•January 10, 2018•

By Eden Martin
Guest Columnist

Editor’s Note: Former Sullivan resident and retired attorney Robert Eden Martin has written a series on movie theaters in Sullivan. The series will run consecutive weeks with this as the first installment.

For more than two thousand years people have been entertained or inspired by live recitations, songs and performances of plays by actors and musicians on stage. The transition from live theater to silent moving pictures, and then to movies with sound was not instantaneous. In Sullivan it began just before the First World War.

The Titus Opera House

The Titus Opera House was for almost 40 years the most prominent place in Sullivan where plays and musical productions were staged. The opera house, built in 1871, was located at the west end of the line of buildings on the north side of the square at the corner of Harrison and Main streets.

It was described in the 1885 Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie counties (p. 182) as “fashioned after Heley’s, of Chicago .... It has a parquet and gallery, nicely frescoed ceiling, a full set of scenery, side boxes, etc. The whole building is lighted with gas, and has all the conveniences usually found in cities. The house is far ahead of the town ....”     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.