Malco Theatres
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| Family Owned | |
| Industry | Movie Theatre, Bowling Centers |
| Founded | February 1915 |
| Founder | M.A. Lightman, Sr |
| Headquarters | Memphis, TN |
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Area served
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Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana |
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Key people
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Steven Lightman, President Bobby Levy, Executive VP Jimmy Tashie, Executive VP Robert Harrington VP/CFO Jeff Kaufman, Senior VP-Film David Tashie, Senior VP-Construction Larry Etter, Senior VP-Concessions Alan Denton VP-Human Relations Don Burchett VP-Western Operations Donald Terry VP-Memphis Operations |
| Website | www |
Malco Theatres, Inc. is a fourth generation movie theatre chain that has remained family owned and operated for over one hundred years. The company has 33 theatre locations with over 340 screens in six states (including Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee). Malco also operates three bowling centers and a family entertainment center in southern Louisiana and a family entertainment center in Oxford, MS.
Malco Theatres' history began during World War I when Morris A. Lightman, Sr., (known as M.A.) the son of a Hungarian immigrant, left his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, and went to Colbert County, Alabama, to work on the Wilson Dam project as an engineer. Although he held a degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University, he thought of himself more as a showman and entertainer. Lightman decided it was time to try something new one day while in Northwest Alabama, when he came upon a long line of people waiting to get into a local theatre. He decided he wanted to operate a movie theatre. Lightman traveled to Atlanta where he had made a contact in the theatre business and sought to learn the art of movie exhibition.
Upon his return two months later to Northwest Alabama, in February 1915, Lightman formed The Sterling Amusement Company and opened his first theatre in a storefront he had rented in Sheffield, Alabama. Lightman named this storefront theatre "The Liberty Theater", and later opened a 400-seat theatre, "The Majestic" across the river in Florence, Alabama at 204 North Court Street, in August 1919. Lightman opened a third theatre in the area before accepting an offer from another local theatre owner to buy out his theatres in the area. In return, Lightman received a 50 per cent stake in a theatre in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Wikipedia