Marquis Moments

If the old building could talk….what tales it would tell.

Today, the Beaumont Antique Mall, with its big façade and rounded, Quonset-shaped roof, sells the treasures of the past. But way back in the late 1930s, the homey building started out life as a movie house where the likes of Gary Cooper (“High Noon”) and Gene Autry (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,”) showed up and signed autographs at hometown movie premieres in the Pass.

Glitz and glamour

It’s part of Beaumont’s “silver screen” past, a time when Hollywood came calling. Ida Mae James and C.L. “Jimmie” James arrived in town in 1937 and built a movie theater along old Highway 99. Today, the main drag through Beaumont is called Sixth Street. Their son, Brion James, who used to spend every night at his parent’s movie theater, dreamed of the day when he too would appear on the big screen. James went on to become a well-known Hollywood character actor. He appeared in more than 125 films during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s with the likes of Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis, most famously playing the character Leon Kowalski in “Blade Runner.”

“I play out negative fantasies for people,” he used to say about character acting and playing bad guys. “I’m the guy people love to hate. And they always remember the bad guy.”
Brion James, who also appeared in more than 100 television episodes ranging from the “Dukes of Hazzard” to “Dynasty,” died on August 11th, 1999.

Curtain call

Beaumont’s comfortable little movie theater eventually fell on hard times. Audiences loved paying a dime or a quarter to see 1940s hits like “Casablanca,” “Mrs. Miniver” and the wartime favorite, “Sergeant York.” For decades, when the house lights dimmed, Beaumont’s youngsters ducked down into their seats, munched popcorn and thrilled to the exploits of John Wayne in “Red River” (1948), and then a few years later to a new rebelliousness that swept America, as vividly portrayed in rock ‘n’ roll classics like “Rebel Without a Cause” starring James Dean (1955).

Coming attraction

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Beaumont’s cinema days had passed. The building at 450 E. 6th St. became a roller rink, a motorcycle shop and finally an antique gallery. Today, only a few remnants survive of this town’s “picture palace” and its storied past. If you look up, you can see the carved, wooden door that once led to the projection room. On the second floor, right next to that door, a big hole still remains in the wall. It’s the spot where many a projectionist kept a nightly vigil to make sure those film reels kept spinning.