Harry Curl

This article is about the theater manager. For the tire dealer see Harry Curl (Tire Engineers).

Harry Matthew Curl (born July 14, 1908 in Rome, Georgia; died October 9, 2006 in Birmingham) was a theater manager, best-known for heading the Melba Theater from 1946 to the 1960s.

Curl was the son of Matthew Jackson and Daisy Carter Curl of Floyd County, Georgia. He was christened in Warren, Tennessee and attended Lincoln University in Tennessee and moved to Birmingham in 1928. He worked as a foreman at the McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company and married the former Bessie Phillips on December 31, 1938. In 1943 Curl enlisted for the U.S. Army at Fort McClellan and was stationed at Fort McPherson in Georgia for the duration of the war, rising to the rank of Sergeant.

Curl took over as manager of the Melba when it opened in 1946. As manager of a first-run theater he hosted several celebrity guests visiting Birmingham on promotional tours. In 1963 Curl was elected to serve as president of the Alabama Theater Owners Association. He later became general manager of the Community Theatres chain. Curl was also secretary of the Downtown Club and a member of the Monday Morning Quarterback Club.

Bessie Curl died in 1991. Harry remarried, a year later, to the former Iris Elizabeth Lunn. She died in 1996. Curl died in 2006 and is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery.

References

• "Theater group names Curl new president." (October 10, 1963) The Birmingham News

External references

• Harry Curl at Findagrave.com