The Last Picture Show was one of the best-known novels by the noted writer Larry McMurtry (1936-2021). It was published by The Dial Press in 1966.
Mr. McMurtry's 1985 novel, Lonesome Dove, published by Simon & Schuster, was awarded the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Last Picture Show, which takes place in a small Texas town in the early 1950s, was made into the much-admired 1971 film of the same name, directed by Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022); Mr. Bogdanovich and Mr. McMurtry wrote the film's screenplay.
Here are two paragraphs, from late in the novel. One of the two characters referred to is Sonny, a teenager in the town.
After a while [Sonny] went over to the picture show and watched a funny movie with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The movie took his mind off things, but afterward, when he was buying a bag of popcorn from Old Lady Mosey, he got another disappointment. She told him they were going to have to close the picture show sometime in October.
"We just can't make it, Sonny," she said. "There wasn't fifteen people here tonight, and a good picture like this, Jerry Lewis. It's kid baseball in the summer and school in the winter. Television all the time. Nobody wants to come to shows no more."
