Southport Magazine

The Amuzu is a family affair for the Furpless family

BY: LISA P. STITES

The historic Amuzu Theatre in Southport has long been a part of the Southport landscape. For the Furpless family, it’s a place where they are making new memories with the next generations of the family.

Bill maintains a history of the family legacy, back to its beginning in 1912. That was the year Price Furpless and Charles Gause, partners in the operation of a marine supply store on the waterfront in Southport, decided to expand their partnership and open a movie theatre. Silent movies were shown in the original Amuzu Theatre, a building next door to the current location of the theatre on Howe Street. Back then, admission was just 5 cents for children and 10 cents for adults.

But Price had bigger plans. He wanted to build a larger theatre to be used for movies, theatrical troupes and other amusements. Price was a building contractor and a brick mason, and he did most of the work on his new theatre building himself by 1918. He and his wife Lilly ran the business – he managed the door and crowd, and she sold tickets and peanuts.

A small stage in the new theatre provided space for live entertainment, such as local talent and traveling troupes or magicians. Up until 1926, seating was on homemade wooden benches.

In July 1935, the Amuzu Theatre was closed for repairs,though since it was during the Depression, it might have been economic reasons that kept the doors closed. In August of 1938 the Amuzu closed for two days while completely new sound equipment was installed. The Amuzu suffered a serious fire in the projection room on Friday, January 19, 1940 while running the movie Angels Wash Their Faces. The theatre was able to reopen by the end of the next month.

The operation of the Amuzu changed to a father and son team in the early to mid- 1940s, with the declining health and death of Lilly Furpless. B.L. (Bremen) Furpless worked with his father and took over management of the theatre in 1945. During World War II, the business was supported by the military presence at Fort Caswell and the fishing industry. But after the war, more emphasis was placed on tourism. In June of 1950, the old wooden seats were replaced with over-stuffed opera chairs.

The Amuzu weathered many challenges in the early 1950s. A drive-in theatre opened at the current location of Lowes Foods and a television station had started up in Wilmington. To compete, the Amuzu opened for its first-ever Sunday on August 15, 1954. In order to get bigger movies, that same week The Glen Miller Story was the first movie ever to play for more than two nights, and plans were being made to begin presenting Cinemascope movies.

And then Hurricane Hazel struck on October 15, 1954, destroying the Southport waterfront, the drive-in theatre, and the complete tourism base on Oak Island. The Amuzu building was unharmed, and B.L. proceeded with his remodeling efforts to present Cinemascope movies, a process that required a much wider screen and projector adaptations.

B.L. was Bill’s father, and though Bill was a small boy at this time, he became very interested in the operation of the theatre. His father got him a soft drink machine to operate, taught him how to book mov- ies,prepare advertising, and run the theatre while he was still in elementary school. The Amuzu was on the way to becoming a father and son team again.

“It is the most constant thing in my life,” Bill says of the theatre. “I can’t remember not coming here, even when I was little.”

On November 3, 1959, Price died at age 90. B.L. worked other jobs while continuing to operate the theatre. After several months of illness,B.L. had a massive stroke on Friday, February 16, 1962 and died five days later, at age 49.

Bill was just 15 years old. His mother, Cora Lee, had never worked in the theatre before but the mother and son team managed to keep the Amuzu open for 18 more years. There was even a huge 50- year celebration for the Amuzu in July, 1962. In 1964 the lobby was remodeled. All of the concessions were combined in one place in the lobby and a new entrance to the lobby was opened. Another remodeling in 1971 relocated the restrooms and further expanded the size of the lobby. Newly rebuilt seats replaced the former seats and curtains were added to the auditorium walls.

The opening of multi-cinemas in Wilmington, the introduction of cable television, and many more recreational activities being available in the area led to declining attendance in the 1970s. The theatre was only open full time in the summer and on weekends the rest of the year. The last movie shown was the reedited version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind on October 25, 1980.

But also in the 1980s, the theatre took on a new role in the movie industry, playing host to the first of a few major films. In 1986, the front of the theatre was used in a scene in the movie Crimes of the Heart. In 1997, the interior and the exterior of the theatre were used in several important scenes in the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. The Amuzu was called the Southport Community Theatre in the movie. Interior shots included Sarah Michelle- Gellar’s beauty pageant scenes and the murder of Ryan Phillippe’s character in the balcony. There was another scene of Jennifer Love-Hewitt running into the empty building looking for her friends after the pageant. On June 2, 2000, a black tie affair was held in the Amuzu to premiere Randy Jones’ The Dosher Documentary.

In 2005, the newly-formed Stage II Productions presented its first play, Jekyll and Hyde. During 2005 Stage II presented three other plays in the Amuzu. Between 2006 and 2010, 16 community theatre productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Chicago, were presented on the stage of the Amuzu, with Bill’s wife Cathy involved as one of the musicians. A concert promoter also presented six concerts during those years.