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Hannibal, MO —
A diehard movie fan, Ron Givan of rural Hannibal had long dreamed of having his own cinema in which to watch motion pictures. This past summer his wife, Earline, made his dream come true, building a 14-seat theater featuring stadium seating and a cinema-like concession area in the family’s basement.
“Ron is the one that wanted it because he’s got thousands of movies,” said Earline. “He’ll sit down there at 2 o’clock in the morning and watch movies. He’s just a movie person and he’s always wanted a movie theater.
“He loves it. He can’t believe it turned out as nice as it did.”
Reviews of the homemade theater by friends and family have been glowing.
“They can’t believe it looks like it does. I guess they think it’s going to be a couple of seats or something like that in there, but it really looks like a home theater. I’m proud of it,” said Earline.
Earline and Ron are both pleased the theater and concession area did not cost an arm and leg to create.
“I want to say we probably put maybe $3,000 in it,” she said. “I did it to make it look really expensive the cheapest way I could.”
To hold the cost down the couple looked for bargains where they could.
“We found seats and stuff at yard sales. Our exit lights Ron bought probably five or six years ago at a flea market when he was dreaming of his theater,” said Earline. “For the lobby area I bought an old counter top at Lowe’s that was like 10 bucks. It’s kind of blue speckled. My sister (Alma Wright) painted the bar area exactly to match the counter top. She did a wonderful job on making it match. Everybody thinks I ordered it special. No, it’s just plywood painted, but it looks just like the counter top.”
Helping hold costs down was the fact Earline didn’t have to pay any labor fees. Her sister did the bulk of the painting in a week’s time. Another friend, Ron Harker, sanded the drywall.
“My sister didn’t charge anything. Ron didn’t charge anything,” said Earline, who returns the favor by helping them with their home-improvement projects.
Earline used her own talents to keep the project budget friendly.
“I did all the building, plumbing and wiring,” she said, estimating her labor took around three months.
A diehard movie fan, Ron Givan of rural Hannibal had long dreamed of having his own cinema in which to watch motion pictures. This past summer his wife, Earline, made his dream come true, building a 14-seat theater featuring stadium seating and a cinema-like concession area in the family’s basement.
“Ron is the one that wanted it because he’s got thousands of movies,” said Earline. “He’ll sit down there at 2 o’clock in the morning and watch movies. He’s just a movie person and he’s always wanted a movie theater.
“He loves it. He can’t believe it turned out as nice as it did.”
Reviews of the homemade theater by friends and family have been glowing.
“They can’t believe it looks like it does. I guess they think it’s going to be a couple of seats or something like that in there, but it really looks like a home theater. I’m proud of it,” said Earline.
Earline and Ron are both pleased the theater and concession area did not cost an arm and leg to create.
“I want to say we probably put maybe $3,000 in it,” she said. “I did it to make it look really expensive the cheapest way I could.”
To hold the cost down the couple looked for bargains where they could.
“We found seats and stuff at yard sales. Our exit lights Ron bought probably five or six years ago at a flea market when he was dreaming of his theater,” said Earline. “For the lobby area I bought an old counter top at Lowe’s that was like 10 bucks. It’s kind of blue speckled. My sister (Alma Wright) painted the bar area exactly to match the counter top. She did a wonderful job on making it match. Everybody thinks I ordered it special. No, it’s just plywood painted, but it looks just like the counter top.”
Helping hold costs down was the fact Earline didn’t have to pay any labor fees. Her sister did the bulk of the painting in a week’s time. Another friend, Ron Harker, sanded the drywall.
“My sister didn’t charge anything. Ron didn’t charge anything,” said Earline, who returns the favor by helping them with their home-improvement projects.
Earline used her own talents to keep the project budget friendly.
“I did all the building, plumbing and wiring,” she said, estimating her labor took around three months.
Gaining skills
The skills necessary to do the work were amassed from a number of sources.
“I worked at Martin’s (True Value) and a lot of it I learned there. The contractors would come in and I’d ask questions about plumbing and electrical stuff. I learned from looking in books and watching TV shows. A lot of it is just commonsense,” said Earline.
Earline also credits her parents, Truman and Pauline Wheeler, with instilling a willingness to make the most of what she has.
“When we grew up we didn’t have a lot of money, but mom and dad, they always made things look nice,” she said. “You bought old stuff, cut it apart and fixed it the way you wanted it. That’s what I learned to do from mom and dad. If you wanted something bad enough you figured out a way to make it.”
Building the home theater has been Earline’s biggest undertaking to date.
“I’ve built furniture and stuff like that, but never in the house. Ron never trusted me,” she chuckled.
A little more work remains to be done before the project will be called complete.
“I’ve still got to finish the little entry way,” said Earline, explaining the entrance will resemble a ticket booth. “We’re going to put up some movie posters up with lights around them and then we’re going to put in what we’re calling our walk of fame with people’s names on it like my sister’s name for helping and Ron Harker’s.”
