POCAHONTAS, Ark. — Pocahontas High School and Hendrix College graduate Graydon Carter was living in New York City working toward his master’s degree in international affairs when the COVID-19 pandemic began to ravage the city. He came home and decided he might need to start a business venture.
He noticed that a lot of people from his hometown and surrounding areas where traveling to Mountain View to the Stone Drive-In Theatre, one of only three in the state. He partnered with his best friend from college, Joe Berry, and the two set out to start an outdoor theater in Randolph County, he told Talk Business & Politics. William Burgess, Carter’s future father-in-law and the owner of Power Technology Inc., provided the projector technology. Carter and Berry partnered with the James Ranch, which provided a large lot.
Within a couple of months their fledgling company CineArk was born, and they opened the James Junction drive-in movie theater near the James Ranch, a few miles south of Pocahontas. On July 10, “Jaws” showed on its big screen, and it was a first in more ways than one for Carter.
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