"A THEATER FULL OF LITTLE COPS"

"WHAT WOULD CLOVIS BE LIKE TODAY...
  WITHOUT THOSE EARLY LAWMEN?"
***********************


Think back. When was the last time you saw a 
theater full of little cops?

I reckon with me it was along about the spring of
'44....at the SUNSHINE THEATER---there at Fifth-
and-Main, SW corner...next to Thrifty Drug.

I saw a bunch of little cops there every Saturday 
morning at 9:30! In fact, I was one of them.

"What do you mean, Mil, "little cops?" Well, that's 
what we were---we were card-carrying "Junior Police,"
with many wearing grey police shirts with insignias
on the right sleeve---purchased next door at Levine's.

Here's the way it went down: every Saturday morning,
about a hundred Clovis boys, ages 10-12, met at the
Sunshine Theater. We had a briefing, police-style, down
at the front of the theater; we packed the first seven or eight 
rows.

The Chief of Police himself always came to talk to his
little troops about honesty, street safety, politeness,
helpfulness to others, keeping an eye out for crime,
and in general being good citizens, avoiding crime 
ourselves.

I never caught any PERPS myself, although I was
"carrying." I had my plastic .45 under my shirt.

I managed to avoid getting into any crime until, alas,
that spring night in 1951, behind Clovis High School---
the police "ran us in." (See MIL'S PLACE: "THE GREAT
CLOVIS HIGH SCHOOL CAPER.")

After our briefing from the Chief of Police (whom I 
remember to be Chief PENNIX or something similar,)
we watched a movie, serial, and cartoon; popcorn
was available for ten cents.

You can see how great life was for little boys in Clovis
in the forties. We had time to get a twenty-cent ham
salad sandwich at Woolworth's and get to the LYCEUM
THEATER in time for "Elmer's Tune" at 1:20 p.m.
********************
GENE WALKER, CHS '51, REMEMBERS THOSE TIMES:

I remember we had four movie theatres in downtown Clovis

in the 1940's....State, Lyceum, Mesa, and Lloyd Franklin's

Sunshine Movie Theatre in the 400 block on Main Street.

On Sat mornings, Lloyd and Dorothy Franklin had free

movies, serials, cartoons for grade school children.

Clovis Chief of Police, Nelson Worley, would attend with

a deputy each Sat and make a short talk on safety for the

children... He gave out cards making each child an honorary

Clovis Junior Policeman... I was in the fifth grade and I was

elected the 1st Chief of the Junior Police with Chief Worley's

approval. It carried no duties or responsibilities, but this

was an attempt to focus on keeping children safe, to consider

law officers as friends and helpers and to observe the laws as

they applied to children.

----30---

By Mil Moore and Dr. R. Gene Walker, CHS '51

for Mil's Place

8/3/14