Vaska Theater

This is not a second run theatre. As of 8/8/2005, the Vaska was playing "Herbie Fully Loaded", "Bewitched" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", all movies currently playing all the local monsterplexes. Generally the Vaska shows three movies starting with an early showing at 1:oo followed by screenings at 3:30, 5:30, 7:30 and finishing the day with a 9:30. The Vaska was built in the 1940's and is in good condition. I have great pictures to post asap.

The opening year I found for this theater is 1948. Also I think the address should be 1902 North West Ferris Avenue, zip 73507.

My dad owned this theater from 1983-2003 and around 1992 he did major renovations to the interior and exterior- mostly cleaning everything and repairing the screen, installing new seats. There's a 1991 or 1992 newspaper article about the renovations in the Lawton Constitution, the local paper. There are about 200 seats in the auditorium and is still independently owned. I love that theater and spent a lot of time there when I was a little girl. It's still in great condition and the original sign-column on the roof is still lit every night.

God bless your Dad! I remember walking to the Vaska on those hot Oklahoma days and felt right at home there. There was a very nice lady named Louise McCracken that knew my Mom and she would let me in for free. I have the fondist of memories at the Vaska Theatre.

I will say that in the 60's and 70's that was the best theatre in Lawton, Oklahoma. Your Dad had a great theatre and my hats off to him as I do remember some of the renovations he had performed. God bless!

There aren't very many of these independent theaters left. Does this one have stadium seating?

http://boinko.com

To view a period snapshot of this cinema type in word "theatre",
http://okhistory.cuadra.com/starweb3/b.archives/servlet.starweb3?path=b.archives/STARArchives.public.web

A 1990 view of the Vaska Theater here and here in Lawton.

1985 photo of the Vaska Theastre. This theatre is not quite a first run theatre, their movies are a little older and they have discount pricing.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c36%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=32514

No stadium seating, but the seats are comfy and not ripped up. The front wall used to not have a ticket booth or doors. It used to be a solid wall. The only entrance used to be on the 19th St side. There used to be a ton of bike racks out front back in the day (and they were filled too). The corner where it sits was part of a dairy farm. Location was chosen to take advantage of a new gate the post was going to put up.

This is a June 1975 ad from the Lawton Constitution. I thought it was appropriate since we had a pretty good one in LA tonight.
http://tinyurl.com/o533pc

Here is another 1985 photo.

Did they get the city wrong again?

They say Lamont but we know it Lawton.

Does anybody really care? LOL

Only the people that want to get it right.

Send an em ail to American Classic with their error, it is on the right location on CT. It is linked properly.

The name at the top of this page is already correct and that's all that really matters.

LOL

There are so many mistakes on that website that you could probably get a full time job there fixing them. I posted a photo link to the Spruce Theater in Fraser, Colorado today and that site has it spelled as Frazer. They did spell Spruce correctly. Luckily I'm good in geography. :)