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The Rylander Theatre Collection Brings Viewers to Cinephile Jimmy Carter’s Childhood Landmark

A photo of the front of the Rylander Theatre when it was under the ownership of the Martin Theatre Company. T he marquee reads Monday Tuesday Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson in Kid Galahad.

In 2020, the Digital Library of Georgia partnered with the Rylander Theatre, providing $7500 worth of services as part of its collaborative digitization grant program. Together, they built and described Rylander Theatre Special Collections, a digital collection covering the theater’s “first life” spanning 1921-1957. The collection includes rare photographs of the building and the small businesses in its Americus business neighborhood, as well as membership cards, numerous souvenir programs, theater posters, coupon books, fliers, and handbills.

Jacob A. Ross, a park ranger at the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in Plains, Georgia, notes: 

“I consider the Rylander Theatre’s history to be part of President Carter’s history, as the young Carter would often attend shows at the theatre during the same era these items were created.”

United States presidents have often intermingled with motion picture culture throughout history. Former presidential appearances in Hollywood films include Donald Trump’s cameo in Home Alone 2 (1992), Bill Clinton in First Kid (1996), or the actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan’s performances in Alice in Movieland (1940) and It’s a Great Feeling (1949). However, former president Jimmy Carter holds the crown for the most movies watched at the White House Family Theater, with 480 films seen during his 4-year term. 

Carter, now 97, served as the United States’ president from 1977 to 1981. Before being elected president, Carter served in the U.S. Navy under Admiral Hyman Rickover, who led the U.S. nuclear submarine program; two terms in the Georgia Senate (1963-1967, pp. 382-383 of PDF); and one term as Georgia’s governor (1971-1975, pp. 27-28 of PDF). Defeated by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, in 1982, Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter established the Carter Center, a non-partisan public policy organization.

Away from the high-stakes environment of Carter’s numerous careers, his secret love for movies was born in Americus, Georgia’s Rylander Theatre. After leaving his childhood town of Plains, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College (later renamed Georgia Southwestern State University) in Americus, where he found the historic theater and soon became its most celebrated patron.

During his college years, Carter would often attend the Rylander Theatre’s movie screenings since it was one of the first establishments to show “talkies,” or movies with sound, that had transitioned from silent film between 1926-1930. These films, shown during the theater’s “first life” (1921-1951), were part of a program that included musicals, vaudeville shows, and silent films. Many advertisements for these events are available in historical issues of the Americus Times-Recorder in the Digital Library of Georgia’s Georgia Historic Newspapers portal and digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program.

Carter’s passion for cinema grew during his term in the Oval Office. As a result, the genre or meaning behind a specific movie he watched would often coincide with key events during his presidency. 

Some movies that President Carter watched during his term in office (with links to his diary entries on those days):

Thanks to Carter’s presidential daily diary, we can see that he and First Lady Rosalynn Carter viewed Star Wars (1977) on February 4, 1978, accompanied by Anwar and Jehan Sadat, the president and first lady of Egypt. This viewing coincided with one of the numerous visits from the Sadats throughout Carter’s presidency. Discussions from this February visit grew into the Camp David Accords in September of 1978, when Carter brokered a peace deal between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Whether or not the screening of Star Wars had an impact on the peace treaty is unknown, but conspiracy theorists have had fun imagining so over the years.

Another intriguing relationship from Carter’s watchlist includes viewing The Life of Emile Zola, a movie about the Nazi invasion of France during WWII (June 7, 1978). He watched this film on the same day he delivered a graduation speech at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, emphasizing the importance of human rights in foreign policy. 

The former president also viewed Frank Capra’s The Lost Horizon (1937) on September 15, 1979, one day after his approval ratings dropped to the lowest point for any president in three decades. On the same day, he fainted during a 10K road race. The Lost Horizon, a drama about a group of plane crash survivors who land in the remote Himalayas, likely served as an escape for Carter during the troubling times of his term.

The Rylander Theatre was established by Arthur Rylander and his son, Walter, in 1921, initially as a city-civil collaborative project. The Rylander family then brought in New York architect C. K. Howell to design the magnificent edifice, said to be “a prime example of eclectic architecture restored to its former glory” (Anderson, 2003).

As the 1950s began, The Rylander Theatre had already started to see the end of the business as they knew it. A new and larger theater, namely The Martin Theatre, began pulling in the business of Rylander’s market and even started taking major movie releases, relegating Rylander to “B-grade” movie screenings. As of 1951, the Rylander Theatre was closed for business indefinitely.

Its doors would remain closed until the city of Americus, Georgia, Governor Roy Barnes, and other foundations and private donors managed to raise 4.8 million dollars in funding to restore the building. Then, reopening on President Carter’s birthday, October 1, 1999, along with an auditorium (the Jimmy Carter Auditorium) named after the former president, the “finest playhouse south of Atlanta” began anew. The meticulous renovations were rewarded with a 2000 Preservation Award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. 

