And there was only two spots that they had there right on Union Street. Yes, I went.
[00:07:34]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Was Henry Street called First Street then?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
It was First Street, but was never called First Street, it was called Henry Street.
[00:07:41]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Oh, is Henry a name from the community?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well, I should say so.
[00:07:46]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
[Laughter]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
First street-

[00:07:48]
{SPEAKER name="Man in Background"}
Henry Street, uh, First Street was usually a white side...
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
White.
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Ah.
{SPEAKER name="Man in Background"}
And Henry Street was used as the black side
[00:07:54]

{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
When you'd come over the bridge - after you'd come over the Bridge, see, it was First, b-but it was Henry Street.
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
I see.
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
After you'd come over the bridge.

[00:08:01]
{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
So everyone in the community called it Henry Street?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Henry Street. That was the name, Henry Street. And it was a thriving community.
[00:08:07]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Could you tell us a little bit about it?

[00:08:11]
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Well, they had very nice - they had two hotels...that's where any of the b-bands that came here, or delegates for conventions, you know, outstanding conventions, Elks, Masons.
[00:08:28]
Well they'd stay in homes, but they had the hotels because that was for - in those days, that was the only place to stay. There was no motels or things like that.
[00:08:37]

{SPEAKER name="Louise Spence"}
Do you remember the name of the motel-the hotels?
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Um, Dumas[?] and...
{SPEAKER name="Man in Background"}
Um, Palace
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Palace. Palace Hotel. By Mr. - Mr. Finlay, did Mr. Finlay - and Gill's. Gill.


[00:08:54]
{SPEAKER name="Man in Background"}
Right.
{SPEAKER name="Theresa Holmes"}
Finlay and what - the first - I think it was Gill and Finlay, had different owners.
[00:09:00]
And the Dumas, well it was by- the Jeffersons owned that at first, and then it was sold to the Barlowes.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-06 14:47:46 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-08 18:42:35 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-08 21:30:14