Howard Douglass Wolfe, an entrepreneur from Roanoke, Virginia, created the "Barn Dinner Theatre" franchise and has been called the "Father of Dinner Theater". He began the franchise in 1961 with Conley Jones. The chain included 27 theaters in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. Each franchise featured Wolfe's architectural barn designs, farm-themed decorations that included a plow and other tools, and a stage elevator, which Wolfe called the "Magic Stage". At the end of an act or scene, the stage would disappear into the ceiling, then reappear set for the next scene. The whole process took less than a minute. During the franchise phase of The Barn, all the productions were staged at a studio in New York City, then were sent out to the individual theaters. At the break-up of the franchise, the production facilities were moved to Nashville. In its early days, the performance's cast also served as the waiters and waitresses. Actors were selected and cast in New York and resided in living quarters above the theater for the duration of the productions. Mickey Rooney and many other well-known performers have also acted in roles at The Barn. "The Barn" in Greensboro, North Carolina, was founded in 1964 and is the oldest continuously running dinner theater in America and the last of the original Barn Dinner Theatres, though a Barn franchise that opened in Nashville in 1967 (now called Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre) is also still in operation.