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C3Herald-Banner Saturday, MarcH 31, 2012

THE FUTUREH e r a l d i n g

B u S i n e S S & i n d u S t r y

Thirty years in the business of cleaning, pressing and singingBy Brad Kellar

Herald-Banner Staff

Chuck Allen has helped Greenville residents stay cleaned and pressed for more than three decades.

As manager of Southern Fashion Cleaners, Allen has tackled just about any kind of stain or wrinkle possible.

He also is known for his singing voice.

“Thirty years in, I’ve probably seen most everything,” Allen said. The same can be said of the dry cleaning business, which has undergone a lot of changes since he started.

He didn’t intend to get into dry cleaning in 1980.

“I just needed a job,” Allen said.A friend referred him to an opening

at Southern Fashion, which had at that time was located in a strip shop-ping center in the 4700 block of Wesley Street.

Over the years, Allen learned all he could, found he had a knack for it and eventually took over the business.

“I still don’t know anything,” Allen said. “It was a lot nicer when I start-ed.”

There is less of a call for pressing these days. There were a lot more suits and dresses being worn by employees at local companies back then, before the trend to more casual outfits in the workplace.

The types of stains which he encounters have also changed, as have the rules for dealing with them.

“For example, now we don’t touch

blood,” Allen said.When he came on board, the clean-

ers were owned by Robert Stevens.“He had been in the business in

Greenville since the ‘40s,” Allen said. “He taught me everything I know. I still use it every day.”

Southern Fashion merged with Parisian Cleaners in 1995 and moved to its present location at 6305 Wesley Street.

Allen isn’t sure what the future holds for his industry, which has seen many of his former competitors fold, while multiple businesses offering fewer services have cropped up, even as there continues to be a shift away from formal attire.

“We are the old style cleaners,” Allen said.

In his spare time, Allen lifts his voice in song, whether performing “God Bless The USA” during the Audie Murphy Days activities, or join-ing Charles Sivley during the Christmas Eve services at United Presbyterian Church.

“I’ve been singing since I was in the second or third grade,” Allen said. He has been a regular at Wesley United Methodist Church since 1981.

“I used to sing at a lot of wed-dings,” Allen said. “ I sing at a lot of funerals.”

Singing is going to be a part of Allen’s life, no matter what happens to the dry cleaning industry in the future.

“I can’t quit that,” Allen said. “I enjoy it too much.”

Brad Kellar / Herald-Banner

chuck allen has been in business with Southern Fashion cleaners in Greenville for more than 30 years.Brad Kellar / Herald-Banner

a premiere downtown renovation under wayBy Brad Kellar

Herald-Banner Staff

Work continues on trans-forming what had been one of Greenville’s grandest movie theaters into a new entertainment venue.

Barbara Horan of Austin has been responsible for the renovations underway at the Texan Theater down-town and says the plans for the project are almost com-plete.

“They are pretty close,” Horan said. “We are just about to the point of going to the city and getting their stamp of approval.”

Workers with Del Rio Construction Services had all of the asbestos removed from the interior of the building by late January, with demolition work on some of the inside walls underway as of mid-March.

Horan has envisioned an intimate dinner and enter-tainment experience, any-thing from a movie to a small stage production, for about 250 people when the renovations are completed sometime next year.

“When we get the final paperwork filed, it should be a year to a year and a half from then,” Horan said. “It still looks like next spring or summer before we have a really big party.”

The Texan was where the locals watched “Gone With the Wind” in 1940, where June Allyson was on hand for the premiere of “The Stratton Story” in 1949 and where generations of Greenville’s children and adults caught everything from “Old Yeller,” to “The Exorcist,” “The French Connection” and “The Shootist.”

The Texan is included among the League of Historic American Theaters and at one time was one of four downtown Greenville movie theaters, also includ-ing the Colonial, the Rialto and the Rita. The Texan was the last to close, sometime in the 1970s.

Work has been completed on the theater’s marquee, which Horan intends to

light for special occasions until the gala opening event.

As for that “really big party,” Horan hopes to have the same type of premiere that marked the Texan’s glory days.

“With a red carpet and flash bulbs going off and everyone dressed up,” Horan said. “Who knows what Greenville celebrities will show up?”

Horan Hopes to Host ‘really big party’ for texan opening in downtown greenville

Brad Kellar / Herald-Banner

the marquee of the historic texan theater on lee Street in downtown Greenville shone for the first time in more than 30 years during the labor day weekend last year. Plans call for the building to reopen as a dinner theater some time in early 2013.

Brad Kellar / Herald-Banner

Barbara Horan, center, greeted some of the dozens of individuals who came to downtown Greenville last summer to see the marquee of the historic texan theater relit for the first time in decades. Horan is behind an effort to renovate the building into a dinner theater, with hopes for a grand opening sometime early next year.

PrOFile On

PrOFile On

BarBara Horan

CHuCk allen

chuck allen has seen a lot of changes in clothes, and cleaning since starting with Southern Fashion cleaners in Greenville more than 30 years ago. allen is also known locally for his singing talents.

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