Dreamland Theater
127 N. Greenwood,
Tulsa,
OK
127 N. Greenwood,
Tulsa,
OK
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The Dreamland Theater was located in the Greenwood Business District of Tulsa. It served African American audiences and showed live musical and theatrical revues as well as silent films. It seated 750 and was operated by John and Loula Williams.
During the Race Riot of 1921, the Dreamland was one of the places that community members gathered during the chaos to organize and develop a plan of action. Ultimately, the theater was destroyed when 35 city blocks of Greenwood burned as a result of arson during the riot.
Contributed by
Lauren Grubb
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The Dreamland Theatrer was rebuilt after the June 1921 race riots. It is listed in later Film Daily Yearbooks 1931-1932 and 1940 -1955 as being a negro theatre, with a seating capacity of 612.
I read that this theater opened as Williams Dreamland Theater. Here is an old (not great quality) photo of this theater:
http://www.cooper.edu/~allen/williams.jpg
This website has a history of the race riots and at the bottom of the page are four theater photos. The first two are the “old” Dreamland Theater and the last two photos are the “new” rebuilt theater.
Interesting info on North Tulsa theatre history, including the Dreamland, can be found here;
View link
The Tulsa Dreamland’s owner also owned the Dreamland in Okmulgee, OK, and the Dreamland in Muskogee, OK.
image here http://www.tulsareparations.org/images/freport_151_0004.jpg
Info from Tulsa Directory, p46, seating capacity 700, Mgr-Louis T. Brown http://cdm15020.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p15020coll12&CISOPTR=1603&REC=19