100 years later, Southport's first movie theater is still open

SOUTHPORT, NC (WECT) - Over 100 years ago, Price Furpless, a Southport businessman decided to open the city's first movie theater.

That movie theater, known as the Amuzu Theatre, still stands in the same place today.

Now, however, instead of movies they use it for live productions.

Price Furpless was also the mayor of Southport at the time. His grandson, Bill, who now owns the theater, isn't quite sure of his grandfather's reasoning for opening it.

"He was a businessman. He had several businesses," Furpless said. "And theaters were just really beginning. But he was pretty early in the game."

The theater opened in 1913 in a location close to where it is now. Over the next five years, Price built the current theater that stands today. The business moved to that location at 111 N. Howe Street in 1918, making it 100 years old this year.

From 1913 to 1980, Amuzu operated as a movie theater.

In the 1970's, business started slowing down. Bill said it was difficult for the theater to acquire film prints from salesmen because they would go to bigger cities and towns before coming to the small city of Southport.

"We were a small town, [we] could not get movies new," Bill said. "You had to wait for a film print. So they went to the larger places first."

Bill said the theater started "losing money like crazy."

Amuzu eventually stopped showing movies in 1980.

The building remained intact for the next 25 years. But Bill and his wife used it for storage. It was not operating as any type of business.

Then in the early 2000's, a group called Stage 2 Productions approached Bill's wife, Cathy.

A member of the production group had been one of Cathy's former students when she used to teach English. She told Cathy that her group wanted to use the theater to put on a live production of the musical Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"I was thrilled to death that somebody wanted to do the theatre and wanted to do the creative productions," Cathy said.

So the Amuzu Theatre was back open for business. This time, featuring only live productions.

Stage 2 Productions used the theater for about 20 different plays over the following years. However, the troop ended up disbanding.

After Stage 2 Productions, Cathy and Bill took it upon themselves to keep the theater open and operating as a place for live productions.

Cathy directs most of the shows. They have done shows such as Chicago, Jesus Christ Super Star, Children of Eden, and more.

As a former English teacher who taught the occasional drama here and there, Cathy says being the director of the shows at Amuzu is a dream come true.

"I spent my whole career teaching drama in the background as an English teacher," Cathy said. "So I've loved this all my life. To have my own theater and be able to direct my own shows is really a wonderful dream come true."

The theater has been a part of Cathy's life since she met Bill almost 40 years ago. But for Bill, he can't remember a time in his life when he didn't know the theater.

"Before I could even read, I was down here," Bill said. "I remember being down here the first night I was in the first grade. I should've been home asleep probably, but I was here."

Bill spent most of his time at the theater with his father. His father, however, passed away when Bill was 15. Bill said his mother didn't know much about operating the theater. But with Bill's help, the two of them were able to keep it open as a movie theater for 18 more years.

During the 25 years the theater was not operating, Bill said he always had a plan in the back of his head to someday reopen it. He didn't imagine it would happen in the form of live productions though.

Bill says he hopes to one day be able to show movies and put on live productions at the theatre.

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