In the historic photo, a local actor stands on a ladder outside the Pioneer Theater in Manteo, North Carolina. He smiles and waves at the camera. His other hand rests on the marquee boasting his name: ANDY GRIFFITH. The burgeoning star was there to promote the East Coast premiere of his 1957 film debut, A Face in the Crowd.
Visitors can see the ladder in the theater’s lobby today, an artifact of the self-proclaimed “oldest independent, family-owned theater in the country.” The Outer Banks landmark on Roanoke Island, first built in 1918, has survived the advent of “talking pictures,” fires, world wars, and a pandemic. “We raised a lot of generations,” says former owner Buddy Creef, whose great-grandfather founded the theater. “As my dad always said, we were the cheapest two-hour babysitter in town.”
The story goes that Buddy’s great-grandfather, boat builder George Washington Creef Jr., stopped by a nickelodeon theater on a trip up north and saw a couple of short films. He came home with projector equipment and began showing movies to friends at the boat shop. As word spread, he thought, “I can probably start charging people.”
By the 1930s, “talkies,” or movies with sound, were growing in popularity. Herbert Creef Sr., Buddy’s grandfather, knew the theater didn’t have space for the modern technology it needed, so he constructed a new Pioneer Theater downtown. What some might view as a risky business decision, given the greater economic tumult, Buddy sees as a masterstroke. “The movie industry was one of the few that thrived during the Depression and through World War II,” he says.
It didn’t hurt that the theater was the first place in Manteo with air conditioning, according to Michael Basnight, who co-owns the Pioneer today with his sister, Jamie Hatchell. (In the late 1940s, air conditioning replaced “swamp coolers,” which chilled air through evaporated water.) The building expanded its utility and appeal in the 1950s by adding a stage for beauty pageants, historic plays, and sock hops.
Manteo’s children spent their weekends at the community mainstay through the 1960s and 1970s under the watchful eye of Buddy Creef’s dad. “Everybody knew H.A. Creef,” Hatchell remembers. “The parents knew the kids were safe. He was not going to let them leave.”
Showing flicks like Jaws and Star Wars, the Pioneer provided date night for most of Manteo’s teens. “They would come here to get away from their parents,” Buddy recalls. With his own father on site nearly every night and his mom there often, being at the Pioneer for Buddy “was like having a couple of friends over and hanging out in the living room with my parents.” He found other places for dates.
Along with many downtown buildings, the theater got an English Tudor makeover in the early 1970s when the town attempted to entice Queen Elizabeth to Manteo for a celebration of the first colony. Liz didn’t show, but she sent her people. A fire later that decade—one of several to threaten the theater over the years—burned the neighboring hardware store. The Creef family mopped the water in the theater, aired out the smoke, and opened the Pioneer that night.
Covid-19 could have been the Pioneer’s undoing. When the town allowed takeout restaurant sales, Buddy Creef saw his chance. He offered drive-up concessions of candy, soda, and popcorn from the 1950s popcorn machine outside the theater. The first night, Manteo’s town manager, county health inspector, and chief of police arrived together. Buddy began explaining why he thought the sales were allowed. “We’re here to get popcorn,” they said.
Basnight and Hatchell bought the theater in 2023, restored the original blond brick, and revamped its offerings. Studios require first-run movies to be shown for weeks, a formula that doesn’t suit Pioneer’s single screen. “Everybody here will have seen it in a weekend,” Hatchell explains. Instead, the theater screens classic and popular films from the past. (Recent showings include An American in Paris, Scarface, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.) It also hosts concerts with Grammy-winning musicians and special events like an OBX Got Talent competition and a 1929-style speakeasy for Valentine’s Day.
One experience is reserved for the Pioneer’s performers. They’re invited to get their photo taken on the ladder outside the theater as they point to their name on the marquee. The pose is called “Doing the Andy.”
