Roy Bernard White

Roy. B. White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 30, 1926.

He was the son of Anna M. White and Maurice White as well as the younger brother of Marvin White. He fell in love with and married Sally Lee Ostrom after which they had three children, Maurice Ostrom White, Barbara Dee White and Daniel Robert White.

Roy was very proud of having attended the _________ Military Academy although he was only able to do so for a year. He also attended the University of Cincinnati for a period of time.

Roy served in the Air Force and afterwards, lived in Florida for a period of time for a period of time with his best friends, Jonas Katz, Bobby Elkus and Melvin Peerless. Roy’s father, Maurice, passed away at a young age, on March 1, 1952, at age 56.

Roy, Sally and their close friends, Marilyn and Bobby Elkus owned a dry cleaning business for a period of time. All parties worked hard, but it did not take long before they realized that the dry cleaning business was not for them.

Roy worked for Warner Brothers, selling films and then ultimately, became a film exhibitor, owning theaters in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. Roy traveled extensively for work, going back and forth to California monthly. He would stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel and spend his days in Hollywood dealing with the movie companies like Columbia Pictures, Disney and Warner Brothers. Roy used to sleep walk and one night he heard the hotel door lock “click” and realized that he was out in the hallway at 1:00 in the morning in his underwear. Roy was very prim and proper so this posed a real problem. Ultimately he had no choice but to go down to the front desk in his underwear. Beverly Hills was such strange place that nobody gave even him a second look!

Once, when visiting Los Angeles with Sally, they decided to spend a few days in Palm Springs. They stopped at a store to buy a few things and Roy wanted to buy a can opener. Sally told him thatchy really did not need one and to put it back on the shelf. The next day Roy went out by himself and came back to the hotel driving a new 7 series BMW. He told Sally, “Don’t ever tell me not to buy a can opener again”! The car stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel and was used thereafter instead of car rentals and taxis. It finally made its way back to Cincinnati after Roy sold the business in 1985.

Roy was well known for the movie premiers he hosted when movies would open in Cincinnati or even Columbus, Ohio. The marching bands, monkeys, fireworks and other opening night activities were often the talk of the town and invitations to the events were coveted.

Roy was elected as the President and Chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and he and Sally met many famous people. He also was the Vice-President of the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation and continued as an emeritus member of the American Film Institute. He was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to serve on the Board of the National Endowment for the Arts Media Panel. Roy and Sally went to Washington D.C. and met President and Mrs. Roslyn Carter when he was appointed. Roy was also a past Board Director of the Forum Club of SW Florida and a Chairman of its Educational Foundation. Roy was also a Mason and wanted to be buried wearing his Mason’s ring. He was a wonderful public speaker with a good sense of humor. His son, Maury, an attorney, worked with him and was also elected to a leadership position within NATO.

Thanks to Roy, the Ohio legislature passed a law preventing “blind bidding”. The practice of “blind bidding” allowed the movie company’s to require theatre exhibitors to bid for the to right show movies without seeing them. This resulted in theatre owners gambling large sums of money on the potential profitability of movies without knowing whether the movies were any good.

Roy was a Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World Honoree for many years.

He ultimately sold the 180+ screen theatre chain to a a Boston based organization. Together, the company was so large that the sale required federal approval because of antitrust concerns.

After the sale of the business, Roy and Sally spent most of their time in Naples, Florida. Roy had discovered through a Wall Street Journal ad, the pleasures of Estero Island, near Ft. Myers Beach. They initially rented and then bought a place at the Sun Caper for themselves and then the purchased another unit, closer to downtown Estero Island, for rental use. The market was so hot at the time, that they had to enter a lottery for the right to purchase a unit that was still in the planning stage. They repeated that pattern severals times over the years, placing down payment with a builder, waiting sometimes several years for the unit to actually be constructed and then selling it for a profit on the same day they closed on the purchase. They lived in several beautiful units (including in Pelican Bay, by the Ritz) on the Gulf of Mexico before buying a home on a golf course in Pelican Marsh where they lived until Sally passed away.

Sally and Roy’s children and grandchildren had many wonderful visits in Florida over the years. Grandson Ben lived nearby in Ft. Myers for several years and was able to spend a lot of time with his grandfather in his later years. Jan and Maury used to visit every Christmas season with their children, sometimes bringing Jan’s parents as well. Danny and Jess visited often as well, with Danny jumping on the golf courses as much as possible.

Roy later married Margaret (Macky) Collins and then sold the house on the golf course before moving into a retirement community, Moorings Park at Grey Oaks Retirement Community. Roy suffered a stroke about ten years after his marriage to Macky and passed away days later before being buried by Sally in Cincinnati.