History

Early summer 2001, Don Stribling, along with Girl Scout Troop 43, who decided to undertake this mass project as their Gold Award project, had an organizational meeting at the Noret Theatre building to see how much interest there was in our community to renovate, reopen and run a non-profit movie theatre. Their goal was to get at least 150 members to donate $15.00 each. They projected that it would take at least this many people to attend the movies each week for it to stay open and pay to run it. Three days later, thanks to lots of local advertising from our local Press Reporter and our local radio station, KPET, on Friday after noon there was well over 300 members who believed enough to invest in this dream.

The following week Troop 43, along with a few other volunteers, started cleaning, up and renovating the newly formed organization, “Friends of Movieland.” Skeet Noret , the owner of the building who had so graciously let the community use the facilities, did not want the girls to spend any money on the building painting and fixing it up. His thoughts were to open as it was to see if it would be a success and then worry about renovating later. Well the girls, along with their leader, had a pow-wow and against Skeet’s better judgment, he agreed to let the girls continue with their project and see what happened.

The work began fast and furious, Skeet believed that the sooner they got opened the better it would be, because the hottest movies were always released in the summer. Labor Day week-end, the beginning of September was what they were shooting for.

The girls, along with Denise Napper, their leader, Mike Roy, Craig Martin, Jerry Barnes and Don Stribling, were there everyday either before work, after work or anytime in between that they had some time to work. Many hours were spent tearing down the old curtains in the theatre, taking out the seats and replacing them with newer ones Skeet gave them out of the Winchester Theatre in Lubbock, tearing out wallpaper, and lots and lots of painting

Five weeks later the day had arrived for their grand opening. On Thursday night, July 19, T.V. stations from Lubbock came down, the Lubbock Avalanche Journal did a story on the front page, and the Chamber came and did a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the building. Lamesa’s Movieland Theatre was no longer a dream it was now a reality. The theatre opened with Jurassic Park III, which had just opened in theatre’s the day before.

Skeet said from the beginning that we should be able to tell after two months if we would be a success, well eight months later, we are going stronger than ever and attendance just keeps getting better.

The theatre is open 6 or 7 days a week. Close to 100 volunteers work at the theatre on a monthly schedule under the guidance of the Directors of Theatre Operations, Mike Roy.

The theatre is truly a community service to our town and benefits every age group.

Thanks to the generosity of Skeet Noret and the hard work form everyone involved, Lamesa once again has a walk-in theatre they can truly be proud of and call their own.

                                                                                            -Denise Napper