Events

The Horry County Museum presents a program by Michael Lewis on the South Carolina Dispensary System on Saturday, July 13th, at 1:00 PM.
South Carolina’s state-run liquor dispensary system lasted from 1893-1907. The first of its kind in North America, the South Carolina Dispensary promised a middle of the road solution to liquor policy, allowing people to drink but eliminating the side effects of gambling, drunkenness and prostitution associated with saloons. Lewis tells the political rise and demise of the dispensary through the lens of how it played out in the town of North Augusta. Initially the town’s location across the river from Augusta Georgia (a dry city) created a financial windfall. Within a few years the political corruption associated with the dispensary led voters to adopt prohibition.
Michael Lewis is a professor of Sociology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News Virginia. He studies historical changes in alcohol regulation in the United States with a particular focus on state regulatory systems. In addition to “The Coming of Southern Prohibition” he is the coeditor of “Prohibition’s Greatest Myths: The Distilled Truth about America’s Anti-Alcohol Crusade.”
The program is free to the public and will be held in the Museum’s McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway, SC 29526. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. To view a full list of scheduled programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2024 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Hard to Say Goodbye: The Official Documentary of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. For almost 100 years the Myrtle Beach Pavilion played a beloved role in Myrtle Beach history. From its origins as a meeting place and dance hall to the arrival of famed general manager Earl Husted and its expansion into a world famous amusement park, this official documentary, commissioned by park owner Burroughs & Chapin Company and accomplished in union with Myrtle Beach’s award-winning Stages Video Productions, captures the magic and memories that made the Myrtle Beach Amusement Park a family favorite for generations.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 17th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2024. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

Join us for a performance by Doug & The Doc at the Horry County Museum on Saturday, July 20th, at 1:00 PM. The duo will perform a blend of musical styles featuring swing, gypsy jazz, Latin, and originals – you might even hear a country or rock tune in this mix! With guitar, bass, and vocals, Doug and Shelia perform in their own, unique style.
Doug Fankhauser, an experienced guitarist and local teacher, has performed for festivals, restaurants, private parties, and on cruise ships. He utilizes the warm, smooth sound of a nylon-stringed guitar to offer versatility in his arrangements of cover tunes as well as his original music.
“Doug and the Doc” was formed when Doug suggested to his wife, Shelia, that he give her a bass guitar lesson. Shelia, a family physician, grew up playing piano and always had a love and passion for music. The lesson clicked and now “Doug and the Doc” perform with guitar, bass, and vocals. Doug and Shelia live in Murrells Inlet with their golden doodle, Lilly, who fortunately likes music too!
The program is free to the public and will be held in the Museum’s McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway, SC 29526. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. To view a full list of scheduled programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2024 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Courage in Korea: A Soldier’s Story. The documentary presents the little-known story of the Korean War through the experiences of the late Sergeant Paul Thompkins, a Korean War veteran from Conway, South Carolina. Thompkins, who became a local pastor after the war, was engaged in combat in Korea with the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, was captured when U.S. lines were overrun by the Chinese army, and spent more than two-and-a-half years as a prisoner-of-war in North Korea’s Communist prison camps.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 24th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2024. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum and the Horry County Historical Society present a program by Dusty Owens on the Battle of Blue Savannah on Saturday, July 27th, at 1:00 PM.
Dusty Owens is a native of Florence County. He graduated from Francis Marion University and served for twenty years in the United States Army. Formerly the head of the Florence County Emergency Management Department, he currently serves as a Methodist Minister. Owens has had a lifelong interest in history. He is especially interested in the Revolutionary War and Francis Marion as both he and his wife have ancestors who fought under Marion. His research on the Battle of Blue Savannah includes reading all of the pensioner’s accounts of the running battle that took place between present day Marion & Horry Counties. He will also share information from other historians and his own thoughts on the battle.
The program is free to the public and will be held in the Museum’s McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway, SC 29526. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. To view a full list of scheduled programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2024 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with the SCETV documentary, Charlie’s Place. This 30 minute film tells the story of an African American nightclub owned by Charlie Fitzgerald in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Despite the fact that much of the South was segregated during the time, both blacks and whites were welcomed into the club. This drew unwanted attention from groups like the KKK, who attacked Charlie’s Place in August of 1950.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 31st, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2024. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

See history come to life at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm! The Farm will host its annual Tobacco Heritage Day on Saturday, August 3rd from 9 AM-Noon. For much of the 20th century, tobacco was the main cash crop for Horry County and the Pee Dee Region and provided an income for many farm families in the area. During the late summer, leaves were gathered and taken to the barn to be strung and cured. This process required participation from all family members, down to young children, whose job would be to hand the tobacco leaves to a stringer. Demonstrations will include gathering, hand tying and stringing tobacco, cooking on the wood burning stove, and a variety of other farm activities.
The L.W. Paul Living History Farm is located at the corner of Hwy 701 North and Harris Short Cut Road in Conway, SC. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call the L.W. Paul Living History Farm at 843-915-5321 or email the Horry County Museum at hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2024 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with the SCETV documentary, Juke Joints and Honkytonk Legends.
Their “Gaillard Auditoriums” are large, non-descript rooms with wooden tables, metal chairs, and a bar. Their “Bi-Lo Center ushers and doormen” are friends and family who double as roadies. Yet, for the love of the music, the performers and fans leave their 9 to 5 jobs to venture down the back roads of small southern communities to remote watering holes for down home blues, country and western, and bluegrass entertainment. This film is an excursion into a larger than life culture with roots that trace back to traditional African and folk music. It explores this nonconformist genre and the people who seek to preserve it.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, August 7th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2024. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.