Rook Star Event Center
408 Broadway,
Cheyenne,
OK
73628
408 Broadway,
Cheyenne,
OK
73628
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Architects: Jack M. Corgan
Firms: Corgan & Moore
Styles: Art Deco, Mayan Revival
Previous Names: Rook Theater, Rook Cinema, Mervin's Video & Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Rook Theater was opened on April 23, 1940 with Spencer Tracey in “Northwest Passage”. It was decorated in an Aztec Mayan Revival style. It was badly damaged by a fire in 1972. It was reopened following a rebuild in an Art Deco style. It continued operating until it closed by January 2016. It reopened as the Rook Star Event Center which closed in January 2025.
Contributed by
Lauren Grubb
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook’s 1941 and 1943 editions as having a seating capacity of 250. The 1950 edition gives a seating capacity of 288.
I’ve got some beautiful pictures of the Rook Theater which I’ll add asap. This one’s a performing arts theatre exclusively now. It’s multi-colored and very striking from the outside.
Rook Theatre images can be found on below website.
http://www.agilitynut.com/theatres/ok.html
SAT15JAN2011, 1:05P CST
Just met a lady who works at Lowe’s here in Irving, Texas . She’s a daughter of the Rooks and worked in this very theatre when she was a very young girl. She said they also had houses in Erick, Oklahoma and Gainesville, Florida.
Correction to the above: The lady I spoke with was a granddaughter of the Rook family, not a daughter. Wrong generation on my part.
I don’t know about the performing arts thing… It reopened as a video store in 2010 with movies shown on Friday and Saturday nights.
Drove through Cheyenne OK today. The Rook appears to be closed and undergoing some restoration/remodeling? New pic in Photos section, January 20, 2016.
This web page has a story about a group called Friends of the Rook, who are raising funds to restore the Rook Theatre and operate it as a performance space and community event center. It says that the house was built in 1939 by Bert and Elmer Rook to replace their Lyric Theatre at another location in Cheyenne. The official opening of the Rook was April 3, 1940.
The Rook was one of the earliest theaters designed by architect Jack Corgan, of Corgan & Moore. Unfortunately a 1972 fire destroyed the original interior, and even the interior from a remodeling that year is now gone, the auditorium having been stripped to the bare walls.
The Rook Theatre, named after owner Mr. Elmer D. Rook (formerly of Sayre and partially raised in Missouri), opened its doors on April 23, 1940 with Spencer Tracy in “Northwest Passage” along with the Rudolf Ising MGM cartoon “Home On The Range”, and was also the replacement of the nearby Lyric Theatre which closed two days before the opening of the Rook.
Information about the Rook as of 1940 goes as follows: The Rook is a 25x140ft structure built of tile, brick, and stucco as well as it being nearly fireproof. In color, the tall front is in oriental white with a trim of blue, orange, yellow, and wine which makes the front an unusual attractiveness. The marquee in color is made out of steel construction with neon lighting in blue, red, green, rose, and white. The projection booth is also structed fireproof. In the lobby is the glass enclosed ticket office, and on each side of the lobby are double swinging doors lead into the foyer off of which are the restrooms, powder nook, and the stairway leading to the second floor. The foyer featured mantle, and in the inside foyer or standee is the drinking fountains. The standee opens into the main auditorium, and in the second floor are the projection room, the office, and the observation parlor or guest room. The basement housed the heating unit below the auditorium.
The carpeting used was underlaid with 3-4in feit covering the entire floor, with neutral shades while the draperies are chartreuse and gold in color. The lighting design featured a total of three 6ft tubing with purple neon lights and each tube supports a bright light decorate on each wall. The art featured a striking feature, with decorations dedicating to Indians, which featured the combinations of the Incas, Aztecs, and the Mayans, with most of those decorations are the original work of Kenneth Watson, an Oklahoma City resident who studied at the Art Institute in Chicago, and Ralph Taylor, who acquired his education in art at the University of Oklahoma and the Columbia University. The walls of the outside foyer are bordered with Aztec designs against a dusty pink background. The same design was also carried out in the ceiling of the foyer. The powder room which opens off the outside foyer is decorated with a fan and powder puff design. Decorating the low partition wall which separates the inside foyer form the auditorium is the design of an Indian face on a knife with Indian wampum trim.
Inside the auditorium contains ivory celatex ceiling background and down the center of the ceiling are designs of Indian faces and the fish design used in Indian art. Those walls are also bordered with an Indian wampum design at the top against burnt slena in three colors, while the base of the wall are purple bordered walls being centered with panels painted in buff colors. On the sides of these panels are Indian pueblo, scenes of cactus, a campfire, and the setting sun. At the base of the columns on each side of the stage is an Indian drum design above which are zigzag lighting designs. And finally, at the top, are painted sunflowers. The theater was built with an estimate $15,000 in construction.
An auditorium fire destroyed the theater in 1972, and was rebuilt. The Rook was later renamed the Rook Cinema, followed by a short stint as the “Mervin’s Video & Theater” before its closing in the mid-2010s. The original 1940 marquee made a return to the Rook Theatre shortly after its closure.