Since reopening, the Rylander Theatre has offered live performances, musicals, and organ concerts on its 1928 Möller Deluxe Theatre Pipe Organ (one of only three in the state), movies, community theater, as well as other events throughout the year.

Like many other small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the theater significantly, causing financial hardships and resulting in the theater’s closing its doors for an entire 13-month period, spanning from March 2020 to April 2021. Thankfully, since then, the theater has reopened for weekly programming.

Recommended Resources

Page of President Jimmy Carter's daily diary from February 4, 1978
Page from February 4, 1978, daily diary of President Jimmy Carter where President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter watched Star Wars accompanied by President Anwar Sadat and First Lady Jehan Sedat of Egypt.
An Americus Times-Recorder ad for the Rylander Theatre, February 16, 1924. The ad details a romantic, sci-fi film, Black Oxen (1923), showing at the Rylander Theatre. The slogan for the movie was “A startling revelation of the secret of youth and beauty.” Digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
A photo of the front of the Rylander Theatre when it was under the ownership of the Martin Theatre Company. T he marquee reads Monday Tuesday Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson in Kid Galahad.
A photo of the front of the Rylander Theatre when it was under the ownership of the Martin Theatre Company, a chain of more than sixty-five theaters owned by R. E. Martin of Columbus, Georgia. The marquee reads, “Mon Tue Bette Davis, Edw[ard] G. Robinson in Kid Galahad [1937].”
The ad details the attractions showing at the theatre for Thanksgiving week. Digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
A printed program from the Rylander Theatre gala opening on January 21-22, 1921 for the play “Lightnin’ (1918)” containing cast and Rylander Theatre personnel information and local advertisements.
A program from the Rylander Theatre gala opening on January 21-22, 1921 for the play “Lightnin’ (1918)” containing cast and Rylander Theatre personnel information and local advertisements.
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Georgia’s Historic Newspaper Buildings

Newspaper buildings have been an ever-present part of Georgia’s city landscapes large and small for over two centuries. These structures are not only a source of local news but are also an integral part of their communities. Below is a collection of some of the most interesting historical newspaper buildings in the state and a bit about the stories behind them. The newspapers highlighted can all be found on the DLG’s Georgia Historic Newspapers website.

 

Savannah Morning News Building

From the February 22, 1876 issue of the Savannah Morning News. Digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

The Savannah Morning News building on Whitaker Street was completed in January 1876. The eighty-eight-foot tall structure featured a granite face and a cupola for visitors with a view of the harbor. Communication between the floors was handled with sound tubes and dumb waiters. The printing presses were located in the basement of the building, with the editorial rooms and a composing room on the fourth floor. The building is today home to luxury condominiums and the Savannah Morning News is now headquartered on Chatham Parkway.

 

Cherokee Phoenix Print Shop

Photograph of the print shop where the Phoenix was published, New Echota, Gordon County, Georgia, 1975. Courtesy of the Georgia Archives’ Vanishing Georgia Collection.

The Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States, was produced at this print shop in the Cherokee capital of New Echota from 1828 to 1834. Editor Elias Boudinot innovatively printed newspaper articles in both English and Cherokee. The type utilized at the shop had to be custom made and was the first of its kind. In 1835, Georgia claimed Cherokee territory and seized the Phoenix printing press at New Echota. The Cherokee people were forcibly removed from the area by the decade’s end. A restored version of the building now stands as part of the New Echota State Historic State near Calhoun, Georgia.

 

Houston Home Journal Building

Photograph from the July 1, 1976 issue of the Houston Home Journal.

This photograph of the original Houston Home Journal building on Carroll Street and Washington Avenue in Perry, Georgia was taken around 1907. Editor John H. Hodges is seated in front. To his right is printing press operator Bill Harrison and standing behind Hodges are printers Mac Rainey and Dan Bateman. The streets outside of the building were lit by kerosene oil lamps, which are visible in the photograph. The Home Journal ran its office out of the wood frame building for over sixty years before relocating to an adjacent lot in the 1930s.

 

Augusta Herald Building

Photograph from the June 22, 1919 issue of the Augusta Herald.

The Augusta Herald Building was constructed in 1917 after the destruction of the paper’s previous building in a fire a year earlier. Architect G. Lloyd Preacher designed the four-story structure in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. It was constructed at a cost of $150,000 and was made of concrete to make it fire-proof. The printing plant was located in the rear of the building behind the offices. The structure is still located at 725 Broad Street and today serves as the headquarters for Morris Communications.

 

Clayton Tribune Building

Photograph from the January 23, 1914 issue of the Clayton Tribune.

In the early twentieth century, the Clayton Tribune published with a hand-operated press out of the second floor of this building on Savannah Street. The first floor housed a restaurant called the City Cafe. The establishment boasted a soda fountain, with magazines, candy, and cigars for sale. Meals ranged in cost from five to fifty cents and included oyster stew. The year after this photograph was taken the building was fitted with electric lighting for the first time.

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