Editing Mendenhall, Mississippi (section)

==Entertainment attractions==
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[[File:Simpson County courthouse in Mendenhall, Mississippi, United States.jpg|thumb|right|Simpson County Courthouse. Photo by [[Calvin Beale]].]]
Mendenhall had a [[movie theatre]] called the Star Theatre,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Star Theatre in Mendenhall, MS - Cinema Treasures|url=http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/57866|access-date=2020-06-08|website=cinematreasures.org}}</ref> built by Edgar French, Ben Slay and Lonnie Burnham. Located on Main Street, the building boasted a one-screen auditorium with a balcony. It also featured a pool hall and three offices upstairs, one of which housed the city's Chamber of Commerce. The theatre opened for business on November 9, 1938 with the western ''Born to the West''. The price of admission was 11 cents and a box of popcorn was a dime. A man from Prentiss was initially hired to run the theatre, but he was soon "sent packing" and Edgar French told his son, George Lewis French, "You're taking over that picture show".

Lewis French, who had worked in his father's ice plant growing up and was trained as a bookkeeper at Clarks Commercial College in Jackson, had no experience in running a movie theatre. He went to New Orleans to learn how to book movies and run the projection equipment. Aside from time spent serving in Europe as a radio man during World War II, French continued to operate the Star Theatre until he decided to close it in 1971.<ref>''An Oral History with George Lewis French'', conducted on May 3, 2003. Interviewer: Joe White. Mississippi Oral History Program of The University of Southern Mississippi Simpson County Project.</ref>

During the late 1960s, the Star Theatre had problems with vandalism and growing racial tensions among its young patrons who objected to maintaining segregation. Under [[Jim Crow]] customs, black customers were required to sit in the segregated balcony and this only changed after new U.S. legislation was enacted and ended such practices.

In October 1979, a newly remodeled and fully integrated Star Theatre reopened under the ownership of Danny Collins, a young local entrepreneur. Its first movie was the [[Chuck Norris]] film ''[[A Force of One]]''. The theatre enjoyed revived popularity until competition from video arcades and cable TV forced Collins to close some three years later.

The theatre was repainted when used as a location for the film ''[[My Dog Skip (film)|My Dog Skip]]''. Heavy rains caused the roof to collapse in April 2008. The theatre burned down in 2016.