Friday, June 15, 2018

The First Movie Theater in Delmar Maryland


The first movie theater was in the Twilight Amusement building on the Delmar, Maryland side of State Street.  The building may have been the same building the Bowling alley was in.  It was run by Walter A. Venables.  Mr. Venables had formed, in 1915, an amusement company called Twilight Amusement Co, the purpose of which was to show movies and provide other forms of entertainment.  After Seith Ellis started building his movie theater Mr Venables changed the space previously occupied by the movie theater to a ten cent store.  The Twilight Amusement Company continued to be an active corporation through the 1950s.

Walter Alfred Venables (1889-1947) was the son of James R. Venables and Annie Johnson Venables.  He married Augusta Johanna Wenish (1886-1937) and they had three daughters.  In 1937 Augusta was killed in an auto/truck collision.  Also killed in the accident was their daughter Hazel.  Eugenia (Jean) was also in the accident but survived.  Mr. Venables remarried in 1939 to Mable E. Empet.  The daughters of the first marriage Eugenia Ann married in 1941 to Norman E. Hancock and the second daughter Doris Venables married Wilson Cooper Disharoon in 1942. Mr Venables was active in Delmar, Maryland government and worked for R. D. Grier in Salisbury.

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