Atlanta movie theater wallet lost 65 years ago returned to stunned family

News

By Nikki Mascali Roarty

A wallet lost in 1958 turned up in the unlikeliest of places more than six decades later — behind the bathroom wall of a historic Atlanta movie theater in what was once a closet. 

“It was a portal back in time,” Plaza Theatre owner Chris Escobar told CNN. 

With the 84-year-old cinema the oldest in the city, Escobar has stumbled upon many blasts from the past, such as old bottles of alcohol and popcorn displays, but the “chock full of history” wallet was a whole new level, he said. 

Inside the dust-covered billfold were black-and-white family photos, a raffle ticket to win a shiny new 1959 Chevrolet and insurance cards, CNN reported. 

There were even credit cards for defunct local department stores Davison’s and Rich’s — and receipts for 10 gallons of gas for just $3.26, according to Atlanta News First (ANF).

But the biggest find inside the wallet was the name Floy Culbreth on a license, according to CNN.

“Realizing that this has been missing from this family of real people who lived in this neighborhood for 65 years, imagine if we could find them,” Escobar told the network. 

Escobar and his “internet sleuth” wife Nicole soon found the obituary for Culbreth’s husband, Roy, and social media eventually led them to the couple’s 71-year-old daughter, Thea Chamberlain, who lived less than 20 minutes away from Plaza Theatre, he told ANF.

“To be honest, mother losing stuff would not have been a surprise,” Culbreth’s shocked daughter told the outlet of her mom, who died more than 10 years ago. 

Chamberlain told CNN Culbreth was a “spicy June Cleaver” and a Sunday school teacher very involved with helping those with cerebral palsy, a cause for which the family holds an annual golf tournament.

The discovery of the long-lost artifact “was quite touching,” she added. “A flood of memories came back, and it kind of brought her back again.”

Culbreth’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren went to the theater to pick up her wallet. 

Watching her own 5- and 7-year-old grandchildren look at the items found in their great-grandmother’s wallet was “a special moment” for Chamberlain. 

“They knew it was something to be treasured.”