For a lot of Texas natives, there’s nothing better than sitting in a dark movie theater and biting off a chunk of a tangy, crunchy dill pickle between sips of soda.
Texans have been eating pickles in movie theaters for decades, but the tradition isn’t exclusive to the Lone Star State. Many theaters in other states, including Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana, also sell them.
That’s why a reader asked Curious Texas: Why do movie theaters sell pickles?
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Stephen Collette, former owner of Goldin Pickle Co. Inc., said his company distributed pickles to businesses that serviced movie theaters throughout the South.
One of the biggest reasons pickles are sold in theaters is simple: Lots of people like them.
On top of being a great finger food, Collette said, a pickle is similar to popcorn. The smell and crunch are irresistible.
“You walk in a movie theater, and you smell popcorn or the guy next to you is eating a pickle, and all of a sudden, you can’t resist that temptation,” he said.
From a business standpoint, pickles are a smart investment. Unlike popcorn, which has to be thrown away before it gets stale, pickles have a tremendously long shelf life and can remain in a jar or a package for months without refrigeration, Collette said.
Pickles are also salty, which promotes the sale of soft drinks, he said.
And most of all, they’re cheap.
“That translates to a good profit margin for the proprietor,” Collette said.
Goldin Pickle was known for its gallon jars that held 12 to 15 oversized pickles, he said. Some movie theaters also pierced the length of the pickles with candy canes for a sweet and sour treat.
Today, pickles are served in waxed paper bags straight from the jar, or they can be bought individually wrapped in plastic with the pickle juice.
When Collette entered the pickle business in the 1970s, they were all the rage in theaters.
Pickles in movie theaters in Texas date back to at least 1954, when The Dallas Morning News wrote about Melba Theater’s refusal to take on the “new trend.”
The Melba, downtown on Elm Street, occasionally pumped scents through its air-conditioning system during some scenes. Paul Swater, the managing director of Melba’s parent company at the time, said his concern was the smell of the pickles mixing with those odors.
“No matter what other Dallas theaters do, the Melba will remain a no-pickle theater for practical and esthetic reasons, just as we are a no-popcorn theater,” he said.
In 1957, an article by an editorial writer at The News hinted at how the concession item may have originated from Germany, where eating during any kind of show was encouraged.
“They eat not only during intermissions,” Sam Acheson wrote. “They have also found that large hunks of bread, knackwurst, pickles, mustard and other tidbits brought back into the theater are often of great help in enduring, say, the last act of a Wagnerian opera.”
Southern states took a particular liking to snacking on pickles during movies, with Texas as the epicenter, Collette said. A lot of Northern states just haven’t got the memo yet, but it could be only a matter of time, he said.
“There is no demographic that’s limited by geography as to who does or who does not like pickles,” he said.
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