Russell Parham movie theaters scrapbook, 1929-1983 (bulk 1930-1950)
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: Geographically by state of theater location, with Tennessee first.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library

Housed in Small Collections Box 15

Although these materials were compiled in an album and loosely termed a "scrapbook," they have been removed from the album for more efficient storage, preservation, and access purposes.

In library use only. Available by appointment

Scope and Content: This collection documents various advertising and publicity activities for movie theaters owned by the Crescent Amusement Company and managed by Russell Parham Sr. The date span of the material is 1929-1983 with the bulk being 1930-1950. The majority of the collection focuses on the Princess Theatre in Nashville, with a number of news clippings and photographs featuring advertising campaigns for specific films. In addition to the Princess, other theaters include: the Gadsden and Ritz Theatres in Gadsden, Ala.; the Parkway Drive-In Theatre in Huntsville, Ala; the Diamond Theatre in Bowling Green, Ky. and the Capitol Theatre in Madisonville, Ky. Some images are of a theater called The Strand, although its location is unidentified. Photographs frequently show partial or full exteriors of theater buildings or theater signs. Materials typically consist of black and white photographs of movie posters, lobby displays, special events and promotions, and other activities designed to catch people's eyes or encourage them to come in to the theater. Several movies are in the science fiction or film noir genres. Others are of the type described as "social problems" films, often involving sexual promiscuity and its emotional, personal, and social consequences as a focus of the plot and characters. Such films also exploited the sexual nature of their content to titillate and entice viewers through racy, revealing, or sensational advertising images and posters. Some special events that were held at a theater, but which were not movies, are also documented in the collection, such as a blackface vaudeville minstrel show by "Two Black Crows" (Moran and Mack), and several beauty pageants. There are a few items located in the back of the collection which relate to publicity for particular films, but for which the theater is unidentified. A few isolated photographs of the Parham family are also included.

Movies documented in the collection include: Forbidden Adventure (1931); What Price Innocence (1933); Destination Moon (1950); Gun Crazy (1950); and Outside the Wall (1950).

Cite as: Russell Parham Movie Theaters Scrapbook, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Harold Ray Bradley;,Gift;,2004.,Acc. RT-403

Russell L. Parham, Sr. was born in Trenton, Kentucky in 1904. During his life he managed multiple movie theaters in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. Early in his career, probably in the late 1910s or early 1920s, he was the manager of the Capitol Theatre in Madisonville, Kentucky. He went on to be the assistant manager for the Knickerbocker Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee from around 1924 to 1926, and became manager of the Diamond Theatre in Bowling Green, Kentucky from 1926 to 1932. He returned to Nashville and became the manager of the Princess Theatre where he remained for twenty years, with an interruption for military service during World War II. The Princess was initially part of the Crescent Amusement Company theater chain owned by Tony Sudekum. In 1951 the theater moved, was remodeled in 1959, and then changed its name to the Crescent. In 1952 Parham moved to Huntsville, Alabama where he operated a cafeteria and an unidentified theater. In 1957 he returned again to Nashville and opened a restaurant called the "New Orleans". By 1961 Parham was working in Hermitage at the Lebanon Road Drive-in theater. In 1971 he was arrested in Nashville for possession of an obscene film at the Midtown Cinema, an adult film venue. He died in 1972.

In English

In possession of Harold Ray Bradley until donated to the Nashville Public Library in 2004.

process;,2023;,Eva Wurst

catalog;,2023;,Linda Barnickel

No further accruals are expected

Book jacket image from folder 2