Mirror Theater
1515-17 Elm Street,
Dallas,
TX
75201
1515-17 Elm Street,
Dallas,
TX
75201
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This theater stood on Elm Street near Akard Street. An office building is on the site today. Any further information on the Mirror Theater would be appreciated.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
This postcard shows the Telenews on the left:
http://tinyurl.com/9qh8r9
A old movie theater ad from 1949 for the Telenews Theater.
I think we’ve gt an ID problem here. Note the location of the Mirror next door to the Capitol in the postcard view Lost Memory linked to on February 14, 2008. Then note the position of the Telenews in the later postcard view ken mc linked to on December 24, 2008. The Telenews and the Mirror were not in the same location. The Mirror is gone in the second view, and its building either replaced or chopped down to one floor. The Telenews was in a building adjacent to the Mirror’s location.
The Telenews opened late in 1941, and an article about it was published in the July 18, 1942, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. There were quotes from the architect, Jack Corgan, and the impression I got from the article was that the Telenews was entirely new construction.
November 21st, 1941 grand opening as Telenews is at View link
The postcard view Lost Memory linked to on Feb 14, 2008, is no longer at the same location, and the link now fetches another version of the same postcard ken mc linked to in the subsequent comment. The card showing the Mirror Theatre next door to the Capitol is now here.
The Mirror could not have been the Telenews unless the same auditorium was reached through two different street-front buildings at different times. If it wasn’t the same auditorium, with the entrance shifted to the adjacent building when the Telenews was opened, then the Mirror had to have been an entirely different theater. It must have had a different address, too. Also, if the date Moody’s Collectibles gives for the postcard I just linked to is correct (1931) then the name Mirror was given to the house before 1933.
As for the Pantages time-line currently given in the intro, Motion Picture Times of October 6, 1928, said that the Pantages Theatre in Dallas was being remodeled and was slated to reopen as the Ritz on October 16. Unless the new operators, Robb and Rowley, changed their minds about renaming the theatre at that time, the city directory cited by Jack Coursey in the first comment above kept the name Pantages way too long.
From 1933, a postcard view of the Mirror Theater in Dallas along with the Capitol, Old Mill and Palace.
As the opening ad for the Telenews posted above by Mike Rivest gives an address of 1515 Elm for that theater, and the Capitol has an address of 1521, and given that the Mirror’s entrance was between these two theaters, its correct address must have been either 1517 or 1519 Elm.
The last mention of the Mirror I’ve been able to find in Boxoffice is from the issue of August 26, 1939. At that time it was being operated by Robb & Rowley.
The July 18, 1942, Boxoffice article about the Telenews that I mentioned in an earlier comment is right here. It has several photos, a small floor plan and cross section scheme of the building, plus a bonus picture of architect Jack Corgan. The floor plan shows that the Telenews was on one lot.
The only way I can think of that the Mirror and the Telenews could have occupied even part of the same footprint is if the Mirror was an L-shaped theater, or if its auditorium was behind the building next door to its entrance, and the lobby made an odd jog to reach it. I can’t think of any reason why the latter would be the case, unless the Capitol Theatre’s auditorium occupied part of the lot behind the Mirror’s entrance. Unfortunately Historic Aerials has no views of this location earlier than 1958, long after the Mirror was gone, so I can’t check to see if the Mirror was L-shaped. The Capitol doesn’t look like it spreads onto the back of the Mirror’s lot, though, but then its auditorium might have already been demolished by 1958.
In any case, even if the Mirror was L-shaped, the Telenews would have occupied only part of the Mirror’s site, and must have been new construction rather than a rebuild of the Mirror. To me it continues to seem most likely that the Mirror and the Telenews were entirely different theaters.
The name of the Telenews was changed to Dallas Theatre in 1950, by the way, so if I’m right neither of those aka’s listed above belonged to the Mirror.
From the late 1930s a postcard view of the Mirror Theater on Theater row in Dallas.
Joe – you are right in saying the Mirror (Ritz/Jefferson/Pantages/Mirror – NOT Garden, that was demolished back in the teens or twenties) and Telenews were different construction. Mirror burned, was demolished, Telenews arose (partly) from those ashes, along with another business on the old Mirror footprint.
Here’s a new link to the 1942 trade article describing the Telenews: boxofficemagazine