Eddie and Betty
It’s eight simple words, but, behind it, a lifetime of memories.
EDDIE & BETTY
1st Date
March 1967
“Hawaii”
You’ve probably seen the square plaque, affixed to the wall in front of our Mezzanine-level Concessions, forever reminding people of a love story 58 years in the making.
But who are they? And why is the plaque there?
Tuck in for a moment and read along to a love story that began nearly 60 years ago at the Carolina Theatre.
Way back when, all those years ago when Ed and Betty were students at North Mecklenburg Senior High School, teachers would sit students in alphabetical order. That meant he’d often sit right in front of a pretty girl named Betty Cooke.
The two ran in different groups during their high school years, but they reconnected when they both had planned to help their younger sisters move in to their dorms at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Ed, who went by Eddie in his more youthful days, asked Betty out. And not just to anywhere. He asked her to go see Hawaii at the Carolina Theatre.
“I did that to impress her,” Ed, now 78, said. “At that time, most performances, you’d walk up to the kiosk and get tickets, sit down and watch the movie. Hawaii was different. You had to call and make reservations and get your tickets.”
And to pick Betty up, he didn’t just take any old car. He borrowed his dad’s 1964 Daytona-blue Buick Wildcat, the one with two doors and a hard top.
“It was quite a car!” Conley said.
Conley remembers where he sat during the Julie Andrews movie – on the right side of the theatre – but he can’t remember much else.
“Of course, I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie!” Conley said now, laughing.
The two dated for two more years after that first time at the Carolina Theatre, weathering Conley’s transfer from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to the university in Chapel Hill. In June 1969, Conley and Cooke married in Cornelius.
The couple stayed in Charlotte for a decade before moving to Atlanta in 1979. While there, Conley started volunteering as a tour guide at Atlanta’s storied Fox Theatre.
The Carolina Theatre had since closed – showing its final film in 1978. The family eventually found its way back to Charlotte, but the Carolina Theatre still sat vacant, a hollow remnant of love from yesteryear.
Gradually, though, there began whisperings around town of restoring the historic theatre. Those whispers grew louder as construction plans formalized. The Carolina Theatre was being revived.
Conley knew he had to help bring back the theatre – but how?
“When you go to a theatre, the first thing you think of is popcorn,” Conley said.
And that was it. He knew what he had to do.
Conley donated the hundreds of dollars it cost for the Carolina Theatre to buy its first popcorn machine since 1978, saying he wanted couples now to continue making memories at the theatre that helped launch his own love story.
“Eddie and Betty” are still married and live locally. They haven’t made it back to the Carolina Theatre since it reopened in March 2025, but Conley said he’s looking forward to returning soon.
And he’s looking forward to that popcorn once he does.
“Popcorn and theatres naturally go together,” Conley said. “They’re a perfect pair.”
