Howard Hodge Theater
200 Plaza Street,
Midland,
TX
79701
200 Plaza Street,
Midland,
TX
79701
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The Howard Hodge Theater was appropriately named after its owner, Howard Hodge.
Contributed by
Don Lewis
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
To see 1964 image type in word “theatre”,
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The Howard Hodge theatre building is still in existance. It now serves as the Midland Downtown Lions' Club. The floor has been leveled to be flat but the stage and projection ports are still present.
I loved the Howard Hodge Theatre…I grew up in Midland and lived there from 1966 to 1978 and my earliest movie-going experiences were at the Hodge and also at a drive in there (don’t remember the name of it). I remember making my dad sit through several screenings of movies; we would go and watch the same movie over and over, he was very patient.
I am a huge film fan and can see movies in new high tech theaters, but no theater will ever replace the Hodge in my heart.
Does anyone have a link to some additional history on this theater, such as the years it operated, etc.? I appreciate the photo linked above, does anyone have any others?
Just a reminder to CT administrators, that Chad’s 11/01/07 post has the Howard Theatre building as still standing.
This theatre was operated by Hall Theatre.
Also it is closed but not demolished.
The comment by chadhauris says that the Howard Hodge Theatre is now used by the Midland Downtown Lions Club. The Internet gives the address of the Downtown Lions Activity Center as 200 Plaza Street. It’s a Midcentury Modern building built of that nice buff-colored brick they make in Texas.
Although Cinema Treasures currently attributes the design of this theater to Jack Corgan, the biographical entry for Midland architect Joe Bill Pierce in the 1962 AIA Architects Directory lists the Hodge Theatre among his works. Of course, Pierce could have been only Corgan’s local associate overseeing construction of this project, but I’ve been unable to find any source on the Internet other than Cinema Treasures attributing the design of the Hodge to Corgan.
To complicate things a bit more, CinemaTour has an architectural rendering that is claimed to depict the Hodge Theatre, and it appears to be signed by someone named Fred Carlton. I’ve been unable to discover anything about him.
The Pierce entry in the AUA directory also says that the Hodge Theatre was a 1960 project.
I just updated the street view to reflect the actual street adress; the view now shows the old Hodge building and you can see how the entrance with the marquee looked. My question is: since the changeover to the new format, who in blazes is responsible for the original settings on some of these theatres? This one was off by many blocks and streets – Front St (old US 80) and C – nowhere near the Hodge. What gives?